The Career desk
The shape of a medical career.
Choosing a specialty, postgraduate training, working abroad, careers beyond the clinic, and a working life you can keep up for decades. Reported from evidence and from doctors who have made these choices.
Sections
How specialties differ in the work, the hours, the training and the life around them.
First pieces in preparation
Entrance exams, drop years, seats, bonds and the residency years themselves.
First pieces in preparation
Pathways, registration and the questions about money, family and coming back.
First pieces in preparation
Pharma, research, regulation, writing, technology and the other places a medical degree leads.
First pieces in preparation
Rotas, workload, job offers and a career you can sustain.
First pieces in preparation
Latest
Published on the Career desk, newest first.
The first Career pieces are being reported and edited. The topics and tools below are ready now.
In preparation
Commissioned and being written.
Topics on this desk
Each gathers our writing, tools and references on one question.
Which specialty fits the life I want, not just the rank I got?
In preparation
Postgraduate training and NEET PG
How do I approach postgraduate training without losing years or myself?
In preparation
Should I train or work in another country, and what would it really change?
In preparation
Careers beyond clinical practice
What else can a medical degree lead to, and how do people get there?
In preparation
How do I choose, negotiate and survive my first jobs?
In preparation
How do I build a medical career that lasts without burning out?
In preparation
Tools
Twenty-five paths through medicine, clinical and beyond.
Up to three career paths, side by side.
Postgraduate Training Cost Calculator
What will postgraduate training actually cost me, including the years spent preparing?
If I choose one path over another, what does it cost me over the years?
Location and Lifestyle Comparison
What would living somewhere else give me, and what would it take away?
Doctor pay: the official numbers
Published pay scales, with source, place and year.
What is my pay really worth, per hour I actually work?
Where do my 168 hours actually go, and where would I like them to go?
The Handover
The best of the Career desk, every Sunday.
One considered letter from the editor, with the week’s best writing and nothing you did not ask for.