The medical career that underwent radical surgery
There are usually a few disillusioned former financiers seeking a more fulfilling occupation among the new students entering medical schools when they open their doors each year.
July 06, 2012 / 15:19 IST
There are usually a few disillusioned former financiers seeking a more fulfilling occupation among the new students entering medical schools when they open their doors each year.
Conversely, those who leave the medical profession are far more rare. One of the few is Chris Llewellyn, a former doctor who decided to move into management consultancy and is now a partner at McKinsey, focusing on healthcare.More News From Financial Times
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But the experience gave him a flavour of what the world of business was like and an interest in "how the rest of the world ticks". The idea of an alternative career to medicine had been planted. After about five more years in the NHS, and having reached the point of further specialisation, that idea had taken root. "I found myself more and more reading the business pages of newspapers. I wasn't ready to commit to being a surgeon for the rest of my life - I wanted to explore the world a little more." It was a risk: try something else, not like it and return to surgery, having to catch up; or discover that the new world of business was where he wanted to stay.His decision to change direction was all down to timing. "If you leave it too long it becomes much harder," he says, gauging that between five and seven years in one career was few enough to retain a "malleability" useful when entering a new career.The first step was settling on the alternative career. He spent a year poring over a stack of career books and then, armed with the insight gained from conversations with friends in sectors from banking to pharmaceuticals, he says it was "time to bite the bullet and apply for a job". He chose consulting because of the varied projects it offers and the autonomy of the role, as well as it being an ideal "learning ground", where he could build a broad set of skills and experience a range of industries, helping him to discover what else he might want to do.McKinsey was his choice partly because the firm valued his unusual background, arriving with an MA in physiological sciences from Oxford University and qualifications in surgery from Imperial College, London. The NHS granted him a year off but he needed only six months to make a decision: "It was clear there was so much more I could do, applying my clinical background to a different set of situations."Today, Mr Llewellyn is head of McKinsey's medical products practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and co-leads its pharmaceuticals research and development practice.How did he feel about hanging up his surgeon's gown for good? His fellow medics fell into two camps: "Some were incredulous," he says. "They asked 'why on earth would you do this, you're a doctor - what possessed you to think about not being a doctor any more?' And the others said 'wow, I wish I had the guts to take the risk that you're taking and to try something new'."_PAGEBREAK_For Mr Llewellyn, it was not the radical change some perceived it to be. "This was not me giving up medicine to become something else in a different career," he says. "This was me applying what I had learnt through years of clinical training."Some of his medical skills were easily transferable. Consultants must be outstanding problem solvers, he says, and he found the problem-solving process of diagnosing corporate strategy similar to diagnosing a patient. Leadership and being able to create a structure around a nebulous problem are crucial, but the most important thing, he believes, is to build trust with clients, as with patients. He believes the job allows him to tackle the greatest challenges of healthcare. "One of the biggest problems we face in society right now is how on earth we continue to deliver improving quality of care at a sustainable cost for society." He explains how the economic crisis has created an environment in which health professionals must consider how they will administer resources from a constrained budget, rather than focusing on what could be done at any cost. "That is such a big question, doctors can't answer it, managers in health systems can't answer it, politicians can't answer it - it requires the whole system to work together."He has found his clinical experience "hugely more valuable" than expected. He worked on one project with Professor the Lord Darzi, a leading surgeon at Imperial College London and holder of several official posts, evaluating London's healthcare and assessing how it could secure its position as a world-leading centre for disease treatment. After another project, London reconfigured its stroke services, going from having one of the worst records for treatment in the developed world, to being the leading city internationally, with mortality rates at one hospital dropping from 27 to 6 per cent.Regrets so far? Zero - although he does miss the banter and camaraderie of the operating theatre as well as what he describes as the "adrenaline rush" from making the swift decisions needed with acutely ill patients. He also assists others in the medical profession, acting as a speaker for Medical Success, a yearly conference for doctors thinking of other careers.Apart from playing music - the band, Harold's Leap, released an album on iTunes last year - unwinding comes in the form of Saturday morning tennis and swimming with his wife and two children, Emma, six, and James, four."When I look back, the biggest risk I could have made was in not exploring the world, because unless you have a breadth of opportunities and experience you don't really know what the alternatives are, and you can't be 100 per cent certain you're doing something you want to do for the rest of your life."Secret CVYour career highlights?Presenting to the president of Israel our response to his question on how Israel could become an international centre for brain research - followed by a tour of the old city of Jerusalem, drinking coffee on the rooftops, then dinner in a kosher restaurant.Who are/were your mentors? In medicine, Jon, a psychiatrist, who I go to for advice. He's one of those guys that's really wise. He'll say to me: "stop stressing, it's just a PowerPoint presentation". Another friend, Ben, is a barrister, who also went through a career transition. And two or three senior partners at McKinsey, who advise me on how to manage my career.How do you judge career success? A good friend at McKinsey says he judges his success in a year by three things: has he learnt more; does he know more people; and is he more recognised for what he does? I think that's a nice way of looking at things.What else might you have done?Rock star. Still would be, just getting too old for that now.Career advice to others? Follow your passion not your brain. If you follow your brain you'll be risk-averse and make the wrong move. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. 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