OCTOBER 6, 2000
ASK CAREERS
By Pamela Mendels
B-School for the Stethoscope Set | Today's doctor has plenty of reasons to get an MBA
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Q: I am a recent medical school graduate waiting to begin residency. I was wondering what value an MBA would be to me, assuming I wish to stay in the health field? Even though I have become a doctor, my interests are totally entrepreneurial.
---- A.S., Ivyland, Pa.
A: Welcome to the new club of business-minded docs! Little more than a decade ago, it was almost unheard of for physicians to get MBAs, says Edmund J. Wilson, associate dean at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. The dramatic changes in the economics of health care over the past 10 years have altered the picture. Today, perhaps half a dozen schools -- Kellogg among them -- offer joint MD/MBA programs, says Bruce A. Chernof, director of an MD/MBA program at UCLA.
Executive education programs for those already embarked on careers are also drawing physicians, with the tongue-depressor crowd now representing close to 10% of the students at Kellogg's weekend exec ed course. Another part of the education mix is executive MBA programs exclusively for doctors. Arguably the oldest is the Physician Executives program at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta. It is one of about eight such programs in the U.S., says Gary Selden, director of executive programs at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw.
HEALTHY OPTIONS. The MDs seek out business degrees for many reasons. Some hope to make a transition from private practice to executive work at a hospital, pharmaceutical company, public policy group, or even a dreaded health maintenance organization. Others have already found themselves in a health-care related management job and believe they need to bring their executive expertise up to the same level as their medical knowhow. Still others hope to become more astute managers of their own practices, no small consideration at a time when larger chunks of a doctor's time are spent negotiating the managed-care maze.
Finally, there are doctors with an entrepreneurial itch like your own. Chernof says two graduates of his program this year are using their new business smarts to launch a medicine-related dot-com and raise the capital to keep it going.
If you're interested in finding a good program, you might start with universities that have both a medical school and a business school. These are the most likely to have set up a joint-degree program, and they might also be able to refer you to appropriate executive MBA programs.
Q: Could you give me a lead on finding a good home-based job, preferably working with computers and fax machines? I don't need to make a million dollars, but I do need a good salary. -- O.V., Republic, Mich.
A: More and more companies are allowing telecommuting -- about 28% of major employers, according to a recent survey by Hewitt Associates, a management consulting company in Linconshire, Ill.
Few employers allow a five-day-a-week work-at-home arrangement. One to three days a week is more like it, says Gil Gordon, president of Gil Gordon Associates, a Monmouth Junction (N.J.) telecommuting consulting company. Moreover, the perk is rarely given to new hires, he says, for obvious reasons: The manager needs assurance that you work well without direct supervision before releasing you from the daily commute.
Still, it isn't impossible to be hired into a telecommuting position. Gordon advises you to steer clear of the work-at-home ventures that are advertised all over the place. Many are scams. Instead, contact a former employer, one who knows you are reliable, and see if you can work out an arrangement. Or scour the help-wanted ads for companies that advertise the same job week after week. It could be that these companies are simply lousy employers with high turnover. But it's also possible they are expanding and so desperate to fill jobs they will consider unorthodox work arrangements, Gordon says.
Have a career question? Send us an e-mail at askcareers@businessweek.com, or write to Ask Careers, Business Week Online, 46th Floor, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Please include your real name and phone number in case we need more information; only your initials and city will be printed. Because of the volume of mail, we won't be able to respond to all questions personally. Questions may edited for length and clarity.
Pamela Mendels is a staff reporter for Business Week Online
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Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P.
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