Informative Discussion - Smart Career Options for Foreign Doctors in Canada

[magnate]

Hi everyone!

We need to seek help from members out here to reevaluate best available career options for foreign qualified doctors who are in Canada or going to land here soon under family sponsorship cases, mostly spouses who are/were working as doctors back home.

In our case, My spouse has done her MBBS from Pakistan and is working there for last couple of years, she has done her credentials certified through physiciansapply and will be taking upcoming medical council exam, also taken IELTS exam with overall score of 7.

She will be moving to Canada in six months.

My Question: What are the best career opportunities for her once she arrives in Canada:
A. Going through traditional route, clearing exams and trying to find residency and stuff. We know it is time taking, expensive and seems to have low success rate.
B. Getting some education from Canada first and then considering a profession in teaching or health management related fields and if so what are the options?
C. Other smart options..

We know there has been a lot of discussion on this topic on several threads before but the main focus is to reinvestigate an optimum, realistic and flexible approach which can yield good results in terms of financial and job satisfaction.

Based on our current situation, we can afford to invest some time and money without forcing ourselves to survival jobs.

We would really appreciate help from experienced members out here, hope it will productive for many other people around who are in same situation.

Love!

 

[canuck78]

Depends on what you want to do. I would discourage trying to become a physician in Canada. Would either do a masters are retrain into another health professional like ultrasound or radiology tech, etc. These are tough programs to get into.

Jobs in health administration in places like hospitals usually require practice experience as a health professional in Canada first. An MBA would be my top suggestion for a non-health professional masters.

Teaching at a university or college is likely to be an option. You could attend teacher's college and then teach in primary or secondary school. There is a surplus of teachers in some area of the country so you should look into that if you are considering that route.

 

[magnate]

Depends on what you want to do. I would discourage trying to become a physician in Canada. Would either do a masters are retrain into another health professional like ultrasound or radiology tech, etc. These are tough programs to get into.

Jobs in health administration in places like hospitals usually require practice experience as a health professional in Canada first. An MBA would be my top suggestion for a non-health professional masters.

Teaching at a university or college is likely to be an option. You could attend teacher's college and then teach in primary or secondary school. There is a surplus of teachers in some area of the country so you should look into that if you are considering that route.

Thank you so much for responding to a new thread!

We have decent earning potential back home so the goal here is to invest quality time and efforts in something which is realistic and still yields high end results in terms of financial wellbeing rather than ending up with high effort low impact occupations which is a reality in case of foreign immigrants.

You consider she should totally drop the idea of practicing as a doctor, getting licence and stuff or there's any hope of success if you have potential and time on your side? Does it worth?

I agree masters or even masters leading to PhD is a choice for making a career in college/university teaching profession but is it really that simple or as we say devil lies in details..??

 

[canuck78]

Thank you so much for responding to a new thread!

We have decent earning potential back home so the goal here is to invest quality time and efforts in something which is realistic and still yields high end results in terms of financial wellbeing rather than ending up with high effort low impact occupations which is a reality in case of foreign immigrants.

You consider she should totally drop the idea of practicing as a doctor, getting licence and stuff or there's any hope of success if you have potential and time on your side? Does it worth?

I agree masters or even masters leading to PhD is a choice for making a career in college/university teaching profession but is it really that simple or as we say devil lies in details..??

Chances of becoming an MD is less than 1% for all the foreign MDs arriving in Canada. Should mention that this is only for family doctors. Working as a specialist is almost impossible and you'd have to redo your whole residency. The issue is you won't even be able to get a residency spot. If you have a good quality of life not sure why you would want to move. You'll need a PhD to teach at a university. College and university jobs are not very lucrative unless you are part of a select tenured faculty in certain departments.

 

[canuck78]

Depends on what you want to do. I would discourage trying to become a physician in Canada. Would either do a masters are retrain into another health professional like ultrasound or radiology tech, etc. These are tough programs to get into.

Jobs in health administration in places like hospitals usually require practice experience as a health professional in Canada first. An MBA would be my top suggestion for a non-health professional masters.

Teaching at a university or college is likely to be an option. You could attend teacher's college and then teach in primary or secondary school. There is a surplus of teachers in some area of the country so you should look into that if you are considering that route.

Realized that I said teaching at a university could be an option. That should say WON'T unless further retraining and PhD. It is really hard to get a teaching position. You usually have to put together a couple of jobs at various colleges.