#15: Alternative Careers in Medicine - Pharmaceuticals and Venture Capitalism

Today I have the privilege of sitting down with my Dad, Ivan Gergel, again. My dad was born and raised in London where he went to medical school and became a psychiatrist. He then joined the pharmaceutical company GSK in developing new antidepressant drugs, famously some of the SSRIs we all are of course aware of today. This job took him to the US where he started our family with my Mom. Dad was responsible for the running of hundreds of clinical trials, directed R&D for various pharmaceutical companies, and personally led the development and approval of 14 new therapies such as Lexapro, Paxil, and Namenda that have had fantastic impacts on patient’s lives. He currently is working in healthcare investing with new startup drug and device companies. Today, we will be discussing alternative careers in medicine, specifically because my Dad only practiced medicine for two years before switching over to Industry.
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0:00 - Intro
0:54 - Going Into Medicine
5:37 - Specializing in Psychiatry
8:58 - Why Leave Medicine?
13:36 - Disliked Aspects of Clinical Medicine
15:55 - Transitioning From Medicine and Second Thoughts
23:54 - First Job in the Industry
29:52 - Why Go Into Pharma?
31:18 - Career Rundown in Pharma
34:08 - Key Factors in Changing Careers
35:52 - Leadership Lessons Learned by Leading 900 People
42:51 - Advice for People to Navigate the Corporate World
48:54 - Top 3 Important Decisions in Your Life?
51:27 - Considering Other Careers
53:56 - Why Change Into VC Now?
58:35 - Advice to a High School Student
1:00:52 - Common Bad Advice High School Students Receive
1:04:16 - Are MBA’s and Ph.D’s Any Useful?
1:07:57 - Characteristics of Someone Who Would Do Well in Corporations
1:11:26 - What Do You Look For in a Person While Hiring Them?
1:14:08 - Any New Life-Changing Habits in the Last 5 Years?
1:16:15 - Closing Message
1:18:00 - Outro
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View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast
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Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach and I’m a medical student, and soon to be physician, in Philadelphia. Throughout these episodes I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top.

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