Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
August 6, 2025
.png)
When Dr. Abeyna Jones left the UK to work as a trauma surgeon in South Africa, she wasn't just changing countries, she was questioning everything about her career. That journey would eventually lead to the creation of Medic Footprints, a platform that has helped thousands of doctors explore careers beyond the traditional clinical pathway.
I think just getting out of the country, getting out of the UK. I did my elective in the Caribbean, in St. Kitts and Nevis. I realised that there were a lot of similarities in public healthcare providing settings. But also some real differences, which culture had a lot to do with.
It was that contrast, it was seeing things from a wider perspective, and working in medicine in a very different country, because a lot of doctors were going to Australia as a year out, and I was like, Australia's quite similar to the UK, I want to go somewhere quite different. I mean, you could even argue a lot of places in South Africa aren't that different, which is where I spent two years doing trauma surgery.
But it was a realisation that when I left the UK, because I felt like more of a glorified medical secretary, I wondered whether medicine was the right thing for me. It was working in another country that made me realise medicine was the right thing for me, it was just the work environment that was a problem. And wherever you go, there will always be problems. But different kinds of problems.
Then I realised if doctors had an easier access point or pathway to other opportunities, but most importantly, if it was culturally normal and encouraged to do that, then those experiences could help shape and expand the practice of medicine in general, and foster more innovation, different ways, or better ways of doing things. There's so much to learn from working in different places.
I think the mindset gap is very wide, basically. I look at this as a game, the whole world of work is factually a game. And you choose how to play it. In medicine, we're indoctrinated into a certain way of playing: people do extracurriculars, they get the grades, they go on pre-med courses to get into medical degree.
Once you're doing that medical degree, you're further indoctrinated into the life of doing exams all the time, even more so than at school, and then you graduate. And there are more exams, and in the hierarchy, your progress is largely determined by how many years you're working, and also how many exams and qualifications you get.
But in industry, it does not work like that at all. Increasingly, qualifications are not the key determining factor. There's a lot of belief required and value creation required in getting into a role. Things can be monetized very easily without qualifications.
There's a doctor actually on our fellowship program who trained as a doctor, worked as a psychiatrist, had long COVID, and had to go under early medical retirement. Long story short, in the following year, they realized, 'Well, in order to survive, because I can't work for long periods of time, I need to find an opportunity that pays me when I can't.' So for them, the answer was online businesses. Currently, leads our travel team, but also does trading. And within a year, they'd replaced their clinical income. And that's after doing over 10, 12 years of training to get to that economic standard. So it really puts things into perspective.
There is no one industry, and the approach that we take is a problem-first approach. It's not about the industry that's fulfilling. It's what is fulfilling for the doctor. It's not about us fitting into a box. It's understanding what works well for us as individuals. And then finding the thing, or most importantly, creating it.
I'm very much about creating something that works for you, rather than trying to fit yourself into a box. We've been conditioned as professionals in the world of medical work to fit ourselves into boxes. That should stop. Or, at least, be more self-aware that that's what's happening.
Any sustainable thing is basically determined by what you need. A lot of doctors lack that clarity. I started off this journey being like, 'There's this career here, and you could do this career,' but realistically, anyone could do any career they want. It's really about you. And what works for you. A lot of doctors haven't spent nearly enough time understanding themselves.
That's interesting; ‘without leaving medicine yet.' So a lot of people think to get into non-clinical industry, you've got to leave medicine. Again, that's another mindset shift. Because a lot of doctors develop portfolio careers. And some of the highest performing doctors we work with love clinical. They want to continue clinical. But they also realize they can actually make a bigger impact outside of clinical, outside of the systems they work in.
So what practical steps can they take? We have a roadmap for this. And the roadmap always starts with clarity. Spend time getting to know yourself. I think that's key. I could say what everyone else says these days, spruce up your CV, get your LinkedIn sorted out, post a lot, reach out to people. But that's a superficial approach. If you really want a fulfilling, sustainable career, get to know yourself really well first.
What does that look like? Really understand who you are. What works for you? Why did you even get into medicine? What elements of yourself are your zone of genius? Your unique abilities? What problems are you looking to solve? What are your key strengths? What do people come to you for all the time? These are really deep questions.
I have a therapist as well as coaches. I have a team of people. And this is the thing a lot of doctors think they'll just do it on their own. But if you want to be successful, do not do it on your own.
Unexpected skills? None of them are unexpected in my mind, to be honest. Yesterday, I brought one of my fellows in and introduced them to some tech startups here. We had incredible conversations with technologists, data scientists, and researchers.
The skills most doctors already have; are impressive: They know how to hold a room. They know how to listen, truly actively listen. They know how to demonstrate value organically. But here's the challenge: doctors struggle to translate that into commercial terms. Once they're in the room, that information is gold. But converting it to commercial value? That's where doctors tend to fall down massively, because it's not something they've practiced.
I think realistically because culturally we don't talk about money in healthcare, and we don't think we should have to. But as a result, we're financially illiterate, we don't know how to manage our money, and especially when we move to industry, we're not able to value ourselves, because we've always been told what our value is. That is the big problem.
How do we help them? I focus on the clarity element. The clarity, the community. We have doctors who are pricing their services, doctors that negotiate their salary, and a lot of it is intuition. What do you want? What's the value you're offering this organization? When you work for them, what are they getting? If you do a day for them, what does that translate to in real money terms? Money saved, time saved, reputation, whatever that is. Just understand what that is, and then choose your price, your number, in relation to that.
Usually our live events, to be honest. If someone binge listens to the podcast, that helps, but it's the live events, the interaction, the community, usually with a lot of people, that tends to shift them furthest more quickly because that's more of an emotional move, rather than intellectual.
At the end of the day, if you're going down a non-clinical path, you need to have full autonomy over it. Number one, you determine how sustainable it is, but two, it's about developing the habits that make it sustainable. And that's life things, really.
As doctors, we're used to just doing, doing and overdoing altruistic work. And that is not great. So it's really important to put boundaries in place and value your time. When I first started doing work outside clinical, I did not value my time and I did not have any boundaries. I'd be working all the hours, still am sometimes. Being really fluid with it, which was okay to an extent because I like the flexibility, but the more boundaries I put into place, the more manageable it was.
I mean, at one point I was running my own business while full-time in training. That was not good. So it really starts with you as an individual understanding what balance looks like for you, and how to create that pathway that fits you, not the other way around.
Yes, of course, we're married to our jobs. It's more than a job. It's a calling, it's a vocation. And also the stories we've been told, that if you're leaving and doing something different, then you're a traitor. I've been told that in the past.
But realistically, that's not the case. I don't even know what 'leaving' means, to be honest. Because I still see you're still a doctor. It's a foundation. It's not you leaving anything. It's a foundation to a lot of different things, which is still part of medicine. We need to redefine that. Being a doctor doesn't stop at clinical. It's way more than that.
And this is where that redefinition is essential now, with all of these tools and people saying AI is going to take doctors' jobs. I don't believe that's going to be the case. But as doctors, we need to redefine what our value is. And realistically, a lot of people don't really understand what that is, and that is the problem.
I think it's belief; doubting whether it will actually work, whether they'll truly be doing something different. Fear of failure is the big one, and it's an important obstacle to overcome.
Many doctors struggle with this, but some push through anyway. That's the real difference, between those who take action despite their concerns and those who remain stuck. Some get paralyzed by what might go wrong, while others acknowledge the risk but move forward regardless. You've got to decide which person you want to be. Those who face their doubts and proceed anyway? They're the ones who succeed.
So I'd say that's the biggest one, really. It feels like a big risk for a lot of people. But you've got to ask yourself: if things continue as they are, what's the cost to you? What's the cost to your family? Financially, yes, but beyond the money, it's about your health costs, your life costs. What's the value of your life to you? Is this how you want to live your life forever?
We've been a global community for a while. How has the vision evolved? I've learned so much over the last 11 years. I realized I've gone from giving doctors a fish instead of teaching them how to fish:, headhunting, recruiting, events, signposting and getting 'here's a job' pretty much. And I've moved on from that. Because I see that a tiny percentage of people have done really well with that approach, but the vast majority is still stuck in inertia.
So this is why it's really about choosing the few who are taking action to accelerate their journey and then create that compounding effect. That's how we're going to reach our mission of one million doctors who are happy, healthy and tackling the world's biggest challenges at scale, because we are professional problem solvers. That's how that vision has evolved. It's that compound effect. Really creating that community that's doctor-owned, doctor-run, doctor-led. Because we need that full autonomy to do our best work.
If you're a doctor exploring opportunities beyond the clinic, Medic Footprints' Doctors in Industry Program is designed to guide and support your transition into impactful, non-clinical careers.
Join our weekly digest and be the first one to know about new articles.
