What is the job?

I am a Clinical Lead at a mental health tech start-up. My company produces apps that help people with their mental health right across the continuum of mental well-being. This includes apps that help people reduce stress, build resilience, and improve their sleep as well as making apps that help people with established clinical conditions such as depression, body dysmorphic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder manage their condition better, with the support of a therapist.

How and why did you get into it?

I left clinical medicine after my foundation years. I had always been interested in technology and startups, and I felt that the traditional clinical training pathway wasn't for me. I was lucky enough to find a company that was willing to take a risk on someone coming straight out of clinical medicine.

How does it compare to your clinical career?

I want to be very honest about this. The grass is not always greener. Your career may not look like what you imagined, and you might always wonder 'what could have been.' But try and take solace in the fact that you made the decision for a reason and that all you can do is still continue to grow and impact your very own narrow slice of the world. This includes pushing for your own training, pushing for your own development, pushing for promotions, and pushing for scope. Just pushing. A skill that clinical medicine has not made most people adept at.

Another point of comparison is what's more stressful. I subscribe to the idea that a good life is choosing the type of problems you want to suffer for. For some in clinical medicine, they might choose the stresses of the unpredictability of the rota and the stress of life and death decisions. For those outside it, they are choosing no real respite from work; if you are connected, you can contribute and there is always work to be done.

How could someone go about getting into your field?

Learn the basics of what hiring managers and companies are looking for and what the process is. However, also speak to lots of people and see if you can get in by The Third Door. Once you're inside, be useful. Do the things you're going to say you're going to do and keep repeating that till you're as close to indispensable as possible. Understand however that the company is a team, not a family and act accordingly.

Anything you'd do differently if you had the time again?

Speak to way more people. This doesn't have to be 'transactional' type networking but understand that a long time working in clinical medicine means you are at a real informational disadvantage as compared to the wider world. This includes significant gaps around what roles are available to you, what roles actually involve, what is a reasonable salary, what are green flags and red flags to look for in interested companies, etc.

What can I earn?

Really varies, and also depends on how much you negotiate. The best places to get an idea about this are Glassdoor and levels.fyi in the US. Glassdoor says that a clinical lead in London can earn anywhere from 35K to 90K so best to find out a salary band from the employer early on.