Me and My Career 2 - Andrew Sutherland

This week's Me and My Career comes from transplant surgeon Andrew Sutherland.

What is your job and what do you most enjoy about it? 

I am a Transplant Surgeon.  The most enjoyable part of my job is working with patients.  There is nothing more gratifying than meeting a patient who you have transplanted and seeing the difference it has made to their lives.

How did you get to where you are now?

Medical training can be a long process but there are many different career paths within medicine that take different lengths of time.  I completed my A-levels and then took a year off to go on an expedition to the Arctic prior to starting medical school in Edinburgh.  I spent 6 years at medical school (completing my medical degree and a Bachelor of Science) prior to surgical training in London, Oxford and Edinburgh. During this time I also did a PhD in Transplant Surgery.  Although I qualified as a Doctor in 1999 I didn’t complete my training until 2014.  The good thing is that although you are training in surgery for a long time you are also delivering the service (and earning a salary!).  

  

What do you wish you had known when you were still at school?

Although I have no regrets about studying medicine which is a very vocational subject, I didn’t realise at school that you don’t have to study a subject at university that you are planning a career in.  Many people study their favourite subject and then use a good degree qualification to get a job in a career completely unrelated to that subject.