OMA offers a variety of career related benefits including an annual professional medical networking meeting where alumni meet to hear leading Oxford medics debate a medical theme, followed by the opportunity for further informal discussion. 

Alumni of Oxford University can obtain advice and support from the University including CV, interview and career planning.

Last year clinical students in Oxford responded to a survey to say that even though medical students are able to access a wide range of career advice and support from the medical school, their college and the University, they would be interested in participating in a programme which would connect them with Oxford medical alumni.

Currently, each final year student selects a local educational supervisor, but there is no scheme for students in years four and five, or for those wanting to contact someone outside Oxford. Over the coming months we will pilot a programme, which we hope will prove both useful and enjoyable to students and mentors alike. We want to encourage Oxford Medical Alumni to work with the students with the benefit that this will help strengthen ties between current students, or indeed current and future alumni. The shared experience of studying medicine at Oxford should provide a common starting point for conversation, but also a departure point for learning about the different paths that alumni have taken since graduation.

We are now looking for OMA members who are interested in spending around an hour every couple of months either on the phone or in person with a current clinical student. We envisage that the discussions would be on a variety of topics, decided between the student and the alumnus – in our survey students indicated they were interested in talking about:

• clinical specialisations,
• academic pathways,
  
• working abroad,
  
• balancing medicine with a family life!