Advising & Career Development
At every stage of your medical school careers at UCSF, we want students to feel supported, prepared and have the resources you need to make career decisions and set yourselves up for thriving careers as physician leaders. The following resources are available to prepare and support you on this journey. Remember you can also reach out to your School of Medicine coach at any point in this process.
Getting Started
- A comprehensive career advising program is delivered during your PI week sessions in tandem with your medical student coaches.
- Watch PI Week career advising program videos on choosing a specialty, using clerkships for career exploration, and more.
- Use this checklist to learn what you need to do during each year of medical school at UCSF to stay on track.
Specialty Residency Advising
Specialty residency advisors are selected by their departments to support students with the best career advice for their respective specialties. We’ve gathered FAQs from advisors, such as:
- What does a typical workday look like?
- What are the ways in which this career path may support or challenge having a family?
- How can students explore this career specialty?
Who's Who
Academic Staff Advisors
Medical Student Advisors, Brennan Crilly and Cassie Pitkin, are available to help you navigate key areas such as:
- Academic advising
- Identifying health and well-being resources
- Campus life issues
- Personal issues impacting your academics
- Electives and career planning
- Support with deadlines and academic logistics
- Tutoring, and more
Career Advising Directors
With general expertise in specialty selection, residency applications and matching, Dr. Brent Kobashi, Dr Neeti Parikh and Dr. Jessie Werner are available for:
- General advising about career exploration
- Support with narrowing specialty options or considering new ones
- Residency match advising - particularly for people pursuing Couples Match, Military Match, or who are considering applying in more than one specialty.
Specialty Residency Advisors
There are confidential and main specialty residency advisors:
- Confidential Advisors: A good place to start when you have a genuine interest in a specialty, but have not decided on a field.
- Main Advisors: Faculty to talk with when you have decided on a specialty.
Meet the Directors of the Career Advising Program
UCSF School of Medicine Career Advising Program directors are available as ongoing resources for general career advising from the beginning of F1 to graduation:
General advising about specialty exploration, including clarifying goals and priorities
- Assistance with narrowing down specialty options, or considering new ones
- Approach to challenges and roadblocks that relate to career and professional development
- Consideration of additional degrees and/or time away from medical school to improve residency application competitiveness
- Discussion about career paths outside of clinical training
- Facilitation of communication with/between specialty residency advisors and/or other faculty mentors
For the 2025-2026 year:
- Students in F1 or F2 in San Francisco should schedule appointments with Dr. Parikh
- Students in F1 or F2 in Fresno (including SJV-Prime students in F1) Students should schedule appointments with Dr. Kobashi or Dr. Parikh. Dr. Werner is currently on leave and unavailable.
- Students in Career Launch (in all UCSF Medical School programs) should schedule appointments with Dr Kobashi
Please note that appointments are for current and graduated UCSF Medical Students only
Brent Kobashi, MD
Faculty Director of Career Advising,
Leads improvements to the career advising programs for medical students. Evaluates and implements best practices in career development and match advising. Develops and oversees the specialty advisor program. Provides faculty mentoring and support for coaches and career advisors. Dr. Kobashi is also a Bridges Curriculum Coach.
Neeti Parikh, MD
Faculty Assistant Director of Career Advising
Students in F2 or F1 in San Francisco should schedule appointments with Dr. Parikh
Claire Gibson, MD
Faculty Assistant Director of Career Advising - Fresno
Students in F2 or F1 in Fresno (including SJV-Prime students in F1) should schedule appointments with Dr. Gibson.
Dina Wallin, MD
Career Advising Specialist
Dr. Wallin is available to provide additional advising to all students, with a special focus on students who are first-generation to college and those from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine. She provides additional coaching through mock interviews, personal statement reviews, and more.
Meet with a Specialty Advisor or Join a Specialty Interest Group
To speak with an advisor experienced in a specific specialty, we have both confidential and main specialty advisors available to speak with you. Confidential advisors are not on the residency selection committee, and do not share information about students with whom they have met with the selection committee. Meeting with the confidential advisor in a specialty is ideal for students who have not yet decided whether to pursue a specialty, but need to be able to speak openly and honestly with a faculty person in the field to get advice.
FIND YOUR SPECIALTY CAREER ADVISOR
Join a Specialty Interest Group
Career Advising Program, Checklist and Videos
A great place to get started if you are beginning to explore career paths. Watch overview lectures on choosing a specialty, using clerkships for career exploration, and more. The checklist tells you what you need to do during each year of medical school at UCSF to stay on track.
Access the career advising roadmap, checklist, and videos
Meet with an Academic Advisor
Academic Advisors provide a broad spectrum of academic support, including tutoring, medical school orientation, curriculum cadence and leave, resource referrals, clinical clerkship scheduling, and the residency application process. Additionally, academic advisors can help guide you with Foundations 1, Foundations 2, or Career Launch. For all your questions, please contact Brennan Crilly for Foundations 1 or Cassie Pitkin for Foundations 2 and Career Launch.
Visit the Academic AdvisorS page for more information
