Medicine, McKinsey & Making the Leap: Sarah Rav’s Reinvention Story

What happens when the dream you chased your whole life stops feeling like yours?

This week on Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Sarah Rav — former doctor, former McKinsey consultant, and now a positioning and content strategist helping professionals build powerful personal brands.

Sarah shares her journey from direct-entry medical school in Australia to corporate consulting, and ultimately to walking away from prestige entirely. Together, they unpack:

• The pressure of immigrant expectations and “safe” careers

• Prestige addiction and socially acceptable success

• The sunk cost fallacy in medicine

• Transferable skills doctors underestimate

• Why visibility matters more than hard work outside the hospital

• Dealing with online criticism (and why backlash can mean growth)

• The concept of being “brave scared”

If you’ve ever wondered whether the path you’re on is truly yours — or just the one you were taught to want — this episode will feel like permission.

As Sarah says:

"This is my rebirth. I decide who I am, how I show up, and what I leave behind."

You’re not behind. You’re exactly where you’re meant to be.Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Sarah Rav

Connect with Sarah:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rav/

https://www.instagram.com/sarahrav/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

Follow Frances Mei on Instagram & Tiktok @francesmeimd

And subscribe to ⁨@HippocraticCollective⁩ on Youtube for all of the other shows the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Sarah Rav is a former medical doctor and McKinsey consultant turned Positioning & Content Strategist. Sarah has spent over 13 years building an audience of more than three million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn by helping professionals clarify their message, build powerful brands, and create new opportunities beyond traditional career paths.

After stepping away from medicine and consulting, Sarah now shares what it really takes to stop letting external expectations dictate your life, to lovingly release identities that once served you, and to find the courage to pursue work that feels aligned and expansive. Through her work, she shows how building a personal brand can give professionals real agency, enabling them to pivot careers successfully, confidently, and on their own terms.