For many students who have completed their pre-university studies, choosing the right degree to further their education can seem to be a daunting task. Facing this task after his pre-university, Danis Wan chose to start his undergraduate studies in medicine at IMU. He did the first part of his degree at IMU and later transferred to one of the University’s Partner Universities overseas for completion of the degree. “I had a wonderful time at IMU Bukit Jalil campus doing my Phase I medical programme between August 2006 and January 2009. The people who made up my cohort (ME2/06), both the local and international students, were very friendly and came from various backgrounds. Not only did I learn much about medicine, I had made a lot of friends as well. I think one cannot thank the university more for opportunities like this.” 
However, in his fourth year of medical school, Danis was at a crossroad of his life – he was contemplating whether to continue with his studies in medicine. “I appreciated every ounce of knowledge and experience gained in medical school, and I think that doctors are hugely important to our society, but looking around I wondered if being a doctor was what I truly wanted to do. I felt that I may be better suited to other fields/types of work, so I moved to studying law at Cardiff University, Wales.” 
Presently, Danis holds a bachelor’s degree in law and has, since 18 September 2015, been admitted to the Malaysian Bar as an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. He is currently an Associate with Messrs Rahmat Lim & Partners, a Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2017 leading firm for corporate mergers & acquisitions practice. 
“The knowledge which I have gained during my time at IMU transcends borders. The communication skills learnt are transferable to my current field of work. We deal a lot with clients in commercial transactions relating to mergers and acquisitions of companies, so people management and building rapport is key.” Previously, before Danis joined this firm, he was an Associate for a short stint with Messrs Azim, Tunku Farik and Wong, practicing medico-legal litigation. “Whilst the subject matter of these claims relate to alleged medical negligence, the practice of medico-legal litigation is regarding the law itself and not medicine. Doctors are engaged as expert witnesses in many cases, and the Courts will hear their evidence from the medical aspects. As such, having studied medicine may have been helpful during my time in medico-legal litigation practice, but it does not necessarily make the practice much easier for me compared to another who has not previously read medicine.” 
After almost a year in medico-legal litigation, Danis ultimately decided that litigation was not the way forward for him and hence moved to corporate practice.
His advice to someone who is at a crossroad in life will be to consider the various opportunities available at the material time, to consult those who have experience in the various fields contemplated and not to rush into making any decisions. Every decision made should be a reasonably calculated one.
