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Introduction Internationally, countries are struggling to provide health care in rural areas. In Germany, where the medical school’s admissions system rewards prior experience, there are a significant number of students with professional experience (e.g., paramedics, nurses). To date, there has been little research on this pre-experienced subgroup. In a rather exploratory approach, preferences for specialty training were compared between students with and without pre-qualifications. The primary aim of the study was to analyze how pre-qualifications and career types according to Holland’s RIASEC (acronym for realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional) model contribute to interest in working as a rural doctor. Methods Overall, 2,370 medical students at different stages of their studies (i.e., 3rd, 6th, 10th semester, and final year) completed the questionnaire. Students indicated interest in working as a rural doctor on a 9-point scale, and expressed interest in up to three specialist training programs from a list of 16. In addition, students answered questions about professional and academic pre-qualifications (i.e., vocational training in the medical field, academic degree, voluntary service) and completed a 6-item questionnaire on vocational interests according to the RIASEC model. The study was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted at all five medical schools in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Results Results show differences in career aspirations according to different pre-qualifications, especially for the pre-qualifications vocational training and voluntary service. The strongest association was found between having completed vocational training and interest in Anesthesiology, OR = 3.92 [3.22, 4.76]. A linear mixed model revealed that higher interest in practical-technical (realistic RIASEC type) or social activities (social RIASEC type), and lower interest in intellectual-research activities (investigative RIASEC type) predicted interest in rural ... |