Medical How to choose a specialty?

[Question]

Hello!

Hope you are doing well. I have been oscillating between my two choices of Internal Medicine and General Surgery for my residency. I understand that they are two extremes, and I should know which one I prefer. However, I can see myself 10 years down the line doing either. Different aspects of both appeal to me. The one thing that I do know is that I want to be really good at whichever field I do choose. How do I make a decision? I'd be grateful for any insights or thoughts.

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[PerioDont]

What year are you in medical school?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Yeah have you done your clerkships yet? That should help

 

[Mr.Smile12]

There is also the SDN Specialty Selector quiz for at least a baseline.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Have you done rotations yet?

 

[AlteredScale]

Hello!

Hope you are doing well. I have been oscillating between my two choices of Internal Medicine and General Surgery for my residency. I understand that they are two extremes, and I should know which one I prefer. However, I can see myself 10 years down the line doing either. Different aspects of both appeal to me. The one thing that I do know is that I want to be really good at whichever field I do choose. How do I make a decision? I'd be grateful for any insights or thoughts.

As someone who has done medical student rotations in both, I can say these two specialties are much different "10 years down the line" in the way of work life balance. If absolutely cannot see yourself not working with your hands you should consider surgery. If you want to spend more time coming up with Ddx or be an expert in 1 area then IM is great. There are still avenues to be a procedurals in IM (interventional cards, pulmonologist, GI) but the guarantee of doing so is not there as compared to surgery. You will work hard in either specialty but more so in surgery and that intensity of work does not really decrease unless you move into admin or some other non clinical area of medicine.