Looking for advice as nontraditional engineer

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

MDEngineer

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2015
Messages
21
Reaction score
9
.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
Get enough time in clinical settings so that you:
1. Have multiple stories that are too disgusting to tell at the dinner table because they involve body fluids or a pannus
2. Have questioned, multiple times, whether you'd actually like working in healthcare, because of things you've seen/heard/done
3. Have observed other disciplines in action, such as management, device sales, biotech, because getting into those fields won't take another decade
4. Have had more than a casual conversation with several people along the medical training pathway: med students, residents, fellows, attendings, oh-so-close-to-retirement-docs
5. Can have insightful conversations with health professionals that start by asking questions that you have no idea are important yet

Or do it like the kiddoes and make sure the hour count is 3 digits long and includes 3 or more settings.

Best of luck to you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
You are in for a very long road. At some point in my past, maybe a decade ago, I was where you are now. And I STILL have 3+ years of residency left.
You need to understand that you are throwing away a potentially very lucrative career with a great lifestyle. I used to work 35 hour weeks and spend half a day every week in the summer playing golf with my bosses. I had plenty of time to work on side businesses and make great money. You'll be trading this for 10+ years of 80 hour weeks with no real remuneration. With the stress of potentially having it all go to waste if you trip up at any point as you have no real safety net until you become BC. All so that you can one day make probably two times more per year than you would as an engineer with 15+ years experience.

You need to think real hard about it. My advice would be to try to find a really good job using your degree and take it. Spend a year there. If you still want to do medicine, then ok. I'm assuming you're still in your early to mid 20s. If you go back for pre-reqs, I would go back to college full-time for one year. And live college life as hard as you can while still making good grades. Because you won't be having that much fun and freedom ever again.

Edit: Also, to be clear, you'll get into a good med school without a problem as long as you do the bare minimum of volunteering and score average on the MCAT. Your focus shouldn't be on how to get into med school, but on whether going is the right choice for you and whether you really don't want to do anything else. Leave the worrying about getting into med school for the humanities majors with 3.1 gpas.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Members don't see this ad :)
Nothing to add.
Exactly the way it should be decided in my point of view.
 
Top