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Really? You don't know a single person who did med, law, engineering, etc., without any real personal interest but because Dr. Mom/Dr. Dad enforced that was the only option available to them? An intrinsic love of the field makes it more rewarding, certainly, and very likely makes you better at it, but thinking that there is some needed intrinsic thing sounds like vocational superstition to me.
Wow...eerily perceptive. And exactly what I was thinking about when I wrote my post. Anecdotally, medical school was the ONLY option for me (and my siblings) because Dad was a surgeon (as I've mentioned in previous posts). I was very good in math so that was my one caveat (that I would be a math major - I could do multivariate calculus until my face turns blue)...and then "trouble" happened when I took Intro to Psych. I knew I wanted to be a clinician, but not a psychiatrist. Hell, I considered anesthesiology and neurosurgery for an entire year (actually worked at family friend's neurosurgical practice all during undegrad, i.e., grateful nepotism, and BTW - Dad loved those ideas!). I would be making serious bank had I chosen either of those routes. But alas, my motivation was clearly directed towards clinical psych...I had to literally argue (debate, really) with the parental units about my chosen field. Aren't I such a rebel?
On a personal side bar: None of my siblings followed in dear Dad's path...one is lawyer, one in business, and I am what I am. But I can always re-enact the pressure, and demand my kids be surgeons - not.
I like the idea of vocational superstition...my comments are more aimed toward vocational volition.
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