How often do you have a career/identity crisis?

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SusGob711

SusGob711

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It's seems that I'm not the only pre-med that has second thoughts occasionally (okay, frequently). I always thought I was abnormal because it's almost every other day that I freak out and think about switching to PA school, law school, etc. I'm sure it's just the fact that we all get overwhelmed by the long-term implications of choosing this career. Just wondering how often you guys freak out, lol.
 
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SusGob711 said:
It's seems that I'm not the only pre-med that has second thoughts occasionally (okay, frequently). I always thought I was abnormal because it's almost every other day that I freak out and think about switching to PA school, law school, etc. I'm sure it's just the fact that we all get overwhelmed by the long-term implications of choosing this career. Just wondering how often you guys freak out, lol.
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SusGob711 said:
It's seems that I'm not the only pre-med that has second thoughts occasionally (okay, frequently). I always thought I was abnormal because it's almost every other day that I freak out and think about switching to PA school, law school, etc. I'm sure it's just the fact that we all get overwhelmed by the long-term implications of choosing this career. Just wondering how often you guys freak out, lol.
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That's very normal. I'm sure many pre-law students would have a second thoughts of switching to another fields.
 
Baruba said:
That's very normal. I'm sure many pre-law students would have a second thoughts of switching to another fields.
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It's a nice feeling to know that it's normal--it's just very frustrating because it seems I can't make up my mind. And that 11+ year career track and be pretty daunting 🙁
 
I do it too! I talk to my bio professors about it and they say it's normal for college kids.
 
After one particularly nasty semester, I tried to switch my major to business (before the economic crash). The only thing that saved me was that the advisors wouldn't talk to me until I had taken several business courses... which you can't take until you talk to the advisors to get clearance. I got fed up and said "forget it." Now I'm happy they were so unhelpful 😀

Having doubts now is no big deal... but having doubts 10 years into your career is. College is the time to explore your options. 👍
 
Sometimes I wonder if I'm trapping myself into something that I'll regret years down the road. The worse part is knowing that if I do regret it, it won't be until decades later. But we'll get to that when we do.
 
I think it's normal.

I'm majoring in European Studies and periodically have thought seriously about ditching the medicine thing and going for a PhD in history or a related field instead.

The best thing to do is to try to ascertain why your thinking of other things. Is it because you're really more interested in or because you are feeling intimidated.
 
Totally normal. To be honest, I think if you're a pre-med and haven't had these thoughts then you seriously haven't thought enough about your career.

I went through an existential crisis after graduating. Mainly because....taking time off affords you the opportunity to understand what a normal life can be like. Making a paycheck, hanging out with friends, not bringing your work home with you after 5 PM. To be honest, I love it...and seriously considered other options.

But, in terms of a career that I find satisfying, exciting, and fulfilling...medicine is it. It's a rough journey, but in reflecting a lot about it...I realized that some of the coolest things I did as an undergrad and outside of school were always somehow related to my pursuit of medicine. Medicine has taken me really interesting places and I think, really fulfilled my life in a lot of ways. I enjoy the journey, so I don't mind that it'll take longer.

I still have reservations and fears though. Things like...finding a significant other who isn't a med student, maintaining balance with the rest of my life, making sure I have a "non-career" set of friends to keep me sane. I think most of happiness in life comes from the amount of energy you put in to making it the way you want to be. $$$ is always a concern, but do things that make you happy. The rest of life will follow.
 
mdeast said:
Totally normal. To be honest, I think if you're a pre-med and haven't had these thoughts then you seriously haven't thought enough about your career.
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Agreed. Of course, there are some people who "just know" what they want to do from Day 1 and never waver but they (in spite of what high school guidance counselors and college careers offices want you to believe) are quite the minority. But for most people, your in a far better position to make a career decision (or at least to feel more confident about the decision you make) after exploring your options and being able to make an educated choice, rather than just jumping at the first thing and then ignoring everything else.
 
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AMH0505 said:
in spite of what high school guidance counselors and college careers offices want you to believe
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What? Advisers constantly remind you about crap like "the average college student changes their major 45 times and the average person has worked in 3243243 different careers"

The longer you stay changing your major, the longer you take to graduate and the more money the school makes. It's in their best interest to not let you graduate on time.
 
sometimes i just want to be a firefighter... but medicine will offer me more satisfaction at the end.
 
Sometimes I have nightmares where I'm in law school, or worse, a DO. 😱
 
Sometimes I see that my college offers very intersting PhD programs like neuroscience, molecular medicine... makes me wanna go to grad school and do some post doc research before going to medical school.
 
i have an identity crisis like...every day, i think haha...every week- on a good week 😀
 
If you aren't being a skeptic about which career you choose, you aren't being fair to yourself. It's a normal process almost everyone goes through. Good chance you will always feel that even after deciding on a career. Important thing is to just pick the "best" one and go with it.
 
Has anyone on here switched from Pre-Vet to Pre-Med. I'm struggling with this right now....talk about identity crisis 🙁
 
I often think about going into dentistry due to all the scary posts on this forum saying "Don't go into medicine if you'd be happy doing anything else." I'd be happy doing a lot of other things but I feel medicine is what I'm best suited for. I love medicine but it's just all the baggage that comes along with being a doctor that makes me hesitant sometimes (managed care, length of training, impact on family life/outside interests).
 
I'm in the middle of such a crisis right now. That's why I'm taking at least 2 years off. Getting a job, finding a place to live, etc. I'm trying to see if there's something that would suit me better than medicine, or if medicine is what I truly want to do after all. I'm not sure what I'll find at the end, but with any luck it'll be a clear sense of direction.
 
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From time to time I always think about trying to live a life/job like Anthony Bourdain. But in the back of my head I never want to get out medicine, it is always there ...waiting.
 
SU1989 said:
I used to have this "crisis" every day a year ago. Ever since I was a child I have always wanted to be a doctor. But then when college started, the realities got the better off me (i.e. I was unprepared, didn't study hard, partied etc.) and the frequency of this identity crises increased. In fact it was so much that at the end of my freshman year I decided to drop pursuing medicine altogether. Since I never considered any other career, I took a bunch of random classes like economics, history, poli sci. Of course this is a personal matter but, for me, none was as interesting as medicine or science in general. Eventually, after this one year period of "soul search", I was back to being a pre-med anymore as I knew I would never be happy with any other career.

Looking back, I used to think at first that I simply wasted a year. But now I am so happy to have taken this year off because without it I would have never known it for sure that medicine is for me. And when I was 100% sure that I wanted to be a physician, the identity/career crises eventually ceased. 🙂

What I will recommend is that you take bunch of classes. Take a poli sci or economics course. Or whatever that you think you may find interesting. Experiment. See if you can see yourself doing that for the rest of your life. Same with medicine: Volunteer at a hospital. I did this and it was the final reassurance for me that I wanted to be a doctor. You should do the same and pick the right career for yourself.
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Dude you made me laugh so hard I spilled coffee on my microscope. So you've been pushing foodcart, paperwork, or running errands for secretaries and this was the 'final assurance'???

It's darn hard to get the feeling of what being a doctor is like by watching... 'Shadowing' and whatnot is like sitting in your apartment watching a war movie... while BEING a doctor is like holding a gun and going to the battle.

Do the following: BEFORE you decide to do medicine, make friends with a resident or fellow. Surgery or IM are your best bets. Ask them if you can 'shadow' them... BY THAT I MEAN LITERALLY SHADOW THEM FOR A MONTH. They wake up by 2 AM to answer a page, you do the same. They go without food or sleep, you do the same. They give up family or social events, you do the same. Do it for a month or two at least. Experience what it's like to work whole night REALLY HARD, and then be crapped on by your attendings during morning rounds. Experience what it's like to deal with ungrateful, entitled patients. Smell the feces, urine, vomit and blood that will come in contact with your exposed skin. Try to FEEL THE CONSTANT FEAR of a lawsuit, which could make you loose EVERYTHING YOU WORKED FOR.

DON'T USE THIS EXPERIENCE TO PAD YOUR APPLICATION. Use this to TRULY ask yourself if this is the life you want to live. Then come back and report.

Oh I forgot. Also, try to IMAGINE, that while you are doing this, your debt worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is growing at 6+% annual rate.
 
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Nilf said:
Dude you made me laugh so hard I spilled coffee on my microscope. So you've been pushing foodcart, paperwork, or running errands for secretaries and this was the 'final assurance'???

It's darn hard to get the feeling of what being a doctor is like by watching... 'Shadowing' and whatnot is like sitting in your apartment watching a war movie... while BEING a doctor is like holding a gun and going to the battle.

Do the following: BEFORE you decide to do medicine, make friends with a resident or fellow. Surgery or IM are your best bets. Ask them if you can 'shadow' them... BY THAT I MEAN LITERALLY SHADOW THEM FOR A MONTH. They wake up by 2 AM to answer a page, you do the same. They go without food or sleep, you do the same. They give up family or social events, you do the same. Do it for a month or two at least. Experience what it's like to work whole night REALLY HARD, and then be crapped on by your attendings during morning rounds. Experience what it's like to deal with ungrateful, entitled patients. Smell the feces, urine, vomit and blood that will come in contact with your exposed skin. Try to FEEL THE CONSTANT FEAR of a lawsuit, which could make you loose EVERYTHING YOU WORKED FOR.

DON'T USE THIS EXPERIENCE TO PAD YOUR APPLICATION. Use this to TRULY ask yourself if this is the life you want to live. Then come back and report.

Oh I forgot. Also, try to IMAGINE, that while you are doing this, your debt worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is growing at 6+% annual rate.
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Not that I doubt your excellent advice, but it seems that having someone follow a resident would be a terrible idea for a resident. They have enough pressures that they don't need to worry about what the pre-med thinks of them or their annoying presence.

That and all hospitals near me prohibit ANY shadowing of residents or attendings. Not that I haven't talked to them and heard them tell me what htey say about the hells of residency. It is funny, though, hearing pre-meds talk about their dreams about being a cardiologist and "never having to do any of the gross stuff". Because they won't have to disimpact bowels or have **** (literally) thrown at them by patients.
 
Kaustikos said:
Not that I doubt your excellent advice, but it seems that having someone follow a resident would be a terrible idea for a resident. They have enough pressures that they don't need to worry about what the pre-med thinks of them or their annoying presence.

That and all hospitals near me prohibit ANY shadowing of residents or attendings. Not that I haven't talked to them and heard them tell me what htey say about the hells of residency. It is funny, though, hearing pre-meds talk about their dreams about being a cardiologist and "never having to do any of the gross stuff". Because they won't have to disimpact bowels or have **** (literally) thrown at them by patients.
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You're right that if I was resident last thing I would want is to have a premed with me. That's why I said 'make friends'. Also, invest in a white coat and scrubs so you look presentable, get visitor's ID, pull some strings with your college career counseling office, talk to hospitals admins. If you can do 'shadowing' by showing up at 9 AM, and hanging at OR areas for several hours, and then going home, then you can do REAL SHADOWING by being with a resident 100% of his time in the hospital. I don't think it should be all that hard to arrange.
 
Nilf said:
Do the following: BEFORE you decide to do medicine, make friends with a resident or fellow. Surgery or IM are your best bets. Ask them if you can 'shadow' them... BY THAT I MEAN LITERALLY SHADOW THEM FOR A MONTH. They wake up by 2 AM to answer a page, you do the same. They go without food or sleep, you do the same. They give up family or social events, you do the same. Do it for a month or two at least. Experience what it's like to work whole night REALLY HARD, and then be crapped on by your attendings during morning rounds. Experience what it's like to deal with ungrateful, entitled patients. Smell the feces, urine, vomit and blood that will come in contact with your exposed skin. Try to FEEL THE CONSTANT FEAR of a lawsuit, which could make you loose EVERYTHING YOU WORKED FOR.
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What a stupid idea. Don't shadow a resident. You don't go to med school so that you can grow up and become a resident. You go to med school to become an attending some day. Watching an attending go through their day is kind of boring at times. Watching a resident is going to be even more boring.
 
TheProwler said:
What a stupid idea. Don't shadow a resident. You don't go to med school so that you can grow up and become a resident. You go to med school to become an attending some day. Watching an attending go through their day is kind of boring at times. Watching a resident is going to be even more boring.
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Stupid back at you. Being a resident and a fellow is not part of the deal? Patients magically become nicer once you become attending? Attendings don't get s***ed on by patients, and they don't get to smell the patients, they don't get HIV+ blood sprinkled on them? Depending on what they do and where they work, some work just as hard as they did during residency, AND YES IT MAY INCLUDE CALL. Ignore all this at your peril.
 
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Nilf said:
Stupid back at you. Being a resident and a fellow is not part of the deal? Patients magically become nicer once you become attending? Attendings don't get s***ed on by patients, and they don't get to smell the patients, they don't get HIV+ blood sprinkled on them? Depending on what they do and where they work, some work just as hard as they did during residency, AND YES IT MAY INCLUDE CALL. Ignore all this at your peril.
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Can't read good? I didn't say any of that, did I?
 
Nilf said:
... Smell the feces, urine, vomit and blood that will come in contact with your exposed skin....
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Grow a pair. Ovaries, testes, whichever you're supposed to be packing.

I guess what you should be advocating is the first 16 years of my life...shadow a farmer, help deliver baby cows (imagine afterbirth the size of a dog), scrape **** out of stalls with pitchforks that are taller than you, muck out chicken coops, and try not to slip on the **** that is already in the pasture on your way to the barn.
 
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Electronegative said:
Sometimes I see that my college offers very intersting PhD programs like neuroscience, molecular medicine... makes me wanna go to grad school and do some post doc research before going to medical school.
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OP, I had similar feelings to these elequently stated by electronegative in the above quote up through the middle of my sophomore year, but I would think that if these type of feelings continue up and through your junior and senior years, you oughta maybe take some time off, do a little introspection, spend some time volunteering in a clinic, and maybe try some of the other things you can't help but feel might be better.
 
Wow, reading this thread makes me glad my Napoleon complex prevents me from feeling self-doubt.
 
SU1989 said:
Thanks. Without your superior expertise and thoughtful insights I would have never known the hardships of being a doctor. Thanks for enlightening me. 6% interest rate and 2 a.m. calls? WOW, those are things that I absolutely didn't know before! I better befriend a resident so he can tell me more!

Nilf, no, you are not the first person to have gone through medical school and residency. So don't act like you are the first person to have discovered America and give me advice that you can read on THOUSANDS of other sources. I have great respect for your experience (you are an attending for God's sake) but what's with the bitterness over what a pre-med said? You are only trying to ridicule me for being so "naive" and how being a doctor is much more than volunteering at a hospital. I am aware of that but -get this- I am only in college. What more do you expect me to do than volunteering and shadowing? Oh yeah, there is that part about living like a resident for a month. Probably the stupidest advice I was ever given. Besides, you probably don't know what the word "idealistic" means, right? Hey, I better stop here or I might get another 5 paragraph tirade about how you had ideals yourself but grew to be dismayed over the years. (And more coffee spilling during the ordeal)

Also, I find it funny how you can recommend me to make friends with anyone, while you yourself have such an attitude.
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Why all the hate and sarcasm. If you don't like what I say, don't read and don't follow my advice.

Shadowing should be just that: following another doctor CLOSELY for extended period of time. IT SHOULD BE VIEWED AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN ABOUT LIFE OF A PHYSICIAN, NOT AS A WAY TO PAD YOUR APPLICATIONS. IMO it's ******ed that adcoms even view this as a bonus point, I know I never will. It should help a prospective medical student make the crucial decision whether they like medicine; it should NOT be viewed as yet another hoop to jump through.

I agree that shadowing an intern for a month is not easy to arrange. A good alternative would be doing a full ER shift (12 hours in most hospitals), at least three times a week, for at least a month. Choose ONLY a busy ER, preferably in an inner-city hospital. It's not impossible to arrange; I've done it myself (sadly, it was only for coupla days in a suburban ER). Do it after your freshman year, before you fully commit to medical school. It's a win-win deal. If you do decide to pursue medicine, you will have racked up countless shadow/volunteer hours, and will have tons of stuff to write about in your essay and to talk about during interviews. And if you decide not to go to medschool... then you wasted just one month, instead of 10 years.

Look dude, I'm telling you all this because I wish someone told me this when I was in your shoes.
 
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VetBound said:
Has anyone on here switched from Pre-Vet to Pre-Med. I'm struggling with this right now....talk about identity crisis 🙁
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I'm kind of vise-versa, in that I'm really contemplating vet school as opposed to my original plan of med school. Being a vet seems like it would be a very fun, rewarding career. But, I've already applied to med school for this cycle... if I don't get in, I think I'm going to weigh vet school very heavily for next cycle.
 
<--- freaks out several times a week... and I'm old.
 
I, like a lot of other people on the forums, will have a degree that can make my very comfortable money straight out of college. Every day, I wonder what it would be like to just go to work after college instead of med school. It's very comforting to have a fallback right now.
 
Went back and forth during my junior year. Once I spent money to sign up for MCAT and stuff it was pretty well decided.

I think everyone should consider over and over again if they really want medicine. You will be able to better express those reasons during interviews.

In general though my belief these days is that if there is something other than medicine that you legitimately think you would enjoy to do for your life - you should probably do it. Especially if it takes less time to get your career started than medicine does. And especially if you're a woman who wants a family.
 
I am pretty sure I want to become a doctor. But, it's kinda scary to think what if I change my mind again. Say, I want to become a lawyer now, all of the ECs I did will be irrelevant to law school admission.

But, I'll follow my dream. If I change my mind again, I will do my best to get where I want to be. For now, my dream is to get into a medical school and become a doctor.
 
Before I considered medicine, I considered a different career every few months. Once I gave medicine more thought and worked at a medical practice to get clinical experience, I became absolutely sure that this is the career that will make me happy. It's been about 2 years now and I have not doubted this career decision for one minute.

I hope this shows through and med school will accept me. I'm a little worried because not being pre-med as an UG, I didn't load up my classes with all difficult and hardcore classes. And among the classes I did take, I tend not to ace the ones that med school consider important.

I think I would love learning at med school because each day is a day closer to becoming a physician. Also, having worked with countless patients and confronted with all sorts of problems and questions, I want to know as much as possible to be an excellent doctor.
 
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Nilf said:
Dude you made me laugh so hard I spilled coffee on my microscope. So you've been pushing foodcart, paperwork, or running errands for secretaries and this was the 'final assurance'???

It's darn hard to get the feeling of what being a doctor is like by watching... 'Shadowing' and whatnot is like sitting in your apartment watching a war movie... while BEING a doctor is like holding a gun and going to the battle.

Do the following: BEFORE you decide to do medicine, make friends with a resident or fellow. Surgery or IM are your best bets. Ask them if you can 'shadow' them... BY THAT I MEAN LITERALLY SHADOW THEM FOR A MONTH. They wake up by 2 AM to answer a page, you do the same. They go without food or sleep, you do the same. They give up family or social events, you do the same. Do it for a month or two at least. Experience what it's like to work whole night REALLY HARD, and then be crapped on by your attendings during morning rounds. Experience what it's like to deal with ungrateful, entitled patients. Smell the feces, urine, vomit and blood that will come in contact with your exposed skin. Try to FEEL THE CONSTANT FEAR of a lawsuit, which could make you loose EVERYTHING YOU WORKED FOR.

DON'T USE THIS EXPERIENCE TO PAD YOUR APPLICATION. Use this to TRULY ask yourself if this is the life you want to live. Then come back and report.

Oh I forgot. Also, try to IMAGINE, that while you are doing this, your debt worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is growing at 6+% annual rate.
Click to expand...

Oh my gosh. Chill out, friend. It's gonna be okay. I think he/she just meant that volunteering is what helped them to really fall in love with medicine. We all know that there is more to it than pushing food carts around. We frequent SDN don't we?

Breathe.


And OP, I don't experience identity/career crises frequently, but I am kinda going through one now. Sometimes I just get afraid that being a doctor won't be everything I have built it up to be in my head. At the end of the day though, I know I'd be miserable doing anything else. (Switched my major for awhile and regretted it every day until I changed back.) Hang in there. Cold feet are normal. It's a big decision! *hug*
 
TheProwler said:
Can't read good? I didn't say any of that, did I?
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i think his point is that shadowing resident is a wiser choice than attending since what u see/experience as an attending is different from a resident. people tends to treat attending a little nicer and they get paid more so they are a little happier. i am guessing its harder to see the full picture of being a doctor if u just shadowed attendings. meh although that goes the same for shadowing residents alone.
 
I don't ever have career crises which is awesome. I basically have just one option. I like it like that actually. My parents are doctors. My cousins are either attendings, residents, or students. I will hopefully be a doctor someday; and my kids will hopefully be doctors someday.
 
FlowRate said:
I, like a lot of other people on the forums, will have a degree that can make my very comfortable money straight out of college. Every day, I wonder what it would be like to just go to work after college instead of med school. It's very comforting to have a fallback right now.
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Yeah, but doesn't the thought of selling you soul to BP/Exxon/PG while working at a plant that is 60 years old and held together w/ duct tape, just make you die a little inside?
 
surftheiop said:
Yeah, but doesn't the thought of selling you soul to BP/Exxon/PG while working at a plant that is 60 years old and held together w/ duct tape, just make you die a little inside?
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If they make everything a little more efficient, that helps, not hurts.
 
morning said:
If they make everything a little more efficient, that helps, not hurts.
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Have you ever worked at a chemical plant?

The crowning achievements of many engineers work might be shaving 150k off of some processes cost so that the shareholders can get their extra .0000000000001 cents in dividend or whatever.

I could never do it, but I am extremely grateful for the people who find it exciting so I don't have to.
 
No I don't really have career/identity crises anymore. I tried to challenge myself by getting exposure to lots of situations/viewpoints. I've looked into a LOT of different careers that interested me, and none of them come close to engaging me or holding my interest like this one does.

Ultimately, there's no way anyone can be 100% sure they will like something until they do it. Even though it is important to know whether or not you'll be happy as a doctor before you decide to apply to medical school, there is no way to KNOW that you will like it. But we all take leaps of faith in our lives -- in getting married, or choosing a college major, or even to order a new dish of food at a restaurant. IMO, we just need to do whatever is necessary to be sure of our paths, and in the back of our minds acknowledge that life is perpetually uncertain. I think it's more important to have the assurance that you can make the best of a situation even if everything goes wrong, than it is to be sure that you will be happy if everything goes right. That sounds kind of confusing, but I guess what I mean to say is, I've convinced myself that this is the right career choice for me because as long as I get through medical school and residency, there are so many options available that I will be able to be happy even if I end up hating patients/practicing medicine.
 
I always fear like I'm on the wrong track, like I'm going to apply to med school, and they're just gonna tell me that I missed a class, or a letter of recommendation, or an EC that would make me more competitive. I don't know. . . . I guess this comes with not being a science major.
 
surftheiop said:
Yeah, but doesn't the thought of selling you soul to BP/Exxon/PG while working at a plant that is 60 years old and held together w/ duct tape, just make you die a little inside?
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Yes, but I'd probably spend some time diversifying my skillset to try and get a job in either the automotive or pharm industries, or instead talk to my family members who do consulting and look into joining an eng consulting firm. I dunno, a lot of "real regular jobs" sound crappy at first, but I think the payoff is a relatively interesting 9-5 job with money to pursue other interests. i.e. my friend works in printer RnD for HP which sounds boring at first abut it's actually really interesting and he has plenty of COH to do stuff.
 
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