Advice to the people without interview invites

[Chemdude]

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I feel your pain. When I was applying, I felt like I needed to become a doctor. I felt like I wouldn't be happy unless I was a doctor. It's a huge hit to your self-esteem if you are rejected. You start asking yourself "am I not good enough? Are other people really that much better than me?" It can destroy your life. After starting medical school, I realized that medicine is not as glorious as it seems to be.

What are you looking for in medicine?

1. Job satisfaction? Doctors have extremely high rates of burn out. Try being satisfied as a doctor when you're a 50 year old family doc writing 50 notes a day or a 50 yo surgeon getting called in the middle of night for an urgent surgery. Every job gets boring.

2. Money? You only start making money once you're in your 30s. Most of your professional friends will have made more than $1 million in cumulative salary by the time you get your first "real" paycheck.

3. Prestige? I used to think that being a doctor is the pinnacle of the career prestige scale. It turns out that most people don't care about what you do for a living. Sure, your parents, relatives, friends, significant other, etc. will be proud of you. However, does pride really matter when you slave away every day doing work that is not appreciated?

4. Intellectual rigor? Once you learn the basic sciences, medicine becomes very tedious. Clinical medicine can be depressingly boring. It is very algorithmic in most specialties (i.e. guidelines; it's called evidence-based medicine).

5. Happiness? Doctors have very high rates of suicide and depression. These rates are higher than the general population.

6. You like helping patients? Lots of patients will not appreciate your work. Helping people isn't as fulfilling when your work is not appreciated. You will have patients that abuse you verbally and even physically.

I know that you are feeling depressed about not getting admitted to medical school. You need to look at the bigger picture. There are dozens of careers out there that are just as good as medicine. I'm not telling you to not go into medicine; I'm telling you to consider your other options. You may be depressed today, but 20 years from now you may look back and say "phew, I dodged a bullet." Sometimes I wish I never got my acceptance letter...

 

[chm9332]

I feel your pain. When I was applying, I felt like I needed to become a doctor. I felt like I wouldn't be happy unless I was a doctor. It's a huge hit to your self-esteem if you are rejected. You start asking yourself "am I not good enough? Are other people really that much better than me?" It can destroy your life. After starting medical school, I realized that medicine is not as glorious as it seems to be.

This is me everyday!
Thank you for your advice 🙂

 

[WontGiveUp90]

It's way too early to be worrying about not having an II, I didn't get one last year until late February. Just distract yourself with anything at all and most importantly GET OFF SDN: it will drive you crazy during the application process!

 

[FootballFoot]

What alternatives are there for bio grads?

Pharmacy, optometry, PA, have their own issues to deal with. Or you can slave away for $8/hr as a lab tech.

 

[woodca3]

It's way too early to be worrying about not having an II, I didn't get one last year until late February. Just distract yourself with anything at all and most importantly GET OFF SDN: it will drive you crazy during the application process!

This is the truest statement I've ever read, yet, I can't seem to get off of SDN.

 

[MDProspect]

I ...

This is a huge pile of BS. Just because you are miserable does not mean that others are going to feel the same way about medicine.

1. No job satisfaction? You have to write 50 notes a day? Boo freaking hoo. Try working at a minimum wage blue collar job, where you slave away for 12+ hours a day and still do not make enough to pay your rent or bills at the end of the month.

2. Money. By "professional", I assume you mean business owners, people in the financial sector, engineers, lawyers, etc... Yes, they will initially make more than you, but businesses come and go. Markets crash. Those people will be on the unemployment line, while you are making a great salary and not worrying about not having a job. As for lawyers and engineers, those professions are already saturated and are all about name brands. Good luck with scoring a position at a top firm (top firm= top$) without having a degree from an Ivy League institution. I keep a lawyer from Fordham Law on a $25/month retainer to go fight my parking tickets, talk about job satisfaction.

3. Prestige. I'll agree with you on this one. Others will care about how much you make, not about your prestige. If prestige mattered, academia would pay a whole lot more.

4. Intellectual rigor. This only pertains to a select few, who go into medicine to learn and to challenge themselves. Otherwise, it's premed nonsense that they say on their apps and interviews, because saying that "I am going into medicine for the job stability and the money " is highly frowned upon.

5. Happiness. This might be shocking, but you can be happy as a physician, if you are not one of those pampered d-bags that never held a job or had a real struggle before becoming a doctor. I had to go through hell and back to get to this point in my life. Working at construction sites and coming home with my hands being so sore that I could not bend my fingers or working at a dead-end office job with a bunch of lazy *****s and putting up with their abuse. You know your job sucks when you have to fight with yourself to get out of bed every morning and the thought of walking in front of train seems a little bit better than getting on it and going to work. Do not go into a speciality that makes you miserable. If you don't want to wake up in the middle of the night and perform emergency surgeries, don't become a surgeon. Also don't solely rely on your income as a physician. Invest into real estate or whatever and make enough money to retire early if you don't want to be a physician all of your life.

6. "Helping people isn't as fulfilling when your work is not appreciated." Do you thank the garbageman when he takes away your trash? Or the mechanic who fixes your car? Unlike those people in the blue collar sector, you can change this. 1) Go into private practice and be your own boss. 2) Open this practice in a upper-class neighborhood 3) Do not accept government insurance (medicaid and medicare). As harsh as this might sound, working with the poor is hard. You see much more complex stages of a disease. These patients are less likely to heed your advice/recommendation. Have lower intelligence and are more belligerent.

You are in charge of your happiness and medicine can be the vehicle that you need to achieve all of your dreams. For those of you who are not going to get accepted this cycle, work hard and reapply. Get more clinical experience, boost your GPA, do more research, write a better personal statement, and show that you deserve this more than anyone else.

 

[GrumpyGus]

If prestige mattered, academia would pay a whole lot more.

Prestige does matter and that's in fact WHY they pay less because people will give up money in order to get the prestige. Supply > demand so wages go down. Yeesh, Econ 1 everyone.

 

[piii]

You sound so bitter. What happened to you?

 

[GrumpyGus]

It's quite phenomenal. Here and on reddit you'd think physicians are some of the most depressed, overworked, unhappy, miserable groups of mother ****ers out there. I see post after post about "don't go into medicine! I hate it and so will you! Oh my god it's MISERABLE **** MY LIFE." You know what else is miserable? Being a consultant, working 90 hours a week, traveling for 4 days a week and living in hotels. Or is it the lawyer who starts making 160k out of law school (WOW! THATS AMAZING) and works 9-9 six days a week. Or is it the lawyers that make partner and are all divorced because making partner means you never stop working. Or is it the small business owner that has to worry about their business constantly, make ends mean, drive up profits while undercutting wages etc. I have absolutely no idea why people in medicine think other professions similar in prestige/income are easy. They're not.

If you don't want to work hard, work 80-100 hours a week, or make anything decent, then get a 9-5 easy 75k job out there and stop your bitching.

Seriously.

Any profession that makes 150k+ is going to take years of working intense hours.

I'm a little older than most premeds and have a lot of friends in consulting, law, business, engineering etc. You name it and I have either friends or family in it. They all work similar hours as medicine.

Yet I never see a post of why medicine is amazing and how happy being a physician has made someone. You know why? Because the majority of physicians that are happy (and n=a lot in my personal life) don't waste their ****ing time posting on SDN/reddit or answering bull**** surveys about how miserable they are. They're out enjoying life.

Don't try and console people who are going through an extremely hard time by saying "nah you don't actually want this." It's patronizing and rude.

/rant over

 

[appalachian_man]

"Hey, I know you guys are feeling down about not being successful applying for your dream job, but here's the good news: your dream job is terrible anyways! Yay!"

Is that seriously your best piece of advice?

 

[edawgmd]

These patients are less likely to heed your advice/recommendation. Have lower intelligence and are more belligerent.

lol let's be a little more careful with choice of words here. just because someone's income is of the lower class does not mean s/he has a lower intelligence or are more belligerent. Perhaps they're a little more ignorant than some others because they never had a fair chance at being educated.

But I do understand where you are coming from and you have valid points, as does OP. OP does come off as a little bitter, but I guess he's highlighting the "realities" of medicine when you come out to work. I give him the benefit of the doubt that he poses these harsh questions to make us probe into whether or not we REALLY want to practice medicine. These are things you have to think about and it's also fine if someone feels differently about their profession when they actually go in. That is why some people go through career changes.

However, OP, most of us pre-meds may still be naive to the real world of medicine, but happiness is always about perspective and appreciating the little things in life. I know you are not telling us to avoid medicine, but there are some people here that will always have a burning passion for it regardless of the things you pointed out. Like I said, it's just a matter of perspective.

 

[Lawpy]

This is a huge pile of BS. Just because you are miserable does not mean that others are going to feel the same way about medicine.

1. No job satisfaction? You have to write 50 notes a day? Boo freaking hoo. Try working at a minimum wage blue collar job, where you slave away for 12+ hours a day and still do not make enough to pay your rent or bills at the end of the month.

2. Money. By "professional", I assume you mean business owners, people in the financial sector, engineers, lawyers, etc... Yes, they will initially make more than you, but businesses come and go. Markets crash. Those people will be on the unemployment line, while you are making a great salary and not worrying about not having a job. As for lawyers and engineers, those professions are already saturated and are all about name brands. Good luck with scoring a position at a top firm (top firm= top$) without having a degree from an Ivy League institution. I keep a lawyer from Fordham Law on a $25/month retainer to go fight my parking tickets, talk about job satisfaction.

3. Prestige. I'll agree with you on this one. Others will care about how much you make, not about your prestige. If prestige mattered, academia would pay a whole lot more.

4. Intellectual rigor. This only pertains to a select few, who go into medicine to learn and to challenge themselves. Otherwise, it's premed nonsense that they say on their apps and interviews, because saying that "I am going into medicine for the job stability and the money " is highly frowned upon.

5. Happiness. This might be shocking, but you can be happy as a physician, if you are not one of those pampered d-bags that never held a job or had a real struggle before becoming a doctor. I had to go through hell and back to get to this point in my life. Working at construction sites and coming home with my hands being so sore that I could not bend my fingers or working at a dead-end office job with a bunch of lazy *****s and putting up with their abuse. You know your job sucks when you have to fight with yourself to get out of bed every morning and the thought of walking in front of train seems a little bit better than getting on it and going to work. Do not go into a speciality that makes you miserable. If you don't want to wake up in the middle of the night and perform emergency surgeries, don't become a surgeon. Also don't solely rely on your income as a physician. Invest into real estate or whatever and make enough money to retire early if you don't want to be a physician all of your life.

6. "Helping people isn't as fulfilling when your work is not appreciated." Do you thank the garbageman when he takes away your trash? Or the mechanic who fixes your car? Unlike those people in the blue collar sector, you can change this. 1) Go into private practice and be your own boss. 2) Open this practice in a upper-class neighborhood 3) Do not accept government insurance (medicaid and medicare). As harsh as this might sound, working with the poor is hard. You see much more complex stages of a disease. These patients are less likely to heed your advice/recommendation. Have lower intelligence and are more belligerent.

You are in charge of your happiness and medicine can be the vehicle that you need to achieve all of your dreams. For those of you who are not going to get accepted this cycle, work hard and reapply. Get more clinical experience, boost your GPA, do more research, write a better personal statement, and show that you deserve this more than anyone else.

It's quite phenomenal. Here and on reddit you'd think physicians are some of the most depressed, overworked, unhappy, miserable groups of mother ****ers out there. I see post after post about "don't go into medicine! I hate it and so will you! Oh my god it's MISERABLE **** MY LIFE." You know what else is miserable? Being a consultant, working 90 hours a week, traveling for 4 days a week and living in hotels. Or is it the lawyer who starts making 160k out of law school (WOW! THATS AMAZING) and works 9-9 six days a week. Or is it the lawyers that make partner and are all divorced because making partner means you never stop working. Or is it the small business owner that has to worry about their business constantly, make ends mean, drive up profits while undercutting wages etc. I have absolutely no idea why people in medicine think other professions similar in prestige/income are easy. They're not.

If you don't want to work hard, work 80-100 hours a week, or make anything decent, then get a 9-5 easy 75k job out there and stop your bitching.

Seriously.

Any profession that makes 150k+ is going to take years of working intense hours.

I'm a little older than most premeds and have a lot of friends in consulting, law, business, engineering etc. You name it and I have either friends or family in it. They all work similar hours as medicine.

Yet I never see a post of why medicine is amazing and how happy being a physician has made someone. You know why? Because the majority of physicians that are happy (and n=a lot in my personal life) don't waste their ****ing time posting on SDN/reddit or answering bull**** surveys about how miserable they are. They're out enjoying life.

Don't try and console people who are going through an extremely hard time by saying "nah you don't actually want this." It's patronizing and rude.

/rant over

"Hey, I know you guys are feeling down about not being successful applying for your dream job, but here's the good news: your dream job is terrible anyways! Yay!"

Is that seriously your best piece of advice?

Glad to hear some blunt optimism! No disrespect to OP, but the original "advice" is rather shortsighted, tiresome and bland.

Look OP, I get it. You are burnt out from your residency demands and want to "advise" how not going into medicine may not be a bad thing. Anyone with work experience will know that medicine is another job that's placed under high social expectations, but this is really no different from any professional job.

Who said working in a professional environment, making good salary and enjoying job security will come with minimal costs? Long hours are expected. Working on weekends, birthdays, holidays is expected. Dealing with subjective office politics is expected. Dealing with immense pressure is expected. The problems you are highlighting apply to any professional (and even blue collar) careers, so you really aren't saying much nor bringing anything new.

This is why having a sincere passion for a career (not just medicine) is essential to do well and succeed in that career regardless of these setbacks and costs.

 

[wagonwheel23]

All jobs come with a lot of BS. You just need to find one you love enough so the BS doesn't get you down.

Also, isn't this thread a bit too early? It's October.

 

[MDProspect]

lol let's be a little more careful with choice of words here. just because someone's income is of the lower class does not mean s/he has a lower intelligence or are more belligerent. Perhaps they're a little more ignorant than some others because they never had a fair chance at being educated.

But I do understand where you are coming from and you have valid points, as does OP. OP does come off as a little bitter, but I guess he's highlighting the "realities" of medicine when you come out to work. I give him the benefit of the doubt that he poses these harsh questions to make us probe into whether or not we REALLY want to practice medicine. These are things you have to think about and it's also fine if someone feels differently about their profession when they actually go in. That is why some people go through career changes.

However, OP, most of us pre-meds may still be naive to the real world of medicine, but happiness is always about perspective and appreciating the little things in life. I know you are not telling us to avoid medicine, but there are some people here that will always have a burning passion for it regardless of the things you pointed out. Like I said, it's just a matter of perspective.

He is telling you to stay away from medicine. His whole last paragraph is an oxymoron.
"I know that you are feeling depressed about not getting admitted to medical school. You need to look at the bigger picture. There are dozens of careers out there that are just as good as medicine. I'm not telling you to not go into medicine; I'm telling you to consider your other options. You may be depressed today, but 20 years from now you may look back and say "phew, I dodged a bullet." Sometimes I wish I never got my acceptance letter...

All of the underlined statements are telling you to avoid medicine. That bolded line does not fit in with the rest of the statement.

I am not saying that all of the poor are unintelligent or belligerent, but the probability of encountering a difficult patient is much higher in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. Aside from the patient's personal characteristics, he/she is a difficult patient for reasons outside of their control. For instance, say your patient is obese and needs better nutrition and exercise. Their neighborhood won't have good produce or good produce will be too expensive. EBT cards have a monthly limits on them, thus this person is not going to buy better quality produce. This person cannot afford to go to a gym and their neighborhood might not have a community center that offers its residents discounted gym memberships. I don't want to say that lower intelligence equates to boorish behavior, but its true.

 

[Chemdude]

ITT: people not yet in medicine talking about the practice of medicine.

" You have to write 50 notes a day? Boo freaking hoo."-easier said than done. Have you ever written a note? It is true that blue collar jobs are physically demanding and not financially rewarding. However, being a doctor is also physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. Get back to me after you do your first 36 hour call...

Let me be clear. There are many doctors who are happy with their career choice. You don't have to take my advice. You can disagree as much as you want, but that doesn't change the facts about physician burnout and lack of job satisfaction.

http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/compensation/2016/public/overview#page=17

Take a look at the slide above. A big chunk of doctors are unsatisfied with their career choice. Many of them would choose a career other than medicine if they could. I understand that you feel that I'm a bitter resident, but the numbers don't lie.

Lastly, I'm not trying to shoot down anyone's dreams. I'm suggesting that people look at the bigger picture and realize that they may have an unrealistic, exaggerated image of medicine.

 

[MDProspect]

Prestige does matter and that's in fact WHY they pay less because people will give up money in order to get the prestige. Supply > demand so wages go down. Yeesh, Econ 1 everyone.

I agree with your statement, but it mostly applies to higher academia (scientists/professors who are doing research and advancing knowledge) in certain circumstances. Imagine you get your PhD and do your postdoc, and you find out that your sole job prospective is to teach at a community college for $60k a year. In this case, you did not expect to earn less. You thought you are going to make the big bucks at a top institution. On the other hand, there will be people who are going into academia because they don't care about money and love what they do. I think the prestige factor applies more to the latter than the former.

 

[MDProspect]

ITT: people not yet in medicine talking about the practice of medicine.

" You have to write 50 notes a day? Boo freaking hoo."-easier said than done. Have you ever written a note? It is true that blue collar jobs are physically demanding and not financially rewarding. However, being a doctor is also physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. Get back to me after you do your first 36 hour call...

Let me be clear. There are many doctors who are happy with their career choice. You don't have to take my advice. You can disagree as much as you want, but that doesn't change the facts about physician burnout and lack of job satisfaction.

http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/compensation/2016/public/overview#page=17

Take a look at the slide above. A big chunk of doctors are unsatisfied with their career choice. Many of them would choose a career other than medicine if they could. I understand that you feel that I'm a bitter resident, but the numbers don't lie.

Lastly, I'm not trying to shoot down anyone's dreams. I'm suggesting that people look at the bigger picture and realize that they may have an unrealistic, exaggerated image of medicine.

No, I have never written a note myself, but one of my former job responsibilities was typing up handwritten notes and putting them into the system. I agree that the monotony of it alone can make you question whether you are in the right career; however, you are being compensated very well. Money makes things a whole lot better. I also don't doubt that there are many unsatisfied physicians out there, but how many of them come from unconventional backgrounds? Medicine is a rich man's game. Majority of applicants are from middle and upper class families, where their parents have supported them through college and beyond. They also have a very myopic view of the world, because they were sheltered their entire lives. Thus when you never shoveled sh.t, you aren't going to be happy when you complete all of these requirements and get the sense of the real world.

Edit: I am not a physician yet, so I am purely speculating; however, the whole unsatisfied physician thing probably also has to do with the doctor's performance in medical school and their choice of speciality. In either case, it has to do with personal choices rather than the with negatives of the profession.

 

[Chemdude]

No, I have never written a note myself, but one of my former job responsibilities was typing up handwritten notes and putting them into the system. I agree that the monotony of it alone can make you question whether you are in the right career; however, you are being compensated very well. Money makes things a whole lot better. I also don't doubt that there are many unsatisfied physicians out there, but how many of them came from unconventional backgrounds? Medicine is a rich man's game. Majority of applicants are from middle and upper class families, where their parents have supported them through college and beyond. They also have a very myopic view of the world, because they were sheltered their entire lives. Thus when you never shoveled sh.t, you aren't going to be happy when you complete all of these requirements and get the sense of the real world.

Most doctors don't feel like they are fairly compensated. Doctor salaries are deceptive (http://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/salary-of-doctors/).

 

[MDProspect]

Most doctors don't feel like they are fairly compensated. Doctor salaries are deceptive (http://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/salary-of-doctors/).

That is why I said you should not rely on your salary as the sole source of income and pick a competitive speciality if you are in it for the money. If I was going into primary care, I'd become an NP. Way less stress and training. Say I am in a speciality where I earn 150k after taxes, insurance, and all other career related expenses. I'd save $60k and buy a condo in Florida. Rent it out and have a new source of income. Next year, repeat the cycle. After working for 20+ years, I would have $480k yearly income (conservative estimate) that would be coming in from my real estate investments. Without investing or doing any other side businesses, I could retire before I am 60 yrs old.

 

[Strange Peanut]

This is honestly more depressing than the baww no II threads.

 

[lpp06]

I don't get the jump in reasoning from "no II's" to "look at the bigger picture, medicine sucks".

You're implying that one without an II at this time has little to no shot at a career in medicine. Post this in April and it has more bearing, but right now it's like you said, "I know you're not feeling well because of this flu, but look at the bigger picture - everyone dies"

 

[danimal22]

It's way too early to be worrying about not having an II, I didn't get one last year until late February. Just distract yourself with anything at all and most importantly GET OFF SDN: it will drive you crazy during the application process!

Yup, I need to do this for sure. I also need to stop checking my e-mail every two minutes. Oh Lord help me

 

[Mclovin0351]

Semi related. I love when people on here say things like "don't go into medicine for the money just go into finance!"

Probably the most cutthroat and competitive industry on the planet, at least Wall St (which I'm very close with and almost pursued). Lots of "masters of the universe" are currently framing houses or running the books for a small business after 2009. Not to mention the analyst, pretty sure he was at Goldman, who literally died last year after months of 90+ hour weeks and attempting 2-3 all-nighters in a row.

 

[Sardinia]

@Chemdude Spot on. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Sardinia]

This thread reflects the OP's thoughts 100%.

The lack of respect is staggering. Especially these analogies to what life is like as a garbageman or a mechanic. Neither of these jobs come close to the knowledge base, skills, and discipline required to become a physician. In addition, the biggest factor that constantly weighs on the physician is the idea of shouldering on all the culpability that goes on with the patient. This is a huge undertaking and burden when coupled with the fact that they need to rotate through patients like an assembly line.

 

[Sardinia]

Pick a competitive specialty! Hahahaha. As if you can just PICK A COMPETITIVE SPECIALTY. Hey @Chemdude all you need is a high Step 1 Score, top of your class, highest evaluations on your specialty of choice in rotations, and AOA/research. Those first two years of medical school and you're going into family medicine or psychiatry? What a fool! You should have quit and become an NP.

 

[MDProspect]

Pick a competitive specialty! Hahahaha. As if you can just PICK A COMPETITIVE SPECIALTY. Hey @Chemdude all you need is a high Step 1 Score, top of your class, highest evaluations on your specialty of choice in rotations, and AOA/research. Those first two years of medical school and you're going into family medicine or psychiatry? What a fool! You should have quit and become an NP.

Yes, pick and bust your ass for it! You reap what you sow.

It's nice to see you talking sh.t, again...

 

[appalachian_man]

Pick a competitive specialty! Hahahaha. As if you can just PICK A COMPETITIVE SPECIALTY. Hey @Chemdude all you need is a high Step 1 Score, top of your class, highest evaluations on your specialty of choice in rotations, and AOA/research. Those first two years of medical school and you're going into family medicine or psychiatry? What a fool! You should have quit and become an NP.

Probably helps if you don't go to the Caribbean.

Also, we're showing a lack of respect for what? Some douche coming in here and pooping on everyone's dreams, specifically those who are already worried about not having II, because he's bitter about his life choices?

FOH with that nonsense.

 

[appalachian_man]

Most doctors don't feel like they are fairly compensated. Doctor salaries are deceptive (http://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/salary-of-doctors/).

Being fairly compensated and being well compensated are two very different issues. Don't sit there and act like physicians aren't well compensated. Is it fair pay? Probably not, but that's a different argument.

 

[Sardinia]

Yes, pick and bust your ass for it! You reap what you sow. It's nice to see you talking sh.t, again...

I've been busy. But I do write responses when I see posters equivocating being a physician to blue collar labor as if the two bore any correlation. Or that medical students just need to work harder in order to get a high Step 1 score for competitive specialties. When in reality a composite medical school class consists of people who were able to score highly on the MCAT and presumably have top percentile study habits or are able to perform on written examinations. The fact that you're gambling on a competitive specialty to find a satisfying career in medicine is hilarious when you follow that with the idea that individuals are the ones who find happiness and medicine is like the happiness train to lead us all into our dreams to become doctors (Ross University).

 

[Sardinia]

Probably helps if you don't go to the Caribbean. Also, we're showing a lack of respect for what? Some douche coming in here and pooping on everyone's dreams, specifically those who are already worried about not having II, because he's bitter about his life choices? FOH with that nonsense.

He's not bitter. He's telling you what medicine is like because it's impossible to actualize what an actual shift is like without being a physician. If you worked with a healthcare team you should realize this is typical banter at the 11th hour of a shift. Literally the 11th hour of a 12-13 hour shift or a 16 hour shift. In many patient oriented fields these are incredibly difficult and it's not surprising that many physicians burn out because they don't have many options to segue into less demanding fields within the same environment. Sure, there are certain physicians who go into an Urgent Care setting to enjoy a 9-5, however giving out pain killers and antibiotics were not the reason why many physicians worked so hard to complete their medical education. There are alternatives outside of just being a physician and when you're in medical school you will have less room and may regret all the time you wasted worrying about getting into school when you're in the pressure cooker on a day to day basis.

 

[MDProspect]

I've been busy. But I do write responses when I see posters equivocating being a physician to blue collar labor as if the two bore any correlation. Or that medical students just need to work harder in order to get a high Step 1 score for competitive specialties. When in reality a composite medical school class consists of people who were able to score highly on the MCAT and presumably have top percentile study habits or are able to perform on written examinations. The fact that you're gambling on a competitive specialty to find a satisfying career in medicine is hilarious when you follow that with the idea that individuals are the ones who find happiness and medicine is like the happiness train to lead us all into our dreams to become doctors (Ross University).

I am not equating medicine to blue collar, but if you never held a blue collar job, you won't know how posh medicine is. It's one of the few carreers where your options aren't limited. You want to work abroad? Go join Doctors Without Borders. You want to do research as well as patient care? Then do it by all means. Medicine is the happiness train if you make all the right choices. To someone who doesn't care and just wants to be a doc, they will settle for whatever and they won't be the ones on here who are warning others to stay away. Medicine is my gateway to success.

 

[MDProspect]

He's not bitter. He's telling you what medicine is like because it's impossible to actualize what an actual shift is like without being a physician. If you worked with a healthcare team you should realize this is typical banter at the 11th hour of a shift. Literally the 11th hour of a 12-13 hour shift or a 16 hour shift. In many patient oriented fields these are incredibly difficult and it's not surprising that many physicians burn out because they don't have many options to segue into less demanding fields within the same environment. Sure, there are certain physicians who go into an Urgent Care setting to enjoy a 9-5, however giving out pain killers and antibiotics were not the reason why many physicians worked so hard to complete their medical education. There are alternatives outside of just being a physician and when you're in medical school you will have less room and may regret all the time you wasted worrying about getting into school when you're in the pressure cooker on a day to day basis.

Again, the misery that you are describing is of your own choosing. If you can't handle the pressure, don't go into that speciality or work at a large urban hosptial. You will have it easier in smaller, lesser known hospitals and at those places you will be treated like a human being.

 

[Sardinia]

@MDProspect Tell me what your thoughts are in 7 years.

 

[Kgizzle]

All jobs come with a lot of BS. You just need to find one you love enough so the BS doesn't get you down.

Also, isn't this thread a bit too early? It's October.

It's never too early on SDN

 

[Chemdude]

Being fairly compensated and being well compensated are two very different issues. Don't sit there and act like physicians aren't well compensated. Is it fair pay? Probably not, but that's a different argument.

You will only be well compensated if you are fairly compensated. You will understand when you're an attending. Also, I'm not ****ing on anyone's dreams. I'm a douche for saying that medicine isn't as great as it's made out to be? If you want to be a doctor, go become a doctor. Aim for the stars, my friend.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This thread reflects the OP's thoughts 100%.

The lack of respect is staggering. Especially these analogies to what life is like as a garbageman or a mechanic. Neither of these jobs come close to the knowledge base, skills, and discipline required to become a physician. In addition, the biggest factor that constantly weighs on the physician is the idea of shouldering on all the culpability that goes on with the patient. This is a huge undertaking and burden when coupled with the fact that they need to rotate through patients like an assembly line.

There are blue collar jobs that require a huge knowledge base and level of discipline that pay way less than being a physician. The choice of garbage man was arbitrary I think, but the point remains. Being a physician is for the most part a posh job with great pay. I've noticed on these boards that the majority of people who complain about being a physician never had a low paying, dangerous, demanding job prior to med school.

 

[MDProspect]

There are blue collar jobs that require a huge knowledge base and level of discipline that pay way less than being a physician. The choice of garbage man was arbitrary I think, but the point remains. Being a physician is for the most part a posh job with great pay. I've noticed on these boards that the majority of people who complain about being a physician never had a low paying, dangerous, demanding job prior to med school.

Exactly. I didn't mean to equate a garbageman to a physician, but both careers are in the service sector. I was making a point that a garbagemen or a mechanic may also not be satisfied with not being thanked for their service and they do not have the option of any movement in their job.

 

[spicynuggetfiend]

All jobs suck, but medicine sucks the least

The glass is still half full, don't forget that