Alternative careers to medicine?

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Haorigin

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Hey. So I am a senior in high school deciding what to do with the rest of my life. I know it is kind of early to be deciding, but I want to decide upon an undergraduate program that will suit my graduate program. As of right now I am going into Biomedical Engineering, then plan on going to med school. However, I have been reading a lot of posts about reasons to not go into medicine and reasons to go into medicine.

Anyways, what I am curious is what other career paths are available that offer similar job security as well as similar salary compared to a physician or even specialist making roughly $150k. A lot of posts on forums say that there are other jobs to go into instead of medicine that compensate equally. However, none of the posts state a specific job.

Thanks
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lolol i am going to love this thread.

how about finance? a few of my friends in their late 20s make high six digit/low seven digit salaries. most others making 250-500k.

how about law? same age group, mostly making $200-300k.

in medicine, same age group, all making $40-50k resident salaries lolololol.

listen bub -- the only reason you do medicine is if you can't help it. otherwise, do yourself a favor and be happy and richer doing something else. take my advice when you get that first B in engineering -- take some macro/micro economics courses, and if you actually have a brain, take econometrics.

You can thank me one day when your life is like this:

https://twitter.com/GSElevator
 
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Haorigin said:
Hey. So I am a senior in high school deciding what to do with the rest of my life. I know it is kind of early to be deciding, but I want to decide upon an undergraduate program that will suit my graduate program. As of right now I am going into Biomedical Engineering, then plan on going to med school. However, I have been reading a lot of posts about reasons to not go into medicine and reasons to go into medicine.

Anyways, what I am curious is what other career paths are available that offer similar job security as well as similar salary compared to a physician or even specialist making roughly $150k. A lot of posts on forums say that there are other jobs to go into instead of medicine that compensate equally. However, none of the posts state a specific job.

Thanks
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Be a great engineer and you'll have no trouble soon making six figures and having nice job security out of college.
I'm a chemical engineering major and my summer student internship will net me about $17k. The degree pays nicely for the amount of work you have to put in.
 
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If your main concern in money let me just break it to you right now and say that's no way to live your life and you will end up miserable, unfulfilled, overworked, and wake up one day screaming about how your life just passed you by.

That being said, if you go to a target school, have a type-A personality, little ethical consciousness, and a good head for numbers and business sense then finance is the best bet.

If you don't go to a target school/have a soul then engineering is your best bet with EE/CS, Biomed, and ChemE having the most prospects in that order. ChemE/PetrolE goes first if you wanna work in Texas.

Lastly, Business if you go to a top 10 B-School.
 
crimsonkid85 said:
lolol i am going to love this thread.

how about finance? a few of my friends in their late 20s make high six digit/low seven digit salaries. most others making 250-500k.

how about law? same age group, mostly making $200-300k.

in medicine, same age group, all making $40-50k resident salaries lolololol.

listen bub -- the only reason you do medicine is if you can't help it. otherwise, do yourself a favor and be happy and richer doing something else. take my advice when you get that first B in engineering -- take some macro/micro economics courses, and if you actually have a brain, take econometrics.

You can thank me one day when your life is like this:

https://twitter.com/GSElevator
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Where do I find these jobs?

Law friends barely making 50k, some even far less.

Finance? Decent cash but not physician money. $200k + in some really good finance group or wall st.
 
I'm just sort of blown away by some of the salary figures being thrown around in this thread.

Late 20's lawyer making 300k? Maybe... if you went to a great law school and did VERY well. If you graduate from your "average" law school, you most likely won't get close to six figures right out of school.

An engineer making six figures right of school? Not even close. Just look up the stats on MEDIAN salaries for engineers and you'll know that's not true. I attend a very large engineering school and know quite a few recent grads, most are very happy to land mid 50k entry level jobs.

And to the 250k - 500k finance jobs, I don't even know what to say to that.

Maybe I'm missing something, but these figures are very unrealistic for the average recent college graduate. It's been said before, but I guess I'll say it again. There are plenty of jobs out there were you CAN GET TO a much higher salary than a physician, but if you want a guaranteed > 100k job, then medicine is one of the few fields that can give you that.
 
darksurg said:
Where do I find these jobs?

Law friends barely making 50k, some even far less.

Finance? Decent cash but not physician money. $200k + in some really good finance group or wall st.
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I think that post might not have been serious. Either that, or crimsonkid hangs out with a very prestigious group of friends.
 
Wasted Energy said:
I'm just sort of blown away by some of the salary figures being thrown around in this thread.

Late 20's lawyer making 300k? Maybe... if you went to a great law school and did VERY well. If you graduate from your "average" law school, you most likely won't get close to six figures right out of school.

An engineer making six figures right of school? Not even close. Just look up the stats on MEDIAN salaries for engineers and you'll know that's not true. I attend a very large engineering school and know quite a few recent grads, most are very happy to land mid 50k entry level jobs.

And to the 250k - 500k finance jobs, I don't even know what to say to that.

Maybe I'm missing something, but these figures are very unrealistic for the average recent college graduate. It's been said before, but I guess I'll say it again. There are plenty of jobs out there were you CAN GET TO a much higher salary than a physician, but if you want a guaranteed > 100k job, then medicine is one of the few fields that can give you that.
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If >$100K is your goal, then might I suggest working for the NY subway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/nyregion/03mta.html

Or being an actuary.
http://www.beanactuary.org/why/?fa=salary
 
crimsonkid85 said:
lolol i am going to love this thread.

how about finance? a few of my friends in their late 20s make high six digit/low seven digit salaries. most others making 250-500k.

how about law? same age group, mostly making $200-300k.

in medicine, same age group, all making $40-50k resident salaries lolololol.
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Those types of jobs are unattainable for college students outside of HPY/MIT/Stanford.




By your early to mid 40s, you might be able to crack $150k/year in engineering or programming. Other than that, I really don't know.
 
TheWeeIceMan said:
I think that post might not have been serious. Either that, or crimsonkid hangs out with a very prestigious group of friends.
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Nope, turns out he was serious I guess. I wasn't sure at first either, but then he started naming law firms and financial groups. Looks like crimsonkid runs in some pretty high circles 🙄.
 
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Wasted Energy said:
Nope, turns out he was serious I guess. I wasn't sure at first either, but then he started naming law firms and financial groups. Looks like crimsonkid runs in some pretty high circles 🙄.
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hahvard crimson.. haha.
 
Wasted Energy said:
Nope, turns out he was serious I guess. I wasn't sure at first either, but then he started naming law firms and financial groups. Looks like crimsonkid runs in some pretty high circles 🙄.
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crimsonkid, so he's presumably an MD/PhD at Harvard. I assume his friends are all Harvard graduates.
 
circulus vitios said:
Those types of jobs are unattainable for college students outside of HPY/MIT/Stanford.

By your early to mid 40s, you might be able to crack $150k/year in engineering or programming. Other than that, I really don't know.
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I recently found out someone I know hit just over 250k as a programmer.... coming to office ~4days/wk but working a good bit from home on the evenings as well.

I was like :O
 
circulus vitios said:
crimsonkid, so he's presumably an MD/PhD at Harvard. I assume his friends are all Harvard graduates.
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I motion that Harvard Crimson be renamed the Hahhhhvaahdddd Ahhhdddvaaahkkkkss (Harvard Aardvarks.) Has a nice ring to it I think.
 
Wasted Energy said:
I'm just sort of blown away by some of the salary figures being thrown around in this thread.

Late 20's lawyer making 300k? Maybe... if you went to a great law school and did VERY well. If you graduate from your "average" law school, you most likely won't get close to six figures right out of school.

An engineer making six figures right of school? Not even close. Just look up the stats on MEDIAN salaries for engineers and you'll know that's not true. I attend a very large engineering school and know quite a few recent grads, most are very happy to land mid 50k entry level jobs.

And to the 250k - 500k finance jobs, I don't even know what to say to that.

Maybe I'm missing something, but these figures are very unrealistic for the average recent college graduate. It's been said before, but I guess I'll say it again. There are plenty of jobs out there were you CAN GET TO a much higher salary than a physician, but if you want a guaranteed > 100k job, then medicine is one of the few fields that can give you that.
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I said "soon", not right out of school. Although I have friends that graduated from my school that make $80-90k and they are mechanical engineers, petroleum engineers and electrical engineers at the age of 23, which isn't bad either (I personally have an internship at a company that gives 85k offers to ChemE's straight out of college). Work a few years, you could be a project engineer or be in project management which easily tips you over the 6 figure scale. If your school's grads are landing 50k entry level jobs, I'm sorry to say then that is actually the lowest I have ever heard of an engineer making in my life, and I go to a state school.

Though of course, six-figure salaries are guaranteed to no engineer. You have to work at it and make the right choices and be willing to move into management. Some people don't like that and that's fine. But if you like being a project manager, for example, you can net yourself over six figures before you're 30.
 
Yeah, some majors really have a much higher yield for starting salaries than others.

My best friend in college (who I still keep in touch with and see several times a year even though they live 4 states away and we have completely polarizing schedules - his being super lax and mine being compounded by the rage of pre-meddom.) majored in some kind of applied finance and entrepreneurship thing - starting salary of $130K, right out of college. One year into the job, was offered to live in Honolulu for a year all expenses paid by the company to network and do market research on potential customer bases for the field they provide services, in freaking HAWAII FOR A YEAR ALL EXPENSES PAID WITH A BEACHFRONT HIGH RISE AND A CONVERTIBLE. I really wish I did the whole finance thing before being a non-Trad premed....at least I wouldn't be perpetually broke all the time lol.
 
baconshrimps said:
Yeah, some majors really have a much higher yield for starting salaries than others.

My best friend in college (who I still keep in touch with and see several times a year even though they live 4 states away and we have completely polarizing schedules - his being super lax and mine being compounded by the rage of pre-meddom.) majored in some kind of applied finance and entrepreneurship thing - starting salary of $130K, right out of college. One year into the job, was offered to live in Honolulu for a year all expenses paid by the company to network and do market research on potential customer bases for the field they provide services, in freaking HAWAII FOR A YEAR ALL EXPENSES PAID WITH A BEACHFRONT HIGH RISE AND A CONVERTIBLE. I really wish I did the whole finance thing before being a non-Trad premed....at least I wouldn't be perpetually broke all the time lol.
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The solution is to marry one.
 
jjmusicman29 said:
If your school's grads are landing 50k entry level jobs, I'm sorry to say then that is actually the lowest I have ever heard of an engineer making in my life, and I go to a state school.
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Maybe it's a regional/cost of living issue. Mid 50k is pretty standard data on entry level engineering salaries with the exception of ChemE (~65k), and of course petroleum. Median salaries (according to the BLS) are in the neighborhood of 80k - 100k.
 
crimsonkid85 said:
how about law? same age group, mostly making $200-300k.
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I sure hope you're kidding. Most lawyers make substantially less than $150k. Those that make $150k or higher are at large corporate firms. A good number of positions have dried up in the last 2-3 years and even partners in the firms have been laid off in large numbers. The legal field is not a good option, especially if you're going to end up in a $100k or more of student loan debt IMO.
 
masaraksh said:
I recently found out someone I know hit just over 250k as a programmer.... coming to office ~4days/wk but working a good bit from home on the evenings as well.

I was like :O
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Outsourcing is a huge threat for those considering this field IMO.
 
I think programming is a great choice. My friend from high school graduated from RPI in Albany with a computer science degree in three years and had a really easy time finding a job. It wasn't just him, his entire graduating class had similar success and multiple comparable offers around the country. Three of his friends and he are all working at a Boston-based company with a starting salary of $95k + signing bonus. He's worked there for two years now and makes around $110k as a project leader. For a three year degree and the ability to set your own hours, sounds like a great deal.
 
Yeah I'd say if you're willing to go through all the crap of med school you can just about handle ibanker or management consultant life.

I'm not from the states, but my almost all of my friends studied business. They're a smart bunch, but not geniuses, and I know several Big Brand Name (McKinsey, Goldman, etc.) kids making in excess of 150k 2 years out of undergrad.

I think software programming is one of those careers where you either have to know a bunch of people from business, be great at networking, or be insanely smart in order to make that kind of bank. Usually you end up working corporate at around 70-90 and cap at around 150.
 
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If I couldn't be a physician, I'd be a stay at home dad.

I know that my medical career is really going to only give me little windows of time with my kids on a day to day basis - getting home from clinic after they've already been put to bed, missing first steps, getting stuck in the OR and not getting to the recital, etc. I really just want to be an awesome dad. I don't know, maybe I'd go be a teacher or something so I could be home when my kids get home from school and spend summers off with them, take them on awesome vacations. I really hope I can lock down wifey before 3rd year starts - I just wanna start a family. Can't wait to have kids.

Oh P.S. - If you get full custody, that's winning.
 
crimsonkid85 said:
lolol i am going to love this thread.

how about finance? a few of my friends in their late 20s make high six digit/low seven digit salaries. most others making 250-500k.

how about law? same age group, mostly making $200-300k.

in medicine, same age group, all making $40-50k resident salaries lolololol.

listen bub -- the only reason you do medicine is if you can't help it. otherwise, do yourself a favor and be happy and richer doing something else. take my advice when you get that first B in engineering -- take some macro/micro economics courses, and if you actually have a brain, take econometrics.

You can thank me one day when your life is like this:

https://twitter.com/GSElevator
Click to expand...
Sounds like you have a very elite group of friends. Most law graduates now a days would thank their lucky stars for employment, much less that kind of salary.
 
knv2u said:
I sure hope you're kidding. Most lawyers make substantially less than $150k. Those that make $150k or higher are at large corporate firms. A good number of positions have dried up in the last 2-3 years and even partners in the firms have been laid off in large numbers. The legal field is not a good option, especially if you're going to end up in a $100k or more of student loan debt IMO.
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The job market is completely saturated for lawyers.

The fact is, if you graduate from a top school, you can find the money in many different fields. However, the average folk get average wages.
 
I know quite a few people who went into finance and consulting. They make a great deal of money (over $100k), but work 80-100 hours a week.

You can get two low-stress full time jobs and make the same amount of money. I honestly don't think finance and consulting are worthwhile unless you love that sort of lifestyle (work until midnight, go out for drinks until 2 am, snatch a few hours of sleep, get back to work by 8 am. )

Engineering and programming on the other hand....
 
Wasted Energy said:
An engineer making six figures right of school? Not even close. Just look up the stats on MEDIAN salaries for engineers and you'll know that's not true. I attend a very large engineering school and know quite a few recent grads, most are very happy to land mid 50k entry level jobs.
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If I could have done it all over again I would have done engineering. In Alaska, this statement is beyond true. A lot of people I know will make $100k as soon as they graduate with their bachelors in engineering. Even as a lab technician you can make 6 figures super easy without a bachelors degree. I know next statement is going to be 'who wants to go to Alaska' but just letting you guys know it is possible.

So OP if you're worried about making a lot of money go work on the north slope. Lol.
 
ChemNerd07 said:
If I could have done it all over again I would have done engineering. In Alaska, this statement is beyond true. A lot of people I know will make $100k as soon as they graduate with their bachelors in engineering. Even as a lab technician you can make 6 figures super easy without a bachelors degree. I know next statement is going to be 'who wants to go to Alaska' but just letting you guys know it is possible.

So OP if you're worried about making a lot of money go work on the north slope. Lol.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: petrol engineering from texas or tamu and then tell them that you desperately want to be an expat, marry someone with the exact same aspirations, profit. Easy money.
 
Arcumis said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: petrol engineering from texas or tamu and then tell them that you desperately want to be an expat, marry someone with the exact same aspirations, profit. Easy money.
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It's actually really funny my dad was mechanical from northwestern u, shipped to Texas, then shipped to Ak to work on the slope. Petroleum anything is easy money.
 
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