- Joined
- Jun 19, 2016
- Messages
- 40
- Reaction score
- 66
This is going to be a long one so I apologize to, as well as thank, those that take the time to read it and provide constructive feedback.
I am starting medical school at a top 5 institution. However, at the same time, I am still in the process of figuring out “what I want to do when I grow up.” Now before y’all lash out at me and tell me I’m going into this for the wrong reasons, please allow me to explain myself.
I’ve been a fan of the sciences and enjoyed my coursework in most science courses (except maybe Ochem lol). Additionally, neither money nor prestige has ever been a top priority for me. Obviously, I’d be lying if I said they don’t matter to me because who doesn’t like a solid income and societal respect in their professional life. However, having a real impact on people’s lives is something of tremendous value to me. Growing up with physician parents and throughout my experiences as a premed, I’ve always been inspired by the level of impact physicians have on their individual patients. However, I have recently come to the realization that I’m also interested in expanding that impact beyond the individual level. I know that research is the traditional way of accomplishing that but I have so far been exposed to wet lab research and have found that I’m not much interested in it. But I am interested in technology and feel that the intersection of technology and medicine, such as applications of AI in medicine, is something I would like to explore further. I considered a career in computer science at some point but felt that it would be too removed for me from the people I would like to have an impact on/ the level of impact wouldn’t be as much as saving someone’s life. That’s no offense to CS folks as many of my dear friends are CS majors. That’s just how I thought about it and I could very well be wrong lol.
Now that I’ve explained myself to the best of my ability here, here’s my question to you: should I be feeling guilty for thinking this way? Am I on the wrong track for wanting to accomplish all of that? I definitely see myself seeing patients in a traditional clinical setting in my career but I also want to be involved in the world of startups/tech where I can maximize my impact as I previously mentioned. A way that I have considered approaching this is to also get an MBA from my institution, which also happens to have a top 5 MBA program.
It might be worth mentioning that i generally lack a lot of self-confidence and tend to question myself and my decisions quite frequently. The issues I’ve brought up here have bothered me for a long time and very extensively too, so I thought to reach out to members of this community, especially the senior members with a lot of experience, for some guidance in terms of what I should be doing/how I should be thinking as I make progress in my career. If you’ve read this far thank you so very much for your time and I look forward to hearing your opinion.
I am starting medical school at a top 5 institution. However, at the same time, I am still in the process of figuring out “what I want to do when I grow up.” Now before y’all lash out at me and tell me I’m going into this for the wrong reasons, please allow me to explain myself.
I’ve been a fan of the sciences and enjoyed my coursework in most science courses (except maybe Ochem lol). Additionally, neither money nor prestige has ever been a top priority for me. Obviously, I’d be lying if I said they don’t matter to me because who doesn’t like a solid income and societal respect in their professional life. However, having a real impact on people’s lives is something of tremendous value to me. Growing up with physician parents and throughout my experiences as a premed, I’ve always been inspired by the level of impact physicians have on their individual patients. However, I have recently come to the realization that I’m also interested in expanding that impact beyond the individual level. I know that research is the traditional way of accomplishing that but I have so far been exposed to wet lab research and have found that I’m not much interested in it. But I am interested in technology and feel that the intersection of technology and medicine, such as applications of AI in medicine, is something I would like to explore further. I considered a career in computer science at some point but felt that it would be too removed for me from the people I would like to have an impact on/ the level of impact wouldn’t be as much as saving someone’s life. That’s no offense to CS folks as many of my dear friends are CS majors. That’s just how I thought about it and I could very well be wrong lol.
Now that I’ve explained myself to the best of my ability here, here’s my question to you: should I be feeling guilty for thinking this way? Am I on the wrong track for wanting to accomplish all of that? I definitely see myself seeing patients in a traditional clinical setting in my career but I also want to be involved in the world of startups/tech where I can maximize my impact as I previously mentioned. A way that I have considered approaching this is to also get an MBA from my institution, which also happens to have a top 5 MBA program.
It might be worth mentioning that i generally lack a lot of self-confidence and tend to question myself and my decisions quite frequently. The issues I’ve brought up here have bothered me for a long time and very extensively too, so I thought to reach out to members of this community, especially the senior members with a lot of experience, for some guidance in terms of what I should be doing/how I should be thinking as I make progress in my career. If you’ve read this far thank you so very much for your time and I look forward to hearing your opinion.
