D
deleted846158
I’m a student at a top 5 medical school. Many of you reading this thread should not be going to medical school. If you’re a premed: take a second to think about whether or not you want to dedicate your life (more accurately: your youth) in service to humanity with little or no thanks. Partly I went to medicine because I didn’t want to stare at a screen all day. Turns out my first two years of medical school that’s all I did. Then I thought: when I’m on the wards it’ll be different! Turns out much of medicine is staring at screens. If you’re a surgeon, yes you get to spend more time away from the computer. But otherwise, hours and hours of your day are going to be spent on the computer. That’s just the nature of work today. It has nothing to do with going into medicine or any other field. You see a patient in clinic, you spend more time writing their note than actually talking to them.
Now most of you are probably motivated by the fat salaries attendings fetch. Get this idea out of your mind as soon as possible. You can make much much more money outside of medicine if you’re the type of student that has the work ethic to do well in college, on the MCAT, etc. yes I’m talking about software engineering but also: civil engineering, biomedical engineering, consulting, aerospace engineering, finance, and the list goes on. If you’re smart, hardworking, and motivated you will make it in all of these fields and physicians will only pass you in their earnings in their 50s. Lord knows what the hell will happen to all of us by then. There could be another global pandemic, a world war, you could get struck by lightning or more realistically get into a car accident or get a life changing diagnosis. Life isn’t about being a millionaire in your 40s-50s. A job at the end of the day is a job. It helps you pay bills, care for your family, hopefully find meaning and purpose in the world. You don’t have to become a doctor for any of these things. Starting salary at some of these software companies for an entry level developer is 220k+. A doctor is never going to catch up from a net worth perspective to someone making 220k right out of college. And no, it is not easy to get this job. I know this. But medicine is not easy either. It’s very very very hard.
As a medical student, I have often been disrespected, ridiculed, and felt like I’m just a hindrance to the work that’s going on around me. Granted I was on a toxic and malignant service for my first rotation in OBGYN, but I’m sure this won’t be the first and last time I experience toxicity like this. It’s inherent to what medicine is at this point. Juniors are treated like absolute **** simply because the medical system makes you think that you have no choice but to put up with the abuse. Turns out you do have a choice. You can quit, work in the private sector, learn skills that make you more employable, or become an entrepreneur. Of course very few doctors actually go this route though, so the system in practice works as if you will continue to put up with the physical and verbal abuse from your seniors.
If I decided to work in the private sector after college, I’d be making >100k per year in a company that values my presence and input where I’m not exposed to diseases that I simply do not want to get on a daily basis. Instead I am going into debt for the privilege of working 12 hr days 5 days a week then going home and studying for meaningless exams. I have to do this because I’m junior. Simple as that. I know I don’t know enough to be a doctor, that’s the purpose of training. But does it have to be this malignant, financially draining, and toxic? I don’t have the answer to this but I do know that if I have kids someday I’m going to tell them to stay as far away from medicine as humanly possible.
With that said, here’s my caveat: if you’re doing this for service to humanity, Godspeed. We need you.
Now most of you are probably motivated by the fat salaries attendings fetch. Get this idea out of your mind as soon as possible. You can make much much more money outside of medicine if you’re the type of student that has the work ethic to do well in college, on the MCAT, etc. yes I’m talking about software engineering but also: civil engineering, biomedical engineering, consulting, aerospace engineering, finance, and the list goes on. If you’re smart, hardworking, and motivated you will make it in all of these fields and physicians will only pass you in their earnings in their 50s. Lord knows what the hell will happen to all of us by then. There could be another global pandemic, a world war, you could get struck by lightning or more realistically get into a car accident or get a life changing diagnosis. Life isn’t about being a millionaire in your 40s-50s. A job at the end of the day is a job. It helps you pay bills, care for your family, hopefully find meaning and purpose in the world. You don’t have to become a doctor for any of these things. Starting salary at some of these software companies for an entry level developer is 220k+. A doctor is never going to catch up from a net worth perspective to someone making 220k right out of college. And no, it is not easy to get this job. I know this. But medicine is not easy either. It’s very very very hard.
As a medical student, I have often been disrespected, ridiculed, and felt like I’m just a hindrance to the work that’s going on around me. Granted I was on a toxic and malignant service for my first rotation in OBGYN, but I’m sure this won’t be the first and last time I experience toxicity like this. It’s inherent to what medicine is at this point. Juniors are treated like absolute **** simply because the medical system makes you think that you have no choice but to put up with the abuse. Turns out you do have a choice. You can quit, work in the private sector, learn skills that make you more employable, or become an entrepreneur. Of course very few doctors actually go this route though, so the system in practice works as if you will continue to put up with the physical and verbal abuse from your seniors.
If I decided to work in the private sector after college, I’d be making >100k per year in a company that values my presence and input where I’m not exposed to diseases that I simply do not want to get on a daily basis. Instead I am going into debt for the privilege of working 12 hr days 5 days a week then going home and studying for meaningless exams. I have to do this because I’m junior. Simple as that. I know I don’t know enough to be a doctor, that’s the purpose of training. But does it have to be this malignant, financially draining, and toxic? I don’t have the answer to this but I do know that if I have kids someday I’m going to tell them to stay as far away from medicine as humanly possible.
With that said, here’s my caveat: if you’re doing this for service to humanity, Godspeed. We need you.
