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Does HPSP transition well into civilian career?
- Thread starter ericd8
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I can only speak broadly as my med corps experience is much less than my line experience, but here are my thoughts.
The first comment I have is about the "general" military lifestyle. The more flexible you are the more compatible with the military you are. Those who are inflexible are very miserable. Personally I'm still okay with the military throwing me a curve every now and then and figuring out how I'm going to have fun with it anyway. Sometimes it is a challenge though.
Some folks have done just their internship and payback and then left for the civilian world. Some of them have had horrible experiences, but some have had great ones. Check out this thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1002576
Say you want to do surgery or specialize. By the time your commitment is up you have 10 or more years in service. To me you would have to be pretty miserable to leave at that point because you are half way to a pretty lucrative retirement. That doesn't mean you can't leave around the 10 year mark and do well financially, but you do leave a lot on the table. So doing that much training, in my opinion, ends up having a bit more sway in staying in long term. This is one of the not so bad things about GMO billets - you can not only have more time to decide what you want to specialize in, but you can also spend more time deciding if you want to stay in the military at all. Check out this article:
http://whitecoatinvestor.com/should...inancial-implications-of-military-separation/
One thing you will get in the military that absolutely lacks in the civilian world is the team feel, the "esprit de corps." Maybe not everyone likes that, but that is one of the biggest complaints of people who leave the military - they miss being one of the team as their civilian job is just not the same. Some of that comes through in the other thread I linked. However you won't learn how to set up your own practice at all.
Lastly regarding the quality of training is that it depends on what you consider sub-par. If sub-par equals "not in the top 10 programs (or 10% of programs)" than nearly all civilian programs are also sub-par. Even if sub-par is the bottom half, only half of the med students get into above-par programs and the other half end up in sub-par ones. I haven't done residency yet so I don't really know, but I have heard that some programs are really good. I keep hearing that Navy FM is pretty good; maybe one reason is because all are at unopposed sites.
The first comment I have is about the "general" military lifestyle. The more flexible you are the more compatible with the military you are. Those who are inflexible are very miserable. Personally I'm still okay with the military throwing me a curve every now and then and figuring out how I'm going to have fun with it anyway. Sometimes it is a challenge though.
Some folks have done just their internship and payback and then left for the civilian world. Some of them have had horrible experiences, but some have had great ones. Check out this thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1002576
Say you want to do surgery or specialize. By the time your commitment is up you have 10 or more years in service. To me you would have to be pretty miserable to leave at that point because you are half way to a pretty lucrative retirement. That doesn't mean you can't leave around the 10 year mark and do well financially, but you do leave a lot on the table. So doing that much training, in my opinion, ends up having a bit more sway in staying in long term. This is one of the not so bad things about GMO billets - you can not only have more time to decide what you want to specialize in, but you can also spend more time deciding if you want to stay in the military at all. Check out this article:
http://whitecoatinvestor.com/should...inancial-implications-of-military-separation/
One thing you will get in the military that absolutely lacks in the civilian world is the team feel, the "esprit de corps." Maybe not everyone likes that, but that is one of the biggest complaints of people who leave the military - they miss being one of the team as their civilian job is just not the same. Some of that comes through in the other thread I linked. However you won't learn how to set up your own practice at all.
Lastly regarding the quality of training is that it depends on what you consider sub-par. If sub-par equals "not in the top 10 programs (or 10% of programs)" than nearly all civilian programs are also sub-par. Even if sub-par is the bottom half, only half of the med students get into above-par programs and the other half end up in sub-par ones. I haven't done residency yet so I don't really know, but I have heard that some programs are really good. I keep hearing that Navy FM is pretty good; maybe one reason is because all are at unopposed sites.
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175K is for a O-6, not really a valid comparison data point as you are typically making your civilian vs military decision point at the O-4 / O-5 level. How good that appears is entirely dependant on what your specialty is, for some that is somewhat comparable and some double their salaries by moonlighting a couple of weekends a month.
If you are counting on that pension being there when your retire, bad decision. If I stay in, all of my financial planning is that the pension is going to be bought out at some point. The pension buy-out was floated 2 years ago and was sent back for re-work when those nearing retirement went berserk. The overall trend in the US marketplace is going away from pensions and the government is going to be next in line to jump off.
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Those numbers aren't accurate. I'm a staff Navy Physician who is doing payback time and I made $96K last year. I'm not starving, but it's nowhere near your colleagues. The guys that do Ortho? They make $115K. What would they make as civilians? $350+K.
They lose more money during each year of payback than the entire value of their HPSP benefit
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Well it depends....
Will you be prepared for civilian job when you leave? Almost always yes, except for maybe some surgical specialties where you have had skill atrophy. Even then those folks usually rise to the occasion or moonlight or are in demand anyway.Sometimes the deployments give them more work.
Are the residencies on par with the civilian world? Yes they are. A few are top ten percent. Most are middle of the road. The budget cuts are hurting GME right now and it could get worse so that is something to think about.
I agree that the pension is most likely going away so wouldn't let that influence you.
Will you be prepared for civilian job when you leave? Almost always yes, except for maybe some surgical specialties where you have had skill atrophy. Even then those folks usually rise to the occasion or moonlight or are in demand anyway.Sometimes the deployments give them more work.
Are the residencies on par with the civilian world? Yes they are. A few are top ten percent. Most are middle of the road. The budget cuts are hurting GME right now and it could get worse so that is something to think about.
I agree that the pension is most likely going away so wouldn't let that influence you.
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How much time, exactly have you spent in MC? There is very little "esprit" among the active clinical physicians (non O-5/O-6 desk jockeys) at least in the Army
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Not to mention that with GMO tours and "civilian deferred internships" you can lose even more money over the long road. Although I do believe that you make your own happiness, had I not taken the scholarship, I would be wealthier, living in a location of my choice, and my wife would not be currently unemployed from my PCS'ing
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...and I think you are being generous with the "little"... you would have thought they were asking for firstborns here when the requirement came down for Class As on first friday of the month here. No organized PT, the only time we get together is for APEQS training or group meetings to "motivate" the green suiters to fill the gaps during the sequester and tell us to generate more RVUs. I had way more esprit with my medics and line guys when deployed.
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Then you shouldn't answer this thread. Or at the very least, this should be your first sentence, not buried in 4 paragraphs of uninformed text.
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