FAANG Software transition to Med or Dental (M26)?

[shaqrish]

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TLDR:
M26 Will be 28 during matriculation. Should I go for med or dental. Parent is a practicing dentist with own practice but has been advising me to go med since I was a kid.

Hello,

If I sound like an a-hole I sincerely apologize, but for the sake of clarity and to be succinct I might sound a little blunt.

I'm currently a software eng (SWE) at a FAANG company for the last 4 years. I started right out of undergrad when I graduated in 2022. I have a BS CS with a minor in Chem (premed requirements) and I'm currently doing a part time Masters in CS because my company pays for it.

I'm looking to pivot out of SWE to either medicine or dental.

The thing is that I don't know which one to pick. I have a parent who is a dentist with their own dental practice but they have been pushing me and my siblings to medicine. That being said, I'm already 26 and if things go right, I'll be 28 on matriculation. I'll be kinda old lol.

* Dental has the upside of being fast and with my parent already owning a clinic, it would be very easy for me to become an owner.
* WLB seems to be decent as well.

But,
* I'm worried about offices being eaten up by the likes of Aspen Dental since it seems private practice is becoming harder to operate
* The physical toll on my parent is kinda bad. Their hands always hurt and they have back pain. They can't even lift heavy things.
* And who knows how working with family is. Sometimes parents can be short tempered which kinda sucks.

With regards to medicine, I have way more options. Ideally I'd like to maximize money and WLB (speaking like an entitled SWE here I know). But that really leaves me with competitive specialties which aren't guaranteed. And it I'll be 36 by the time I'm practicing vs 32 at the dental clinic that's already established. On top of that, I keep reading online that dental owners make more than physicians which I don't know is true. My parent grosses 600k for about 24hrs of chair time work a week. Take home after taxes is around 300k apparently. Which sounds sweet but I'm not sure about the long term implications since our clientele is mostly medicaid.

Medicine feels way more robust in terms of longevity and has more options if I decide to something like Derm or Rad, and perhaps I an also leverage my tech background to go back into tech (I worked with many MDs at my current company because we help make fitness watches and such). Also medicine sounds way easier on the body than dental barring surgery.

So what should I do? Ideally medicine sounds awesome due to it being more cerebral and the vast options. But am I being stupid for not taking advantage of an existing clinic and shorter path.

Again, it comes down to money + longevity + WLB + speed for me. Is there really a difference between 36 and 32? I don't know. I'm losing sleep over this.

Please help.

 

[SunMouse]

Former nontrad now resident here. I won’t pretend the practical aspects like money etc aren’t important, but I think you’re starting with a faulty premise, and the real question to ask yourself is: (why) do you even want to be a doctor or a dentist? Why are you leaving your current career? I imagine you have a pretty good idea of what dentistry is like, but what about medicine?

You said yourself “it comes down to money + longevity + WLB + speed”. those things are pretty much antithetical to this path, especially for a nontrad who will lose out financially and time wise and definitely WLB, and can arguably be achieved much better where you are right now. Coming from the other side, it’s the greatest privilege to be a physician, BUT if you at baseline have a career already, then I think medicine is only worth it if you 100% *must* do it, and maybe not even then.

 

[BritainKittenMittens]

I stopped after reading money + WLB. Would not recommend for you.

 

[shaqrish]

Former nontrad engineer now resident here. I won’t pretend the practical aspects like money etc aren’t important, but I think you’re starting with a faulty premise, and the real question to ask yourself is: (why) do you even want to be a doctor or a dentist? Why are you leaving your current career? I imagine you have a pretty good idea of what dentistry is like, but what about medicine?

You said yourself “it comes down to money + longevity + WLB + speed”. those things are pretty much antithetical to this path, especially for a nontrad who will lose out financially and time wise and definitely WLB, and can arguably be achieved much better where you are right now. Coming from the other side, it’s the greatest privilege to be a physician, BUT if you at baseline have a career already, then I think medicine is only worth it if you 100% *must* do it, and maybe not even then.

I think being a doctor/dentist was always on the cards for me. But I got lucky (or unlucky) landing a full time offer at a dream company and took that path. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows I'm feeling the reality of it coming down hard and fast. This AI push is a race to the bottom and the screws keep tightening. Layoffs are everywhere and it's pretty much 996 when you're product area is AI. We need to deliver before any I/O presentations and when a new internal model comes out, everything goes obsolete. I'm climbing over my colleagues to rise up and it's soul crushing. I feel like it's better to get out while I still can given that I have everything else already put in place. And to be honest, I'd much rather prefer the work of a medical professional.

I think I came off a bit aggressive when I was stating the metrics I'm looking to optimize (I think that's just common in this field, especially when you see how people talk on BLIND lol). So I apologize for that. I think what I mean here is that I'm looking to see which field fits that mold the best. I know that it's not perfect, nor will it ever be. But, from my cost-benefit analysis, I feel like the upsides of medicine/dental heavily outweigh the benefits of being a SWE.

Which again it boils down to which path to take. In a perfect world, I'd just go into med and call it a day. But this isn't a vacum and given that I'm starting late and there being a family clinic already, the pull to dental is present. I just wanted to get people's thoughts on that. I get this comes from a place of privilege.

 

[jesse1333]

Hey! Recent CS grad here thinking about pivoting as well. Just wondering how did you get your pre-reqs taken care of? Did you go through the post-bacc route, DIY open university route, or CC?

 

[shaqrish]

Hey! Recent CS grad here thinking about pivoting as well. Just wondering how did you get your pre-reqs taken care of? Did you go through the post-bacc route, DIY open university route, or CC?

Hey hey. Yes, pre-reqs are done since I minored in Chem. The idea was always to go to med school. But I changed my major during my first semester to computer science because all my friends were doing it and it was genuinely so cool learning how to code and all the fun data structures and algos you learned. Don't regret it one bit.

Honestly, I got super lucky landing an internship my first summer which sorta took me down the path.

If you want to do pre-reqs I think maybe a post bacc is the way to go, but I don't know if I'm the right person to answer that for you.

May I ask why you want to pivot? Is it because of the horrible job market? At my company (the one with the search engine), I've seen a recent uptick in hiring. I've been interviewing candidates nonstop for the last 3 quarters.

 

[SunMouse]

I think being a doctor/dentist was always on the cards for me. But I got lucky (or unlucky) landing a full time offer at a dream company and took that path. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows I'm feeling the reality of it coming down hard and fast. This AI push is a race to the bottom and the screws keep tightening. Layoffs are everywhere and it's pretty much 996 when you're product area is AI. We need to deliver before any I/O presentations and when a new internal model comes out, everything goes obsolete. I'm climbing over my colleagues to rise up and it's soul crushing. I feel like it's better to get out while I still can given that I have everything else already put in place. And to be honest, I'd much rather prefer the work of a medical professional.

I think I came off a bit aggressive when I was stating the metrics I'm looking to optimize (I think that's just common in this field, especially when you see how people talk on BLIND lol). So I apologize for that. I think what I mean here is that I'm looking to see which field fits that mold the best. I know that it's not perfect, nor will it ever be. But, from my cost-benefit analysis, I feel like the upsides of medicine/dental heavily outweigh the benefits of being a SWE.

Which again it boils down to which path to take. In a perfect world, I'd just go into med and call it a day. But this isn't a vacum and given that I'm starting late and there being a family clinic already, the pull to dental is present. I just wanted to get people's thoughts on that. I get this comes from a place of privilege.

No worries! I wasn’t trying to be harsh, either, and like I said, I fully acknowledge the realities that people need those things and want fulfilling careers I just still don’t see that you have much of a reason for medicine, even here it’s just reasons to get away from SWE.

Medicine is a long hard path, and it’s far from sunshine and roses, so I think it’s important to assess what it is you think it will really give you. Why do you think you’d prefer the work of a medical professional? I sadly believe that AI is a huge threat to jobs in medicine, because of the opportunity for profits. And if climbing over colleagues is soul-sucking to you, just wait for all the moral dissonance in medicine that comes from our broken healthcare system lol.

So from that aspect, maybe dentistry is safer as a procedural job? At the least if you haven’t yet, I’d do some shadowing and clinical volunteering to see if you enjoy working w patients.

 

[SweetTeaAddict]

Hi, I think I work at the same FAANG company as you but as an intern. I've been an intern for 2 summers (including this one) for software engineering. I've been thinking about switching as well since I still have one more year before I graduate university, but I'm not sure if its worth it. I read some other posts about how you will be going backwards financially and it would be better to put your head down, work, and then FIRE.

Do you think you are just feeling burnt out from work? I would try and explore that before jumping into medicine. I know for me personally, I feel anxious about my career path because I am going to graduate college and work full-time in the midst of the most competitive job market. On the other hand, I've always loved helping others and being a empathetic person. Money has never been my motivator, having a purpose and passion is. So, I don't have advice for you but I wanted to say that I am feeling the same way.

I think my plan would be to work full-time until I get laid off then pivot. But I'm not even sure if I'll get a return offer since anything could happen. Good luck!

 

[shaqrish]

Hi, I think I work at the same FAANG company as you but as an intern. I've been an intern for 2 summers (including this one) for software engineering. I've been thinking about switching as well since I still have one more year before I graduate university, but I'm not sure if its worth it. I read some other posts about how you will be going backwards financially and it would be better to put your head down, work, and then FIRE.

Do you think you are just feeling burnt out from work? I would try and explore that before jumping into medicine. I know for me personally, I feel anxious about my career path because I am going to graduate college and work full-time in the midst of the most competitive job market. On the other hand, I've always loved helping others and being a empathetic person. Money has never been my motivator, having a purpose and passion is. So, I don't have advice for you but I wanted to say that I am feeling the same way.

I think my plan would be to work full-time until I get laid off then pivot. But I'm not even sure if I'll get a return offer since anything could happen. Good luck!

There's a pause in your financial growth, somewhat. But I don't see how that's any different from going to medicine directly. In fact, we have the benefit of procuring investments early on and having them appreciate through our schooling. With regards to FIRE, I think it's gotten really difficult now. You can have a high TC, but it means nothing since a bulk of that is stock that vests over time. If you leave before the vesting period ends, you lose it. So your TC isn't really an accurate compensation number.

To be honest, my WLB is fantastic. But the future prospects and the overall direction of the, product area, company, and market is just grinding away at everyone, so morale is really low. It's easier to work hard when you know you're guaranteed career security. In my area, there's high upside, but it's so volatile that it's like the sword of Damocles over your head. You can be managed out and marked as unregretted attrition at any time, for any reason, regardless of performance. There's no equity built. And old SWE is just outdated. You can see all managers up the chain panicking to keep their jobs.

I think a career in SWE is awesome, if you're able to do it temporarily. You get to work on the bleeding edge of tech, especially if you're at my company. I just don't see it as a stable career path long term. Also, another thing to keep in mind is that not everyone is fortunate to work on cool products at a FAANG company like us. The vast majority of SWEs work boring jobs in banking, small startups, or those dinosaur companies (old and big).

 

[shaqrish]

No worries! I wasn’t trying to be harsh, either, and like I said, I fully acknowledge the realities that people need those things and want fulfilling careers I just still don’t see that you have much of a reason for medicine, even here it’s just reasons to get away from SWE.

Medicine is a long hard path, and it’s far from sunshine and roses, so I think it’s important to assess what it is you think it will really give you. Why do you think you’d prefer the work of a medical professional? I sadly believe that AI is a huge threat to jobs in medicine, because of the opportunity for profits. And if climbing over colleagues is soul-sucking to you, just wait for all the moral dissonance in medicine that comes from our broken healthcare system lol.

So from that aspect, maybe dentistry is safer as a procedural job? At the least if you haven’t yet, I’d do some shadowing and clinical volunteering to see if you enjoy working w patients.

Maybe I'm just too jaded with all this AI work lol. But I think medicine is something I can work long term and it's more fun interacting with people in person and trying to solve real world problems without all the abstractions. I grew up in a parent's dental practice so I have seen first hand what it's like. It's awesome haha.

But yeah, procedural work seems to be the most safe and to be honest, it's what excites me the most. I've shadowed a ton of doctors in my area back in undergrad. At this point I just need to lock in for the DAT or MCAT. But which one ..........? Sigh.

 

[SweetTeaAddict]

There's a pause in your financial growth, somewhat. But I don't see how that's any different from going to medicine directly. In fact, we have the benefit of procuring investments early on and having them appreciate through our schooling. With regards to FIRE, I think it's gotten really difficult now. You can have a high TC, but it means nothing since a bulk of that is stock that vests over time. If you leave before the vesting period ends, you lose it. So your TC isn't really an accurate compensation number.

To be honest, my WLB is fantastic. But the future prospects and the overall direction of the, product area, company, and market is just grinding away at everyone, so morale is really low. It's easier to work hard when you know you're guaranteed career security. In my area, there's high upside, but it's so volatile that it's like the sword of Damocles over your head. You can be managed out and marked as unregretted attrition at any time, for any reason, regardless of performance. There's no equity built. And old SWE is just outdated. You can see all managers up the chain panicking to keep their jobs.

I think a career in SWE is awesome, if you're able to do it temporarily. You get to work on the bleeding edge of tech, especially if you're at my company. I just don't see it as a stable career path long term. Also, another thing to keep in mind is that not everyone is fortunate to work on cool products at a FAANG company like us. The vast majority of SWEs work boring jobs in banking, small startups, or those dinosaur companies (old and big).

I completely agree! The WLB and perks are amazing, but knowing that it can be taken away from me at any second now makes me want to pursue a career that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I am scared that if I'm already feeling jaded in this field, I'm not sure how much I can take if I work full-time. Do you have any advice for me?

For a bit more info, I can push my return offer to 2028 and take the year to do prereqs (2027) since my scholarship allows me to do that for free. But I would want to come back to do another internship in summer 2027. To be honest, I don't want to lose out on being able to work in tech completely since it is helping me save up a lot of money. I don't know if I should take this opportunity and do it now or wait it out.

 

[shaqrish]

I completely agree! The WLB and perks are amazing, but knowing that it can be taken away from me at any second now makes me want to pursue a career that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I am scared that if I'm already feeling jaded in this field, I'm not sure how much I can take if I work full-time. Do you have any advice for me?

For a bit more info, I can push my return offer to 2028 and take the year to do prereqs (2027) since my scholarship allows me to do that for free. But I would want to come back to do another internship in summer 2027. To be honest, I don't want to lose out on being able to work in tech completely since it is helping me save up a lot of money. I don't know if I should take this opportunity and do it now or wait it out.

Assuming you're working for G. I don't know how likely you are to keep the return offer if you push it back. I have to look into it. I applied out of undergrad and got PA matched fast because my recruiter told me delaying it would result in me not getting an offer (even after clearing hiring committee). I would ask your recruiter about this. I wasn't an intern, so I never had to deal with the process of return offer interviews and such.

With regards to WLB, I think I got super lucky here. Hearing my colleagues in orgs like Cl0ud or Hardware, they seem to be getting railed. Basically 996. My team was pretty chill, but due to recent push from leadership to accelerate velocity, it's becoming more 996. So if you can, choose you PA carefully.

If this is something you want to do while keeping medicine open, see if you can delay it. Worse case scenario, you'll have to interview again which sucks a little bit. But think about your long term goals more.

 

[SweetTeaAddict]

Assuming you're working for G. I don't know how likely you are to keep the return offer if you push it back. I have to look into it. I applied out of undergrad and got PA matched fast because my recruiter told me delaying it would result in me not getting an offer (even after clearing hiring committee). I would ask your recruiter about this. I wasn't an intern, so I never had to deal with the process of return offer interviews and such.

With regards to WLB, I think I got super lucky here. Hearing my colleagues in orgs like Cl0ud or Hardware, they seem to be getting railed. Basically 996. My team was pretty chill, but due to recent push from leadership to accelerate velocity, it's becoming more 996. So if you can, choose you PA carefully.

If this is something you want to do while keeping medicine open, see if you can delay it. Worse case scenario, you'll have to interview again which sucks a little bit. But think about your long term goals more.

Makes sense! I am in one of the, if not most, chill PA. I'm just an intern but most everyone on my team are on vacation right now and/or only come in two days a week. It's one of the sub-categories under Cloud.

I asked some other full-timers and I am able to stay in school for another year and just do an internship. When I decide on full-time, I'll have to do PA match then team matching which would be similar to your experience. I'm not worried about returning but I don't know if I would be wasting a year doing science classes for me to not want to do medicine anyways. But on the other hand, I would spend my nights awake thinking about the "what-ifs" and being too scared to fully commit.

 

[shaqrish]

Makes sense! I am in one of the, if not most, chill PA. I'm just an intern but most everyone on my team are on vacation right now and/or only come in two days a week. It's one of the sub-categories under Cloud.

I asked some other full-timers and I am able to stay in school for another year and just do an internship. When I decide on full-time, I'll have to do PA match then team matching which would be similar to your experience. I'm not worried about returning but I don't know if I would be wasting a year doing science classes for me to not want to do medicine anyways. But on the other hand, I would spend my nights awake thinking about the "what-ifs" and being too scared to fully commit.

I would do it. I'm so glad that I did my prerequisite classes in undergrad because it made pivoting so much easier for me. I have everything done alongside my BS in Computer Science. I just need to take the exam and apply at this point.

Keep your doors open. 1 year is nothing. My only question is if you can finish all the prereqs in a year. There's a lot of them and you usually can't do upper level courses without clearing the lower level ones. Gen Chem -> Organic -> biochem

 

[SweetTeaAddict]

I would do it. I'm so glad that I did my prerequisite classes in undergrad because it made pivoting so much easier for me. I have everything done alongside my BS in Computer Science. I just need to take the exam and apply at this point.

Keep your doors open. 1 year is nothing. My only question is if you can finish all the prereqs in a year. There's a lot of them and you usually can't do upper level courses without clearing the lower level ones. Gen Chem -> Organic -> biochem

I would need to take another gap year and finish those classes, yes. But to me it's worth it because I get to take those classes at my university for free and I can get pre-med advising through my school. It seems like a no brainer. I think I'm still too scared to make that jump. I am very risk-averse so pivoting makes me very anxious.

Do you have any clinical experience? I would need to get that as well. I feel like I can't make a choice until I have shadowed a doctor.

 

[ravensfan123]

I was you and now in med school M3, absolutely miserable. Same logic.. money stability freedom. I’m not scrambling to figure out what can I do with just an MD if I don’t match psych. For the love of god shadow and understand the process. Medicine WLB pre-attending is the worst WLB imaginable. You also have the prior mental awareness of what life was like before this and you will get depression.

I would look at ways of de risking SWE, look at cybersecurity or Sales Engineering both are strong AI resistant paths and will build your NW so you can be at ease during layoffs.

If healthcare is a must, do something shorter like DMD that doesn’t have the residency requirement to practice.. go on your own don’t worry about your parents you’ll figure it out. I’d also look into CAA it’s 28 months and stable path if you can handle anesthesia.

Do not blindly choose medicine it’s a trap for anyone who doesn’t have the intrinsic drive to suffer and sacrifice to become an MD

 

[anon2]

Similar start, FAANG senior (not making staff) -> M2. However, I toughed it out (past burnout, into diagnosed work-induced PTSD) and FIREd at 10YOE before applying. Basically fully checked out in the last year or two, taking prereqs etc, while bouncing on/off disability leave.

The grass is not greener. There's no reason to restart at the bottom of the ladder, when you're currently at a relatively rare, high TC job and can cash it out until you can't. At 4YOE, are you close to senior yet? At least get to coast FIRE (+ self-covered full tuition), since compounding matters a metric ton if you're going to put negatives and ~0s in for the next 8-12 years of TC. I actually increased my NW after paying several years of tuition.

There's a pause in your financial growth, somewhat. But I don't see how that's any different from going to medicine directly. In fact, we have the benefit of procuring investments early on and having them appreciate through our schooling. With regards to FIRE, I think it's gotten really difficult now. You can have a high TC, but it means nothing since a bulk of that is stock that vests over time. If you leave before the vesting period ends, you lose it. So your TC isn't really an accurate compensation number.

What on earth do you mean? TC is TC, even if uneven. Even Amazon's infamous schedule of back-loading vesting meant you got 40% of it by year 2.5 (if you aren't monthly). Google literally front-loads the vesting 1/3 each in the first 2 years. It's no different than losing a bonus if you got pushed out before payout date.

Try Wall Street, where at another old employer, everyone at the company had the same base pay, with 7(8)-digit EOY fully discretionary bonuses for the big shots. It's why gardening leave is so horrendous.

Do not blindly choose medicine it’s a trap for anyone who doesn’t have the intrinsic drive to suffer and sacrifice to become an MD

100% correct. The main metric I propose in life is dollars per mental health expended, and medicine rates utter crap on that scale. SWE is far better. Hell, Wall Street is better.

I'm in medicine so I can do whatever I want in mostly charity care (good luck seeing me at >0.25FTE once I'm done); it's a nice side bonus to have a DU-plated retirement backup plan.

 

[shaqrish]

Similar start, FAANG senior (not making staff) -> M2. However, I toughed it out (past burnout, into diagnosed work-induced PTSD) and FIREd at 10YOE before applying. Basically fully checked out in the last year or two, taking prereqs etc, while bouncing on/off disability leave.

The grass is not greener. There's no reason to restart at the bottom of the ladder, when you're currently at a relatively rare, high TC job and can cash it out until you can't. At 4YOE, are you close to senior yet? At least get to coast FIRE (+ self-covered full tuition), since compounding matters a metric ton if you're going to put negatives and ~0s in for the next 8-12 years of TC. I actually increased my NW after paying several years of tuition.


What on earth do you mean? TC is TC, even if uneven. Even Amazon's infamous schedule of back-loading vesting meant you got 40% of it by year 2.5 (if you aren't monthly). Google literally front-loads the vesting 1/3 each in the first 2 years. It's no different than losing a bonus if you got pushed out before payout date.

Try Wall Street, where at another old employer, everyone at the company had the same base pay, with 7(8)-digit EOY fully discretionary bonuses for the big shots. It's why gardening leave is so horrendous.


100% correct. The main metric I propose in life is dollars per mental health expended, and medicine rates utter crap on that scale. SWE is far better. Hell, Wall Street is better.

I'm in medicine so I can do whatever I want in mostly charity care (good luck seeing me at >0.25FTE once I'm done); it's a nice side bonus to have a DU-plated retirement backup plan.

Hey there. Nice to see a fellow SWE in the thread! Congrats on hitting your 10 YOE milestone and navigating this transition. You bring up some interesting points here.

I just wonder if the macro environment has shifted a bit since you went through it, because at 4 YOE right now, things on the ground look pretty different. With the constant waves of rolling layoffs, headcount freezes, offshoring, and aggressive flattening of engineering teams at the G lately, hitting L5 is no longer a given just for "toughing it out." I'm currently stuck at L4, and visibly checking out for anything (including studying for the MCAT) is an incredibly high-risk strategy that would put a massive target on your back for the next reorg. I already know 2 people who got walked out right after coming from a few months leave due to poor perf ratings. These day's we're barely even PIPing anymore. Plus, equity target allocations for mid-levels have been noticeably compressed lately, so that notorious Year 4 cliff hits a lot harder than it used to.

I also find the Wall Street comparison interesting, but isn't that ecosystem almost entirely gatekept by Ivy League pedigree bias? It feels like a bit of a stretch to suggest it as a casual pivot. If you aren't coming from a hyper-specific list of target Ivies or elite MBA programs, "trying Wall Street" isn't an option on the table, let alone a viable pivot for someone already deep into an engineering career.

Your metric of dollars per mental health expended makes sense, but you also mentioned dealing with diagnosed work-induced PTSD and needing disability leave just to cross the 10 YOE finish line. That sounds incredibly intense, and it makes me wonder if that kind of toll is truly a better trade-off than the clinical grind, or if you just viewed it as a necessary evil to fund your transition?

Your plan to coast at 0.25 FTE doing charity care sounds like the absolute dream, but how are you mentally preparing to transition from that level of financial autonomy back into the rigid hierarchy of residency? I imagine it must be a psychological adjustment to go from being a financially independent FAANG senior to working 80-hour weeks under a chief resident who might be years younger than you.

I’m definitely not blindly jumping into medicine, but right now, standing on a volatile tech ladder where you can be reorged out of a job regardless of performance makes a predictable, linear path look a lot more appealing.

 

[shaqrish]

I was you and now in med school M3, absolutely miserable. Same logic.. money stability freedom. I’m not scrambling to figure out what can I do with just an MD if I don’t match psych. For the love of god shadow and understand the process. Medicine WLB pre-attending is the worst WLB imaginable. You also have the prior mental awareness of what life was like before this and you will get depression.

I would look at ways of de risking SWE, look at cybersecurity or Sales Engineering both are strong AI resistant paths and will build your NW so you can be at ease during layoffs.

If healthcare is a must, do something shorter like DMD that doesn’t have the residency requirement to practice.. go on your own don’t worry about your parents you’ll figure it out. I’d also look into CAA it’s 28 months and stable path if you can handle anesthesia.

Do not blindly choose medicine it’s a trap for anyone who doesn’t have the intrinsic drive to suffer and sacrifice to become an MD

Hey, I’m sorry M3 is treating you so brutally right now.

The main reason I’m even willing to look at a meat-grinder like medicine is because of how hollow tech feels long-term. In SWE, there’s zero permanent equity in your career. You can work yourself to the bone, but the second you get older, you’re just seen as outdated, expensive, and a prime target for the next reorg. Like, my skip manager was apparently egging my L7 manager to start coding ........

With medicine, the upfront blood tax is miserable, but the long-term security is guaranteed. Your credential actually appreciates as you age, and no one can take it away from you.

That said, your warning about the lack of control over your own destiny is exactly why I’m heavily weighing my parent's dental practice as a compromise. It offers a shortcut to that same permanent equity and ownership without the 80-hour residency weeks. It's just seeing the physical toll on them from operating has be considering med school as an alternative path.

Thanks for raw the perspective though.

 

[ravensfan123]

Hey, I’m sorry M3 is treating you so brutally right now.

The main reason I’m even willing to look at a meat-grinder like medicine is because of how hollow tech feels long-term. In SWE, there’s zero permanent equity in your career. You can work yourself to the bone, but the second you get older, you’re just seen as outdated, expensive, and a prime target for the next reorg. Like, my skip manager was apparently egging my L7 manager to start coding ........

With medicine, the upfront blood tax is miserable, but the long-term security is guaranteed. Your credential actually appreciates as you age, and no one can take it away from you.

That said, your warning about the lack of control over your own destiny is exactly why I’m heavily weighing my parent's dental practice as a compromise. It offers a shortcut to that same permanent equity and ownership without the 80-hour residency weeks. It's just seeing the physical toll on them from operating has be considering med school as an alternative path.

Thanks for raw the perspective though.

you seem smart and are trapped overthinking, but I hear you and see the challenges on every end. What I'd reccomend and what I wish I did myself was 'innovate' in my lane to offset said risk.

for swe you mention ageism - seriously look at sales/solutions engineering, it is AI proof and value goes up with experience - end users want to speak with veteran techies before committing to multi million dollar purchases; consider cybersecurity - yes its a cost center but every org needs it, and those with experience are valued over freshies. hell - you even have law as a path where you get paid in school (look into patent or tech transacation law), you will face lower competition since you already have a technical background. even going back to your base case of SWE, you might get tossed around but if you are good there will always be a role for a senior (mind you added competition), but worst case you can downshift into a startup where VC money still flows and ride it out before re-establishing yourself back into bigtech. finally, consider the user above who mentions FIRE you have a shot we don't have to rapidly accumulate wealth and live off it. You really only need 500k-1M before your investments compound at a rate that puts you ahead fast.

if after all that you want healthcare, then I'd lock step it as AA/DMD/CRNA before MD; mostly because AA/CRNA are quicker and faster vs MD and don't lock you in to residency. DMD you mention your family physical pain, just work less hours or engineer a practice where you work 2-3 days a week and have a partner/part time associate cover the rest of the days.

The fundamental issue with medicine is lack of optionality once you commit to the process - you are ****ed like no other, at the mercy of your nbme performance during school, ridiculous hours, bull**** research extracurriculars nonsense working 80+ hours unpaid to then be at the mercy of matching at a hospital that will work you to the bone for <100k/yr. If you leave with just the MD its just a glorified feather in your cap, very little ROI and wasted time and sweat equity you couldve invested elsewhere in your career. You might get what you're ultimately seeking after 8 years but for what? I'm telling you will be much more jaded and depressed vs a fresh college graduate who has no idea about the world and goes straight to medicine

 

[anon2]

Hey there. Nice to see a fellow SWE in the thread! Congrats on hitting your 10 YOE milestone and navigating this transition. You bring up some interesting points here.

I just wonder if the macro environment has shifted a bit since you went through it, because at 4 YOE right now, things on the ground look pretty different. With the constant waves of rolling layoffs, headcount freezes, offshoring, and aggressive flattening of engineering teams at the G lately, hitting L5 is no longer a given just for "toughing it out." I'm currently stuck at L4, and visibly checking out for anything (including studying for the MCAT) is an incredibly high-risk strategy that would put a massive target on your back for the next reorg. I already know 2 people who got walked out right after coming from a few months leave due to poor perf ratings. These day's we're barely even PIPing anymore. Plus, equity target allocations for mid-levels have been noticeably compressed lately, so that notorious Year 4 cliff hits a lot harder than it used to.

I also find the Wall Street comparison interesting, but isn't that ecosystem almost entirely gatekept by Ivy League pedigree bias? It feels like a bit of a stretch to suggest it as a casual pivot. If you aren't coming from a hyper-specific list of target Ivies or elite MBA programs, "trying Wall Street" isn't an option on the table, let alone a viable pivot for someone already deep into an engineering career.

Your metric of dollars per mental health expended makes sense, but you also mentioned dealing with diagnosed work-induced PTSD and needing disability leave just to cross the 10 YOE finish line. That sounds incredibly intense, and it makes me wonder if that kind of toll is truly a better trade-off than the clinical grind, or if you just viewed it as a necessary evil to fund your transition?

Your plan to coast at 0.25 FTE doing charity care sounds like the absolute dream, but how are you mentally preparing to transition from that level of financial autonomy back into the rigid hierarchy of residency? I imagine it must be a psychological adjustment to go from being a financially independent FAANG senior to working 80-hour weeks under a chief resident who might be years younger than you.

I’m definitely not blindly jumping into medicine, but right now, standing on a volatile tech ladder where you can be reorged out of a job regardless of performance makes a predictable, linear path look a lot more appealing.

Things were definitely a lot better back then (I saw the writing on the wall and got out 2023), and I got (bottom of) L5 on hire which really helped - another friend had barely lower TC but was top of L4 which meant he's getting capped while my stacking refreshes for CME worked just fine.

My usual advice (my PhD is in game theory) is always you have maximum leverage only when the company knows it might lose you - so retention/return offers, but really just negotiation on hire. I retrospectively lucked out into the easy money = good market, so trying for a diagonal promo is definitely vastly harder now.

Another huge thing I noticed, and what I tell everyone about G nowadays: after finally letting an MBA float to the top, they've learned they don't need to be a good place to work. They just need to be a better place to work. And this means treating my coworkers like the disposables upper "management" thinks they are. I can PM some horror stories, but firings on leave is a specific illegal practice that was very prominent in the 2023 massacre.

I wasn't really suggesting Wall Street as a pivot, more comparing it unfavorably in terms of pay security (but it's maybe half a step up in terms of EV). Names like HRT, JS, etc. are basically tech companies; they definitely have a heavy recruiting focus from Ivys, but also a revolving door from Silicon Valley, and they'll (only) take anyone who passes the gauntlet. I'm from a middling state school.

So, while I was in the end stage of the grind, I actually noticed my mental health slowly recovering as I (1) went on disability so often that I barely worked, and (2) crept ever closer to FIRE. The main effect is, even if work is provably traumatic (PM me for what my greatest achievement as a SWE was, and it's not a product at all), the less I am chained to the job (capitalism WAI), the less psychological damage the exact same conditions cause.

TL;DR in my case, FIRE is not just the wherewithal to throw a quarter MM at med school for funsies. The fact that I permanently don't need to work for money, and therefore have gamed out scenarios where I detonate my medical career as a suicide bomb etc., is itself the critical protective factor I use to survive med school + residency in the first place.

IMO, until you can manumit yourself from capitalism, getting money by the fastest way available until you have a large enough hoard is the least bad way to operate. My friends who chose "less" stressful jobs, grinding postdocs etc., ended up equally stressed, from finances - but without my eventual route or hope of escape.

 

[ravensfan123]

seriously look at CAA: https://www.gaswork.com/section/Anesthesiologist-Assistants

 

[SunMouse]

I was you and now in med school M3, absolutely miserable. Same logic.. money stability freedom. I’m not scrambling to figure out what can I do with just an MD if I don’t match psych. For the love of god shadow and understand the process. Medicine WLB pre-attending is the worst WLB imaginable. You also have the prior mental awareness of what life was like before this and you will get depression.

I would look at ways of de risking SWE, look at cybersecurity or Sales Engineering both are strong AI resistant paths and will build your NW so you can be at ease during layoffs.

If healthcare is a must, do something shorter like DMD that doesn’t have the residency requirement to practice.. go on your own don’t worry about your parents you’ll figure it out. I’d also look into CAA it’s 28 months and stable path if you can handle anesthesia.

Do not blindly choose medicine it’s a trap for anyone who doesn’t have the intrinsic drive to suffer and sacrifice to become an MD

Just wanted to say hang in there; psych is the best specialty (I’m not biased at all), and things do get better after M3 year! I was so miserable throughout med school I wanted to drop out pretty much weekly if not daily, and I won’t pretend I don’t still have regrets, but residency is so much better.

I don’t think people can comprehend the sheer lack of control over your own life in medicine as compared to other corporate careers (at least during training). Medical training is really infantilizing, and the fact that you go from being a valued/respected adult to often being treated variously like a child, waste of space or literally ignored at times. That takes a toll on most people IMO, and it’s just not comprehensible until you’re actually living it.

 

[jesse1333]

Hey hey. Yes, pre-reqs are done since I minored in Chem. The idea was always to go to med school. But I changed my major during my first semester to computer science because all my friends were doing it and it was genuinely so cool learning how to code and all the fun data structures and algos you learned. Don't regret it one bit.

Honestly, I got super lucky landing an internship my first summer which sorta took me down the path.

If you want to do pre-reqs I think maybe a post bacc is the way to go, but I don't know if I'm the right person to answer that for you.

May I ask why you want to pivot? Is it because of the horrible job market? At my company (the one with the search engine), I've seen a recent uptick in hiring. I've been interviewing candidates nonstop for the last 3 quarters.

That's definitely a big part of it haha. Honestly, I never liked coding that much and only really did it because friends and family pushed me toward it. I find the work pretty unfulfilling since it’s so abstract. Plus, the constant grind of LeetCode and building side projects in my free time just to job hop or avoid getting laid off sounds exhausting. With how fast tech moves, I feel like I barely get to understand a framework before moving on and I hate abstracting parts away to AI and even though I can understand the logic.

I also want something more hands-on. I remember doing a woodworking and arts-and-crafts project back in middle school and loving it, which from what I hear is a big part of dentistry. Plus, one of my favorite parts of my old restaurant service job was just talking to strangers and asking them about their day. Not gonna get much of that in software.

I know I could probably pivot to something adjacent like PM or sales engineer down the line, but if I’m going to make a change I thought I might as well do something more fulfilling (ie actually helping people). Also learning about the human body is pretty interesting to me (and teeth ig lol) so even though it'll be real tough I feel like I'd have a reason for learning it instead of learning how DP works when in real software I could just use a library.

Went on a big of a tangent and I might just be thinking grass is greener but those are my main reasons.

*Side note: Work from home is pretty nice*