If you could go back in time knowing what you know now, what specialty would you choose?

[dozitgetchahi]

Did rheumatology.

It took a few tries to find a good PP job.

First hospital job out of fellowship - $250k first two years, then $275k or so. Treated like garbage by admin. Should have left earlier (finally exited about 2.5 years in).

Second job, PP - $300k base, but management was dishonest and did not pay bonuses as promised. PP imploded.

Third job, PP - a true unicorn. Base $325k and you can start earning bonuses 6 months in. I made $540k my first year, before even becoming a partner. On track for $650-700k this year. My upcoming quarterly bonus in July will be >$100k.

I work 4.5 days a week, zero call, zero hospital rounds. So yeah, I’d do rheumatology again.

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[BoardingDoc]

I strongly considered EP when in med school. Ultimately the duration of residency was too off putting. It's hard to say what I'd do differently. EM was great when I was younger and had fewer commitments. I didn't mind the nights and weekends so much because of all the free time. I found an amazing group with great colleagues and good comp (all keep what you kill, last year was ~580k total comp for 128hrs/mo). All of that said, I'm literally working my last full time shift as we speak and I'm very eager to start pain fellowship next week.

EM has been good to me, but it's time to go and find something more sustainable. Ultimately, while I'm clearly not advocating for EM as a long term career, I don't know that I'd take a different path to get to where I am.

 

[fadeam]

I don’t think I would do medicine again and would probably try for a career in biotech, pharma, or some other stem field. All jobs in medicine these days (except a select few) you’re effectively just a value generating cog in a giant machine. And if you’re not able able to make the Medicare RVU machine go brrrrr and help the corporate overlord of choice collect $$$ you’re worth about as much as the pile of human excrement on the waiting room floor to them. There’s nothing wrong with being a value generating cog in a wheel but I wouldn’t trade half a million dollars in education and a decade of my life to be a cog if given the choice again.

These days with fellowship I’m content with my job and don’t have the same existential angst I had in the ED - but certainly am not happy. I’ve been a little more at peace recently since I finally gave up emotionally that I’d ever have a job I truly enjoy and more focused on having work that’s tolerable with humane working conditions.

Have you thought about making the move to pharma now?

 

[WhatJobDoIPick]

I don't really get the flex of "I make 700k and travel internationally every month.". You can do this in EM too it just requires more effort. Yeah, if you wanna work 10 shifts/ month, you're not gonna get there.

My sister makes 400/hr in psych. What she doesn't tell you is that these are just patient facing hours, doesn't include charting, and has a long commute. Oh, and it's 1099.

 

[sloh]

Did rheumatology.

It took a few tries to find a good PP job.

First hospital job out of fellowship - $250k first two years, then $275k or so. Treated like garbage by admin. Should have left earlier (finally exited about 2.5 years in).

Second job, PP - $300k base, but management was dishonest and did not pay bonuses as promised. PP imploded.

Third job, PP - a true unicorn. Base $325k and you can start earning bonuses 6 months in. I made $540k my first year, before even becoming a partner. On track for $650-700k this year. My upcoming quarterly bonus in July will be >$100k.

I work 4.5 days a week, zero call, zero hospital rounds. So yeah, I’d do rheumatology again.

The power of having the option to walk. FYPM.

 

[WhatJobDoIPick]

This thread is a classic "grass is greener" syndrome, and honestly I felt the same way until I joined my SDG.

There's slight fomo for me associated with working odd hours, but also big advantages to being off when everyone is working.

Working holidays sometimes is a bummer, but as I age, the holidays are becoming "just another day" and tbh, I can do without the drama of my family. I really only care about Christmas, and my kid doesn't give a damn if Santa brings presents on Dec 25 or Dec 20 or Dec 28.

I couldn't care less about weekends. Why would I want to go to a restaurant when everyone else is there or contend with the traffic?

I agree I would have chosen "not medicine", but not becauae I think the actual work of tech, or finance or whatever is any better, but the reality of what medicine steals from you in your early life and the continuous gaslighting into believing your altruism is something to be donated for free, and not paid for.

 

[Tiger26]

Ultimately, I think many of us would have been happy in 3-5 other fields. Many others wouldn't be happy regardless of what they do, whether in a different specialty or even outside of medicine.

I make 700-800k but that involves the 3 other side gigs I enjoy and get to do outside of EM with my free time.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Have you thought about making the move to pharma now?

I may still make the jump at some point but for now am just going to finish out my training and try getting out of the grind and post up at a sleepy little community ICU for a bit and reclaim some of my sanity and time with my family. Maybe a few PRN shifts at the local academic EM shop where the pay isn’t great the docs are hourly, have residents to do the scut, and have sovereign immunity.

 

[DoctorMD1]

When I applied, I had #1 Rad vs EM and #2 anesthesiology.

Chose EM b/c tie breaker being 3 vs 5 yrs.

No regrets with EM and flexibility. I think we all forget how great it is to be off when people are working. Plus, I have a job that would make Rad blush plus allowed me plenty of time to do RE and Finance. Looking at a 4th business by years end with all of my free time.

to be honest Radiology is also pretty flexible. I work from home and make my own schedule. I work 30 hours a week

 

[DOswag]

I don't really get the flex of "I make 700k and travel internationally every month.". You can do this in EM too it just requires more effort. Yeah, if you wanna work 10 shifts/ month, you're not gonna get there.

My sister makes 400/hr in psych. What she doesn't tell you is that these are just patient facing hours, doesn't include charting, and has a long commute. Oh, and it's 1099.

The job I referred to in psych im in, I’m on pace to make 400K this year. But several psychiatrist for the same group are making 6-700 and at least one I know of making over a mil. It’s W2, benefits are pretty dang good with 90% insurance premiums covered for good insurance, 401K etc. I may be able to make that in the future as the longer I work for the company my $ per rvu goes up as well. Of course this is not representative of the majority of psych jobs but they’re out there for sure. I work outpatient, 3 day weekend every weekend, no nights, weekends, or call. I can’t travel international every month so, yes, it’s for sure a flex. I travel about 5 minutes for work and have my charting done before I get home 95% of the time. Today was an exception actually as I had a very high risk patient that I spent a long time documenting everything and catching up on other notes I had gotten behind on. That’s happened exactly once in my almost one year of working here and I left about an hour later than normal.

 

[southerndoc]

I know a few psychiatrist pulling above 700k+ personally too. I'm not locums. There are many opportunities in psych to earn money. The demand is big and the versatility is unmatched compared to any other specialty. You can work in inpatient hospitals, jails, clinics, courts, rehab centers, tele-psych, nursing homes, emergency rooms etc.

I wouldn't change my freedom for anything. I go on vacation again in 4 days to South East Asia too.

I call BS. Prove it.

 

[cyanide12345678]

I found the ultimate rural gig. 7500 annual volume. Roughly 1 pph. Negotiated a $300/hr prn 1099 contract with them. They are heavily relying on locums right now, i skipped the locums company and directly talked to them and negotiated the rate.

I saw 8 patients last night and made $3600.

Suddenly I’m not disliking emergency medicine as much anymore 😂😂😂

Now i need to cut back on the w2 gig

 

[always.chillin]

I don’t really understand how psych salaries have gone up so much. When I was in med school a few years ago salaries were around 300k. Everyone was worried that psych NPs would replace psychiatrists altogether. And now psych is making 500+ everywhere?

 

[always.chillin]

I found the ultimate rural gig. 7500 annual volume. Roughly 1 pph. Negotiated a $300/hr prn 1099 contract with them. They are heavily relying on locums right now, i skipped the locums company and directly talked to them and negotiated the rate.

I saw 8 patients last night and made $3600.

Suddenly I’m not disliking emergency medicine as much anymore 😂😂😂

Now i need to cut back on the w2 gig

How far do you drive for this gig?

 

[cyanide12345678]

How far do you drive for this gig?

Too far. 1.5 hours each way

 

[always.chillin]

Too far. 1.5 hours each way

That’s not bad for 12 hour shifts. Beats getting slammed seeing 2+/hr. Hope the site never gets filled lol. I’ve been doing the same.

 

[JacobMcCandles]

That’s not bad for 12 hour shifts. Beats getting slammed seeing 2+/hr. Hope the site never gets filled lol. I’ve been doing the same.

Not bad? That’s an awful commute. Turns that $300/hr to $240/hr.

 

[cyanide12345678]

Not bad? That’s an awful commute. Turns that $300/hr to $240/hr.

That’s not the right way to think about it necessarily.

if someone paid me $240/hr to just listen to podcasts, relax, and do practically nothing, then yeah 240/hr for driving is kind of incredible too. Especially considering that my car kinda drives itself, especially on highways. I mean….i literally dont even touch my steering wheel for 95 percent of the commute.

The only metric that i personally care about is $/patient seen.

This is one of the highest $/patient seen I’ve ever come across.

 

[DOswag]

I don’t really understand how psych salaries have gone up so much. When I was in med school a few years ago salaries were around 300k. Everyone was worried that psych NPs would replace psychiatrists altogether. And now psych is making 500+ everywhere?

Above in another post I mentioned this is not representative of the majority of psych jobs. But the demand for psychiatry is huge. Most docs are booked months to get a new pt in. I get paid a salary and then quarterly rvu bonus based on production. We see a lot of patients but we also do ketamine and TMS which can generate a lot more rvu’s. There are psychiatrist out there working multiple gigs and a mix of inpatient, outpatient, covering weekends etc and making a lot of money but working a lot to do it. The average for psych is still in the 300ish range but there are still jobs listing for lower 200’s 🤯. A lot of VA jobs are in the 250-300 range. Lots of variability and flexibility in psych to work as much as you want and make about as much as you want. You can also work 30 hrs per week and still make decent money.

 

[GassYous]

That’s not the right way to think about it necessarily.

if someone paid me $240/hr to just listen to podcasts, relax, and do practically nothing, then yeah 240/hr for driving is kind of incredible too. Especially considering that my car kinda drives itself, especially on highways. I mean….i literally dont even touch my steering wheel for 95 percent of the commute.

The only metric that i personally care about is $/patient seen.

This is one of the highest $/patient seen I’ve ever come across.

Which car

 

[RustedFox]

Which car

You know he's a Teslatoid. Has to be.

 

[cyanide12345678]

You know he's a Teslatoid. Has to be.

Which car

Nope. Quite the opposite.

2021 hyundai sonata with comma.ai installed.

Thought about a tesla but 25k car plus 1200 device was better than a 40k car plus 12k FSD software upgrade.

I’ve done some 20k hands free miles on my car with the comma device installed. And when i say hands free - i actually mean handsfree.

Edit:

Www.comma.ai

This little thing is well worth the $$$

https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/consumer-reports-active-driving-assistance-systems-november-16-2020.pdf

The comma2 (older version) was actually rated higher than tesla’s auto pilot by consumer reports for advanced driver assist systems. Though the new fsd update made fsd pretty impressive recently

 

[always.chillin]

That’s not the right way to think about it necessarily.

if someone paid me $240/hr to just listen to podcasts, relax, and do practically nothing, then yeah 240/hr for driving is kind of incredible too. Especially considering that my car kinda drives itself, especially on highways. I mean….i literally dont even touch my steering wheel for 95 percent of the commute.

The only metric that i personally care about is $/patient seen.

This is one of the highest $/patient seen I’ve ever come across.

Also depends on shift length. My locum site is mid 300s and an hour away. They do 12s. My primary site is 25 min away but they only do 9s.

 

[JacobMcCandles]

That’s not the right way to think about it necessarily.

if someone paid me $240/hr to just listen to podcasts, relax, and do practically nothing, then yeah 240/hr for driving is kind of incredible too. Especially considering that my car kinda drives itself, especially on highways. I mean….i literally dont even touch my steering wheel for 95 percent of the commute.

The only metric that i personally care about is $/patient seen.

This is one of the highest $/patient seen I’ve ever come across.

As I’ve gotten older I look at it like what I would do with my time. If I could do anything I want, driving in a car and listening to music, podcasts, etc. probably wouldn’t be my top choice. If you were off work and you would choose driving around on a day off because that’s just what you want to do then maybe I’d look at that commute different.

Same thing with patients per hour. You could work a 12 hour overnight and see 20 patients but sleep 8 hours or you could see 4 patients and not really get any sleep. Seeing 20 patients would be much less $/patient but I’d rather do that and sleep 8 hours than see 4 patients and not sleep any.

 

[comp1]

Psychiatrists are not making $500k on average anywhere. There are outliers, but $500k is a significant (SDN level) outlier.

 

[emergentmd]

EM doc - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C before EM
Radioogist - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C
OB - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C
surgery - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C
Hospitalist - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C

There may be a short list that would not trade but few/far between.

When I was working the hospital pit, most specialists esp Hospitalist that envied the EM doc. Things may have changed but I doubt it.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Nope. Quite the opposite.

2021 hyundai sonata with comma.ai installed.

Thought about a tesla but 25k car plus 1200 device was better than a 40k car plus 12k FSD software upgrade.

I’ve done some 20k hands free miles on my car with the comma device installed. And when i say hands free - i actually mean handsfree.

Edit:

Www.comma.ai

This little thing is well worth the $$$

https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/consumer-reports-active-driving-assistance-systems-november-16-2020.pdf

The comma2 (older version) was actually rated higher than tesla’s auto pilot by consumer reports for advanced driver assist systems. Though the new fsd update made fsd pretty impressive recently

Wait what is comma ai

 

[cyanide12345678]

Wait what is comma ai

Www.comma.ai

It’s an after market device that plugs into the vehicle that basically takes over the car. Basically designed for highways, some limitations definitely exist, but 95 percent of the time, you don’t Need to touch the steering wheel on a Highway. Limitations include 90 degree turns, stop signs and red lights especially if there’s no vehicle in front of you.

YouTube videos and check it out. Toyota, hyundai, kia, and Genesis vehicles are the most compatible. I bought my sonata essentially because it was listed as one of the most compatible vehicles. It’s definitely made driving chill.

 

[odyssey2]

EM doc - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C before EM
Radioogist - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C
OB - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C
surgery - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C
Hospitalist - If I had to go back, I would do specialty A/B/C

There may be a short list that would not trade but few/far between.

When I was working the hospital pit, most specialists esp Hospitalist that envied the EM doc. Things may have changed but I doubt it.

Which specialties don’t have regrets do you think?

 

[HoosierdaddyO]

Which specialties don’t have regrets do you think?

I’ll never forget, little kid got mauled by a dog, entire lip and ear was hanging by a thread. Call the plastic surgeon to come in to give this kid a fighting chance at having a normal face. It was a Sunday afternoon and it was in a tirade because he was on the golf course (while being on call). Even tho he was about to collect a 3500 dollar bill for 1 hour of work… he too was complaining. The grass is never greener, people will complain about anything and everything.

What I learned is… you do you, do things what makes you happy outside of work. The reason they pay you is because it’s work… it’s not meant to be fun, it’s an added benefit if it is fun. You think the guy sweating his arse off in the heat working construction is having fun, no he’s paying bills. Same applies for all the countless jobs and careers with 1/10 the level of societal respect and salary that we have.

 

[nexus73]

I don’t really understand how psych salaries have gone up so much. When I was in med school a few years ago salaries were around 300k. Everyone was worried that psych NPs would replace psychiatrists altogether. And now psych is making 500+ everywhere?

Employed full time psych is more like 280-330, less in places like NYC, can be slightly better in rural places. Exceptions exist, but you can't bank on them. Psych is pretty much a 300K/year job

 

[Fox800]

Would have done anesthesiology, +/- pain or CCM fellowship after. Or maybe cardiac (sounds cool but unclear about hours/comp).

 

[watermanMD]

It'll probably be the same for a while. EM at my hospital makes 1.5-2.0x the hourly salary of day hospitalists. Both are quote-on-quote dumping grounds but one works less hours and get paid significantly more.

Yeah but I think EM’s cognitive burden is significantly higher. Higher stress. Higher risk of missing something and being sued. We do more. At my shops, almost zero clinical decisions are made by IM. I make difficult decisions and are all up in patients “business” every day—this is taxing. I hand the patient to the hospitalist on a silver platter. They then sit until they see cards for their HTN & AFib, GI for their whatever, NSGY for whatever, ID for any and all infections. No changes are made in the interim, or at least very rarely. This is not all hospitalists, but this is 90% of them at my shops. IM = chill, consult everyone for all management decisions and make sure the pit docs are doing the dirty work of CYA. EM = hard, 100mph, difficult decisions, constantly making judgement calls. I see 30 in a shift, 25 of which are full work-ups. Meanwhile, hospitalist is trying to “cap” or block admissions because they’ve got 10 admits today. We are not the same.

The pay disparity should be greater, in my opinion. Just like a neurosurgeon doing super high risk procedures in the brain probably gets paid more than a gen surgeon taking an appendix out. They’re both physicians, both respectable. One is probably harder than the other.

This reads like ****ting on IM but it’s not. Lots of bull **** they have to deal with, too. A lot of stuff is lost on us in EM. But are these things hard—cognitively and physically? No. Our job is both of those things. The specialities are different. Many in one could not function in the other. In one view: we (EM) were the fools that chose this stressful specialty, the internists were the smart ones who chose a chill(er) life that still pays well.

 

[GatorCHOMPions]

Yeah but I think EM’s cognitive burden is significantly higher. Higher stress. Higher risk of missing something and being sued. We do more. At my shops, almost zero clinical decisions are made by IM. I make difficult decisions and are all up in patients “business” every day—this is taxing. I hand the patient to the hospitalist on a silver platter. They then sit until they see cards for their HTN & AFib, GI for their whatever, NSGY for whatever, ID for any and all infections. No changes are made in the interim, or at least very rarely. This is not all hospitalists, but this is 90% of them at my shops. IM = chill, consult everyone for all management decisions and make sure the pit docs are doing the dirty work of CYA. EM = hard, 100mph, difficult decisions, constantly making judgement calls. I see 30 in a shift, 25 of which are full work-ups. Meanwhile, hospitalist is trying to “cap” or block admissions because they’ve got 10 admits today. We are not the same.

The pay disparity should be greater, in my opinion. Just like a neurosurgeon doing super high risk procedures in the brain probably gets paid more than a gen surgeon taking an appendix out. They’re both physicians, both respectable. One is probably harder than the other.

This reads like ****ting on IM but it’s not. Lots of bull **** they have to deal with, too. A lot of stuff is lost on us in EM. But are these things hard—cognitively and physically? No. Our job is both of those things. The specialities are different. Many in one could not function in the other. In one view: we (EM) were the fools that chose this stressful specialty, the internists were the smart ones who chose a chill(er) life that still pays well.

I think EM is the hardest job in all of clinical medicine excluding surgery which is just a different skill set and cognitive burden altogether. The hourly rate is decent but should be much higher. I can personally attest that higher paying outpatient based subspecialists have it relatively so easy.

The 2 pph in EM is harder than 4 pph in clinic. The former nets you $250/hour on average for argument's sake (in my part of the country more like $200-225). The latter gets you 6 RVU as a floor, and $60/RVU being fairly conservative, which nets you $360/hour. It's not out of the question to be pulling $500/hour if you're full and efficient (excluding a lunch break of course...what is that my EM colleagues are saying?).

The upsides of EM are that patients are fed to you, money is more or less guaranteed, and the length of residency. In the medical subspecialties it may take a few years to get full. I personally have made a $400/hour rate in clinic but only in short bursts. I'm only like 65% full and been at my job for 2 years. Still, if we were paid on stress/difficulty, EM should be more like $400+/hour average.

 

[Meyer-Overton]

I'm a psychiatrist. I was in between psych and EM during medical school. Glad I went into psych. Pulled 700k+ last year yet was able to go on an international vacation every month (12 times).

That’s wild bro
Do you do inpatient or outpatient?

 

[DOswag]

Which specialties don’t have regrets do you think?

Psychiatry

 

[DOswag]

I’ll never forget, little kid got mauled by a dog, entire lip and ear was hanging by a thread. Call the plastic surgeon to come in to give this kid a fighting chance at having a normal face. It was a Sunday afternoon and it was in a tirade because he was on the golf course (while being on call). Even tho he was about to collect a 3500 dollar bill for 1 hour of work… he too was complaining. The grass is never greener, people will complain about anything and everything.

What I learned is… you do you, do things what makes you happy outside of work. The reason they pay you is because it’s work… it’s not meant to be fun, it’s an added benefit if it is fun. You think the guy sweating his arse off in the heat working construction is having fun, no he’s paying bills. Same applies for all the countless jobs and careers with 1/10 the level of societal respect and salary that we have.

I think this is something that is somewhat lost, maybe a cultural thing, as many kids coming up these days seem to think the only way they'll be happy is to have a job that is fun, that they wake up to looking forward to going in everyday no matter what, and get paid well to do it. Mike Rowe sort of comes at it from the above approach as he's been on videos and such promoting "don't follow your passion" but does admit this is an important aspect of your job/life, it shouldn't be the "be all-end all" that you follow. His video back several years ago was even restricted for a time by youtube as "inappropriate for people under the age of 18". I think this was somewhat the message he was trying to convey in the bolded section. It is still work. Work is not always going to be fun, or even close to the majority of the time. It's work. But you get paid for it. If it is fun then heck yeah that's an added bonus but the expectation that it should always be fun is just something for the vast majority that is unattainable and should not be the primary focus of choosing your career or else you'll likely end up disappointed at best, resentful and miserable at worst.

 

[Franzd'Epinay]

I think this is something that is somewhat lost, maybe a cultural thing, as many kids coming up these days seem to think the only way they'll be happy is to have a job that is fun, that they wake up to looking forward to going in everyday no matter what, and get paid well to do it. Mike Rowe sort of comes at it from the above approach as he's been on videos and such promoting "don't follow your passion" but does admit this is an important aspect of your job/life, it shouldn't be the "be all-end all" that you follow. His video back several years ago was even restricted for a time by youtube as "inappropriate for people under the age of 18". I think this was somewhat the message he was trying to convey in the bolded section. It is still work. Work is not always going to be fun, or even close to the majority of the time. It's work. But you get paid for it. If it is fun then heck yeah that's an added bonus but the expectation that it should always be fun is just something for the vast majority that is unattainable and should not be the primary focus of choosing your career or else you'll likely end up disappointed at best, resentful and miserable at worst.

I wonder how much the employment (and education) environment plays a role into the culture that you describe.

For example, a high school kid post 2000 sees that getting a (white collar) job with the potential for advancement requires a college diploma. Then when it's near graduation he realizes he spent a lot of time and money to get a specific degree, so there will be a pressure to get a job that makes getting that degree "worth it".

Compare to a high school kid in, say, the 1980s, who can get a (white collar) job without a college degree. It seems like there would be less psychological pressure to find "the perfect fit". Even outside of white collar jobs, If you consider the wider availability of pensions and the earlier ability to afford a family (and the responsibilities they carry), it seems like there are a lot of protective factors to get kids to "stick it out" in a career they may not love, but that is nevertheless providing a good standard of living.

Perhaps it's a reach, but I do think that at a certain level, the (often delusional) educational expectations of entry-level jobs in modern America have dealt a bad hand to younger generations.

 

[WhatJobDoIPick]

I wonder how much the employment (and education) environment plays a role into the culture that you describe.

For example, a high school kid post 2000 sees that getting a (white collar) job with the potential for advancement requires a college diploma. Then when it's near graduation he realizes he spent a lot of time and money to get a specific degree, so there will be a pressure to get a job that makes getting that degree "worth it".

Compare to a high school kid in, say, the 1980s, who can get a (white collar) job without a college degree. It seems like there would be less psychological pressure to find "the perfect fit". Even outside of white collar jobs, If you consider the wider availability of pensions and the earlier ability to afford a family (and the responsibilities they carry), it seems like there are a lot of protective factors to get kids to "stick it out" in a career they may not love, but that is nevertheless providing a good standard of living.

Perhaps it's a reach, but I do think that at a certain level, the (often delusional) educational expectations of entry-level jobs in modern America have dealt a bad hand to younger generations.

Between rising prices and degree creep, post secondary education as it exists in this country is a scam.

You do not need a masters degree to be a teacher or a social worker. You do not need a bachelor's degree to be a nurse.

I sound like a freaking grandpa, but tbh college life these days is approaching that of living on a resort between the expensive facilities and dorms being built. Guess what funds that? Tuition.

Most entry level white collar jobs can be done after a couple semesters of a writing course and maybe a couple other filler courses. Two years tops.

We're obsessed with education in units of 4. 4 years for high school, 4 years for college, 4 years for medical school. I'm surprised the lawyers haven't figured out how to expand law school to 4 years yet.

Even in our world, I would argue college and medical school can be shaved down to three years each.

Less schooling years = less debt = more freedom. Academia will never allow this, as debt makes their world turn, but I digress....

 

[eefen]

I may still make the jump at some point but for now am just going to finish out my training and try getting out of the grind and post up at a sleepy little community ICU for a bit and reclaim some of my sanity and time with my family. Maybe a few PRN shifts at the local academic EM shop where the pay isn’t great the docs are hourly, have residents to do the scut, and have sovereign immunity.

This is the way. Get out of the rat race, do some good in a small community, have time to spend with family, and reap the financial benefits of working at that little hospital your grandma has never heard of.

 

[EctopicFetus]

We have been fed a bunch of nonsense. Most people hate their jobs.. That includes the lawyers (my wife is one). That includes the really really high paid ones, (My wife went to a top 5 law school). The hours they work suck, they have to kiss the ass of their clients and they are constantly hustling for business. I have a handful of friends who got MBAs at Harvard, Wharton etc. They make bank. One of these college buddies I have known since we were about 10. I was a groomsman in both of his weddings, he was in mine as well. We talked like a year ago. We both came from nothing. His mom was a customer service rep for an airline. Dad out of the picture. He told me post tax he got a bonus of 500k. He has made $2m+ per year working for one of the big name consulting companies. Says he can work til he is 70+. Job is interesting but you know what.. he hates the travel. Missing his young kids growing up. Wife also went to Harvard but basically gave up her career so he can work. She comes from a very very rich family and i think my buddy needs to prove he can provide at the level he wants and that her family would respect.

Guess what he hates it. They janitor at the hospital, he hates it too. Your kids school teacher? She probably hates it too. The nurses we work with they hate it.

Listen for what i earn i would do just about anything. Idgaf. My romanticized view of work is long gone. That being said I still really like it. Then again, if they pay was trash or i had to work for a trashy company like USACS I would probably quit.

 

[emergentmd]

A job is a job. Don't let anyone fool you that it is some type of calling.

99.9% of people would quit if they were offered the same amount of $$$ to stay home.

 

[Apollyon]

About half of Americans hate their jobs/don't feel engaged. It's a means to an end.

 

[deuist]

Good luck getting picked up for CIA. If you say it, you're not getting it.

Oh, please. They have booths at career fairs.

 

[Apollyon]

Oh, please. They have booths at career fairs.

To clarify, I thought he meant covert service (not the doctors or overt employees).

 

[HoosierdaddyO]

A job is a job. Don't let anyone fool you that it is some type of calling.

99.9% of people would quit if they were offered the same amount of $$$ to stay home.

Haha I would leave Medicine in a heart beat if someone gave me even 2/3 of my salary every year to leave the ER. So much else in this world I’d want to do or learn lol.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Wait where do I sign up to get paid the same amount to stay home?
Other than disability.

 

[witzelsucht]

psych, easily. its most of what we do in em anyway, sit and listen to people complain about how terrible they have it. rads probably would be fine too, but they definitely have a high cognitive load job

 

[thegenius]

99.9% of people would quit if they were offered the same amount of $$$ to stay home.

What kind of obvious statement is that LOL.
Master of the obvious. You're onto something here.

 

[HoosierdaddyO]

What kind of obvious statement is that LOL.
Master of the obvious. You're onto something here.

Alright than mister master of observing people making obvious statements lol. What percentage of your current pay wound you accept to be a stay at home never to work in the ER ever again number?? 50 percent, 60, 40?