Interviewing a surgeon

[Galen12]

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Hello, I'm a junior at high school and I aspire to become a general surgeon. I'd really like to know more about surgeons' lifestyles and I'd appreciate it if one could please answer a few of my questions. Thank you

· What is your position?
· How long have you been in this field?
· What are the positive aspects of this job?
· What are the downsides or negatives of this job?
· Is this a growing field? What is the outlook for high school or young college graduates over the next few years?
· How does this person develop or improve him or herself for the work that they do?
· How are you evaluated? (quarterly, annually, etc.)?
· What is the most intriguing aspect of this profession?
· Is this profession growing or declining? Why?
· Where do you see the profession in the next ten to twenty years?
· Is this a field that you would recommend to someone else? Why?

 

[Elixir6]

Hi Galen, since you didn't put this in the surgery section, I'll give a short answer from what I see as a medical student (take it with grain of salt since I'm not a surgeon and haven't even done my surgery rotation yet). It's not for everyone. In fact its not for the vast majority of people. It's a tough professional with brutal training - it takes a certain type of personality that can deal with high stress and superiors and colleagues who can at times be quite abusive (abusive criticism). If you are interested in spending 100% of your time starting from your third year of medical school onwards for about 6-10 years having little time for "life" through your twenties and early 30s then I admire your hard work and determination. For example, most surgery residents need to be rounding on their patients by 5AM. That means you need to be up at 4AM and then work into the evening. I'm sure its worse some places and better other places. Personally, its not the life I am looking for.

A good place to look is polls of physicians asking them if they would choose their specialty again. I'm sure its less than <%50 for most surgeons. I'm sure many people find getting through the training very rewarding, but probably less so 15-20 years later after they have done the same surgery for the m-tenth time. Not to say other types of medicine are more glamorous or less rote.

 

[Evisju7]

There is a article page on SDN that has many "doctor profile" interviews. Go check it out for more help