It all depends on what you want in life!
1. Will you be happy with a 8-6pm outpatient work with hospital work once every 3-5 weeks (depending on the size of your group). If you think you will miss dealing with the acuity of cases or the hands-on nature of the interventional field, then you should pursue interventional!
2. Calls: Are you okay being on call every 3-4rd night and sacrifice on family time, etc on weekends/nights when you get called for STEMIs?
3. Location: limited Interventional jobs in/around desirable cities. Plenty of jobs in the interiors. On the other hand, my Gen.cards job is 45mins from a major city.
4. Money: Virtual sky is the limit for how much you will make in either Gen.cards or Interventional. However, in general, interventionalists will make 80-100k more. Plus a lot depends on which state you work in, partnership status, state taxes, etc.
5. Reimbursement cuts: Affecting interventional field in a big way. Plus the added headaches of public reporting of 30-day outcomes, etc. Virtually no jobs which will entertain "coronary-only" training. Definite need to get additional PV or structural training.
Overall, prospects are good in either scenarios. All depends on what floats your boat! I started training thinking I'd do Interventional; but towards PGY6, I was a bit burnt out, tired of sacrificing family time towards calls and exam prep (Echo, Nuc, RPVI, Gen cards) and tired of sucking it up to people in order to get LORs, etc... found myself a decent gen. cards job, 45mins from a major city, large group with partnership track. Lets see where life takes me from here.
Good luck!
