Medicine or Banking

[bobthesun]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

so im in bit of a situation?
i honestly can't decide between medicine or finance.
I enjoy both. Am doing medical research at a hospital and have been a volunteer at an ER and done a few other medical ECs. In the back of my mind I have always enjoyed finance however. I love reading forbes, and businessweek, fortune, cnnmoney, as well as many entrepreneurship websites. I know the two subjects seem different but i honestly enjoy doing both.

the one thing i would like in a job is knowing that if I work hard I can do well. I feel like a lot of time in business it is about who you know and not how hard you work.

i know that if i work hard i can get into med school andby 30 make 150kish.

i feel a lot of doing well in finance involves a bit of luck. what do you guys think. I am having trouble deciding because i like learning about both

for my future i want something i love and so everyday when i come to work i know it is something that i like to do and will enjoy spending long hours learning about it

 

[aSagacious]

...so your foolproof plan is to come onto a PRE-MED forum in order to hear objective advice as to the pros/cons of each field? Even if one of us were to lay out a convincing argument as to why one field is more rewarding than the other it should still not have any bearing on your decision... as it is your career.

/thread

 

[Ride Big Sky]

If you are really torn between the two then you haven't had enough experience to both. Shadow some docs and intern at a finance/banking institution and you'll most likely reach a quick decision. I was also interested in finance, but once I gained a better insight into the real jobs I quickly changed my mind.

 

[Jarudy]

Personally I like playing stocks, however making a career out of it would not be fulfilling for me which is why medicine has drawn me in. Dabbing in the financial world on the side while pursuing a career in medicine is my personal plan. Just my personal thoughts of course and the second post summed it up.

 

[bucks2010]

reading Forbes :: working in finance, as reading SDN :: being a doctor

you have too little experience in both fields to make an informed decision between the two

 

[flatearth22]

inb4 heroic premeds bash on i-bankers and gloat about how doctors save lives.

 

[AntiHouseMD]

You say that you enjoy both finance and medicine, but don't have much experience to base your decision. It's too important to leave up to the pre-meds on this forum (no insult intended). As others have said, try to get experience in both careers before deciding.

 

[IwannabeDrP]

for my future i want something i love and so everyday when i come to work i know it is something that i like to do and will enjoy spending long hours learning about it

I'm currently working in consulting and my girlfriend is working in banking, both of which we have found unsatisfying and meaningless. Both are ultimately support roles, wherein you do whatever it takes to meet the needs of the clients. From a meta-perspective, bankers allow small and big businesses to take financial risks, enabling greater economic development and theoretically, great economic viability for the markets involved. But that is overarching, and idealistic. Yes, it would be awesome to back a business seeking to develop roots in a third world country, bringing jobs and cash flow. But this is rarely the case. It's the fortune 500 that generate real profitability.

I am enrolling in medical school this fall because I want more than process improvement and/or hedging risk so a Diamond Client like Facebook or Google can earn an extra mil. My girlfriend is considering doing a post-bacc (after definitively deciding not to pursue medicine) because her work is mundane, repetitive, and seemingly meaningless.

Medicine offers a lifetime of learning with constant intellectual challenges, that warm-fuzzy feeling of saving a human life, and a hell of a lot more of meaning than banking. My opinion? Go into medicine.

 

[bobthesun]

i have shadowed 3 physicians, volunteered hundreds of hours at an EM, doing clinical research right now and looks to be getting published. I think I have worked plenty of hours in medicine. But you're right not in finance. Any suggestions on where to go?

i have only recently thought to reconsider as I believe the research i have done, although intellectually stimulating was slow, and tedious. I generally did not enjoy it.

 

[Iso4ane]

Why not become a doctor, and then play stock broker with your own money. You know cut out the middle-man.

 

[jvesco22]

i have shadowed 3 physicians, volunteered hundreds of hours at an EM, doing clinical research right now and looks to be getting published. I think I have worked plenty of hours in medicine. But you're right not in finance. Any suggestions on where to go?

i have only recently thought to reconsider as I believe the research i have done, although intellectually stimulating was slow, and tedious. I generally did not enjoy it.

Since when did doing undergrad research = practicing medicine?

 

[Soulstice]

Someone once told me that if you've had serious considerations of ever pursuing a career other than medicine, that it's worth doing the other career.. because medicine is so much of trial by fire that survival requires a type of person who "can't imagine doing anything else in life but medicine."

.. For what it's worth.

 

[MacVA]

OP,

By banking I suppose you mean I-banking? Banking and medicine are two totally different careers. Plus one you can get into from any school; the other requires an Ivy degree. I will let you figure out which one is which.

In addition, banking is pretty inflexible. My brother is an Ibanker and I bet he works more than any doctor you know. Plus, he HAS to work these hours.

Good luck in your decision.