Medicine or Finance???

[captain bhangra]

heyy everbody,
so i just finished up my first year at a community college, and was going towards an econ degree and hopefully work my way into the finance world once i graduated. but as i volunteer at the hospital (no particular reason), i question whether i want to work towards becoming a doctor. Over the past i always thought i would hopefully become a doctor, but recently have changed to finance world. So now i am wondering can anyone offer any advice? The thing is though, after volunteering in the hospital, i would NOT want to be a physician or at least think i wouldnt, but am very attracted to surgery.
I believe i could make alot more money in the finance world, but something about surgery attracts me and i cannot pinpoint what. Maybe the respect, prestige, excitement, or whatever it is.
can anyone offer any advice please?

thanks

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[NTF]

Since you've only finished your first year of community college, you don't really need to make any decisions yet. That's what a liberal arts education is for. Explore. Take a large variety of classes. Continue to volunteer, take science classes along with your econ and finance classes. Work for interesting professors. Who knows what will stir your enthusiasm a couple years from now. But whatever you do, take your coursework seriously and do well, so all your options will be there for you.

 

[TehDoc]

Finance and money sounds like your calling. Go for it.

 

[Bacchus]

Complete your degree in economics and see where you stand. If you have free time over the next three years get your pre-requisites done just in case you decide to apply. You're going to have a busy three years juggling what you'll need to get either into a higher degree program or internships so you have a job out of college. If you are "interested" in surgery that's great, however it is a very long road to get there. 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, and 5 years of residency are standard (correct me if I'm wrong). You may have to go on to fellowship as well. Additionally, surgery (any type) is a very competitive field to enter. You will be competing with some of the best to get there and might not place in the match. Also, since you would not want to be a physician I'm not sure if you'd make it through all the scut work on the way to becoming a surgeon. Just because you're a surgeon doesn't mean you aren't a physician (obviously). You will be conducting rounds, consultations, and pre- and post-op care.

 

[fireflygirl]

I spent time in banking before I went into medicine, and if money is important to you, you will last a whole lot longer in banking than I did. I found myself being pulled towards medicine for altruistic reasons, and since you said that from simply volunteering in a hospital, you "don't want to be a physician", I don't think medicine is for you. However, I would also argue to say that you possibly didn't get the kind of exposure or spend enough time to make such a decision but it sounds like you naturally inclined towards banking/finance already. Keep in mind though, that banking/finance is not as glamorous as it may seem at your age. You are still young and early in your academic career.Take a variety of classes and spend some time doing banking internships before you make your final decision.

EDIT: Also, do a search on this since there are a number of threads out there on this same issue.

 

[WellWornLad]

...something about surgery attracts me and i cannot pinpoint what. Maybe the respect, prestige, excitement, or whatever it is...

Those are three bad reasons to go into medicine. You will get respect from rising to the top of any field. Prestige and $4.70 will buy you a venti mochalottafrappacarmaccino at Starbucks. And 95% of surgery is routine, bread-and-butter stuff - that cholecystectomy isn't as exciting when it's the 10th one you've yanked out this shift.

That said, keep volunteering and get those prereqs out of the way so that medicine remains an open option. You'll be surprised at how much your perspective may change over the next few years, and there's no way to predict what you'll be interested in eventually. The idea is to keep all the doors open until then. Good luck!

 

[hopefuldoc87]

im an economics and bio double major. starting out, i didn't know which one i wanted, so i just did both. but only after experiencing REAL exposure to medicine did i realize that's def what i wanted to do for the rest of my life. volunteering will not suffice. you should real try shadowing a doctor. you get an entirely diff perspective than just volunteering at a hospital.

anyways, it seems as if you are leaning towards finance/econ since you say you do not want to be a physician, but want to be a surgeon (the above posters are correct in saying you have to a physician first, then a surgeon). but ironically, being a bio major has opened up some doors in the finance/econ world as well. i've met with a goldman-sachs recruiter who told me that being pre-med is something very unique among their intership apps and he said usually, they know pre-meds (the real ones, not the ones that just took biology 101 and consider themselves in medical school already) are very dedicated and hard working students. im not saying that an econ degree is easy, but to show you can handle both worlds is something unique in itself.

so explore. you'll never know which one you like until you experience the true reality of both professions.

note: since i realized medicine was what i wanted to do, i was unable to do internships for businesses since i chose to shadow, work, volunteer, and do research instead. those activities strengthened my app for medical school, so its good to explore, but always keep in mind that you should choose which path is right for you in time so that you can put all your effort later on into preparing for profession you choose.

 

[txprodigal]

I spent time in banking before I went into medicine, and if money is important to you, you will last a whole lot longer in banking than I did. I found myself being pulled towards medicine for altruistic reasons, and since you said that from simply volunteering in a hospital, you "don't want to be a physician", I don't think medicine is for you. However, I would also argue to say that you possibly didn't get the kind of exposure or spend enough time to make such a decision but it sounds like you naturally inclined towards banking/finance already. Keep in mind though, that banking/finance is not as glamorous as it may seem at your age. You are still young and early in your academic career.Take a variety of classes and spend some time doing banking internships before you make your final decision.

EDIT: Also, do a search on this since there are a number of threads out there on this same issue.

firefly is right. i was in banking and have switched to pursuing medicine as well. you may have just had a bad experience at the hospital, so don't let that be your deciding factor.

the best way to figure out whether to do banking or not as a career is to somehow manage to secure a summer analyst position with a firm - you will be doing the typical stuff a college grad does over the course of 8-12 weeks during a summer and will get paid nicely to do so

in order to really survive in the banking environment, you really have to be motivated by money - good luck!

 

[Law2Doc]

heyy everbody,
so i just finished up my first year at a community college, and was going towards an econ degree and hopefully work my way into the finance world once i graduated. but as i volunteer at the hospital (no particular reason), i question whether i want to work towards becoming a doctor. Over the past i always thought i would hopefully become a doctor, but recently have changed to finance world. So now i am wondering can anyone offer any advice? The thing is though, after volunteering in the hospital, i would NOT want to be a physician or at least think i wouldnt, but am very attracted to surgery.
I believe i could make alot more money in the finance world, but something about surgery attracts me and i cannot pinpoint what. Maybe the respect, prestige, excitement, or whatever it is.
can anyone offer any advice please?

thanks

Everything you've written suggests medicine would be a really bad path for you. The fact that you are weighing two totally unrelated options suggests against medicine. The fact that you recently changed interest to finance makes it clear you are not ready to make a decade long committment to schooling and training at this juncture. The fact that you would not want to be a physician (you probably mean clinician) makes it unlikely you would thrive in med school -- you have to get through 4 years of med school before you can focus in on surgery, and honestly, a lot of being a surgeon involves clinician-type stuff. Lots of pre-op and post-op clinical visits and management tend to exceed the actual OR time. I'd research this a lot more before you go down this road because if you don't want to be a clinician, you will only like a portion of surgery. And finally, money and prestige are really not good indicators of liking a career, and won't sustain you through a 10 year schooling/training path where you will have neither. Getting up at 4am every morning (surgery is a very early starting, long houred path) is going to be tough if you aren't doing it primarily because you enjoy it, rather than because of some secondary benefits. So yeah, it's really an easy decision for you. You don't want medicine based on your post. Good luck in finance.

 

[TheElement]

Another Finance major here. I originally started out as a biology major but decided to try something new to test if medicine was really for me or not. I really think it's important to have different perspectives and exposures to different fields to make sure that your future career is a good fit for you.

I agree with the other posters, you should try shadowing a physician from dawn until dusk to see the stuff you'd miss as a volunteer. A couple years ago I was in a shadowing program where I'd just follow the doctor around for 4 hours a day. Basically I just saw the interesting part of their day. Now that I've done a 7-5 pm (sometimes 7) stint 5 days a week, I have a MUCH greater appreciation for the work that physicians do.

 

[Law2Doc]

Now that I've done a 7-5 pm (sometimes 7) stint 5 days a week,

If you want to get a good experience seeing the actual life/hours of a young surgeon, just swap every 5 and 7 in this above quote with the opposite, actually.

 

[TheElement]

Haha funny how that works out perfectly.

 

[Compass]

There's two questions to ask at this point.

A. Would you enjoy it?
B. Would you be able to support yourself?



You seem to enjoy surgery. How much have you watched? Open heart? Laparoscopy(sp)? Cardiac Cath? Make sure you can stomach it. The last thing you need it to pass out during Open Heart when the doctor decides to pull the heart out a bit to show it to you, or trip and fall on a patient because you're clumsy.

Are you able to support a medical school career? You'll have to set aside some time for classes, and then after that, apply and then pay your way through medical school. Chances are, you may not have time to use that Finance degree you have to pay off medical school bills if time constraints are tight.

 

[sirus_virus]

If you want to get a good experience seeing the actual life/hours of a young surgeon, just swap every 5 and 7 in this above quote with the opposite, actually.

5 - 7 is a normal day in surgery; those guys push 80 hours and a few divorces easily.

 

[bwonger06]

Continue to take your prereqs with your business classes. Also keep up either volunteering or a business internship. Since you are only a second year student I would do medical volunteering first because you do not have enough bussiness experience to intern. Then come junior year you can decide if you want to continue on doing medicine and prep for the mcat. Personally I am finance premed and I still do not know what I am going to do. I will take my mcat senior year and take some time off going into the business/real estate sector and if I do not like it I can apply to medical school with all my prereqs and mcat already done.

 

[captain bhangra]

thanks for the responses...
i guess i will just start taking pre med classes??

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

Fireflygirl was dead on the money based on my experience in finance too.

Only things to add are that academic work is VERY different from working in a finance or accounting capacity at a firm, for me accounting coursework came easy & was enjoyable, but working as a finance guy in several accounting groups showed me that I'd never be able to handle that level of sameness as a 30 yr. career. The best thing that could happen was everything fit into the right account, all accruals were done, and the month end close didn't require anyone to stay past 7pm that last day or two of the month. Repeat every 30 days.

Medicine came as a later calling to me, too. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going the business route and seeing what you think of it after a few years, I'd considered premed many years ago but went econ instead. You can always come back if you change your mind. Just make sure your grades are very high so the option to do medicine in the future remains available!

 

[txprodigal]

Only things to add are that academic work is VERY different from working in a finance or accounting capacity at a firm, for me accounting coursework came easy & was enjoyable, but working as a finance guy in several accounting groups showed me that I'd never be able to handle that level of sameness as a 30 yr. career. The best thing that could happen was everything fit into the right account, all accruals were done, and the month end close didn't require anyone to stay past 7pm that last day or two of the month. Repeat every 30 days.

great post, i really enjoyed the theoretical academic models that we discussed in my finance/economics classes, but when i got to the real world and realized how repetitive it was and how different the work was - it was an eye opener

 

[likeachild]

Fireflygirl was dead on the money based on my experience in finance too.

Only things to add are that academic work is VERY different from working in a finance or accounting capacity at a firm, for me accounting coursework came easy & was enjoyable, but working as a finance guy in several accounting groups showed me that I'd never be able to handle that level of sameness as a 30 yr. career. The best thing that could happen was everything fit into the right account, all accruals were done, and the month end close didn't require anyone to stay past 7pm that last day or two of the month. Repeat every 30 days.

Medicine came as a later calling to me, too. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going the business route and seeing what you think of it after a few years, I'd considered premed many years ago but went econ instead. You can always come back if you change your mind. Just make sure your grades are very high so the option to do medicine in the future remains available!

How difficult is it to drop a paying job (monotonous as it may be) and go back to school? I am currently trying to decide whether to commit to this entire medical school thing. I kind of want to get a job and start working after I graduate from college, but I'm also interested in becoming a doctor. Don't know if I should go straight from college into med school or start working and go to med school later. It it better to decide now and do the traditional med school route or go to med school later?

 

[TheElement]

You can also consider the fact that it's a lot easier to go from the business world -> medicine than the other way around.

 

[8mile]

some figures for thought: I want to get into medicine, but finance folks have it nice too.

http://www.hrg.net/index.php/job_post/listing/4

 

[bwonger06]

some figures for thought: I want to get into medicine, but finance folks have it nice too.

http://www.hrg.net/index.php/job_post/listing/4

the figures are a little misleading. The people who get those kind of jobs are the top finance people with lots of experience, recommendations and references. Like medicine, business people have their own residency... a financial analyst. You do all the scum work and there is no way around it and if you are not good, too bad. So either way, medicine or business there is no easy way out.

 

[8mile]

the figures are a little misleading. The people who get those kind of jobs are the top finance people with lots of experience, recommendations and references. Like medicine, business people have their own residency... a financial analyst. You do all the scum work and there is no way around it and if you are not good, too bad. So either way, medicine or business there is no easy way out.

If money is your goal, like others who have echoed the same response, the potential is there in finance, the jobs I listed are mostly merit based. Analysts make money while med students pay to study.

Easy way out is to marry rich.

 

[txprodigal]

some figures for thought: I want to get into medicine, but finance folks have it nice too.

http://www.hrg.net/index.php/job_post/listing/4

i don't think some people understand how brilliant you have to be to get those quantitative trading positions. these individuals are usually PhDs in mathematics or physics who are hired straight out of grad school to come do the algorithmic trading - those jobs are EXTREMELY competitive, and i am sure beyond a doubt that most students interested in medicine would have a hard time obtaining such a position as they require an amazing comfort level with math as well as with computer programming

How difficult is it to drop a paying job (monotonous as it may be) and go back to school? I am currently trying to decide whether to commit to this entire medical school thing. I kind of want to get a job and start working after I graduate from college, but I'm also interested in becoming a doctor. Don't know if I should go straight from college into med school or start working and go to med school later. It it better to decide now and do the traditional med school route or go to med school later?

it wasn't too difficult for me to quit my job, because i was miserable waking up every morning to the alarm clock, but it is very hard to let go of that paycheck if anything else

a nice, steady paycheck every 2 weeks is something i really miss, but i think that by working in the real world and then doing the post bacc route, i have really seen what is out there and feel like i will have the miserable memories of the cubicle to comfort me when i am having a hard time in med school or residency

the figures are a little misleading. The people who get those kind of jobs are the top finance people with lots of experience, recommendations and references. Like medicine, business people have their own residency... a financial analyst. You do all the scum work and there is no way around it and if you are not good, too bad. So either way, medicine or business there is no easy way out.

yeah, you're right on - the financial analyst positions are the most tedious, boring positions, but that's where you learn the bulk of what you'll be doing and start your climb from the bottom rung

there are tons of financial analysts, even less senior financial analysts, even less financial managers and so on - you get weeded out as you progress upwards, so there is by no means a guarantee that you will be earning good money

like everything else in life, you gotta work hard for it.

 

[batman1983]

Man, another finance vs medicine thread.....Seriously, is that the only two options out there for careers? It is interesting to note the strong tendency of ppl to either choose medicine or finance.

You should know that finance generally makes less than medicine, especially specialized medicine. The only trade off is less years of schooling and education expenses. I make as much as general physicians without the extra schooling. However, finance is a very unstable field, whereas with medicine, you will have job security.

As for your questions, let me start off first by saying: Finance is a very broad term, so what kind of finance would you think about doing? Ie, valuations, trading, etc. As for me, I work at an IB(hey, I got to pay off college and 3 rounds of med apps), and switched from valuation/origination to trading. My perspectives of finance in those fields are from working at an IB, so they probably represent the extremes in the fields of finance(culture, hours, pay, etc).

In terms of environment and tasks, they are pretty different from one another. Valuation/Corporate Finance has longer hours(80-100hrs/wk at analyst level), higher initial pay, and more bitch/bull**** work(a lot of face time doing nothing). Also, the culture is alot more formal and etc.

As for trading, its a different kind of beast. I almost want to make the analogy that its like a frat house built on money. Its a lot less formal and pretentious as Corporate Finance. The hours are less(60+), the money is slightly less at bottom levels(but has higher growth potential and higher max level based on how good you are), but its a lot more stressful(ie, its gambling, so there is a lot stress if things dont go your way). As for me, I enjoy trading. Maybe its the adrenaline rush or the less formal nature of the job. Thats why I think I would kick ass as a surgeon .