Money's great, but it also won't fix all of your problems.

[RedRaider2013]

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It's been a while. I think I've been lurking on SDN since I was in undergrad way back in 2008. I've been working steadily since finishing my MBA in 2013. Since then I've experienced a fair amount of success in banking. The last 4 years actually seemed pretty good - nothing to do with the job, but I had some really good friends in the office and I was in a senior position in a small organization. I was content and complacent -enough to not think about things for a change. I recently started a new banking job at the SVP level (first 6 figure job) but I can't feel anything but emptiness and regret. I'm beginning to realize that my friends and lifestyle masked the emptiness I felt in my career. This is a great opportunity, but I'm not excited in the slightest. I'll be 31 next month and while still relatively young, I can't imagine staying in banking or finance for the remainder of my career, despite the economic upside. I honestly can't think of anything but medicine. Not to mention I just helped to launch a lending platform for new medical residents which stung a bit. Anyway, I suppose I'm just ranting at the moment, but it's imperative that you don't give up on your dream of becoming a physician if that's what you really want. I tried to bury my dream with money and professional development. I've done the math for opportunity costs and ROI, rationalized and justified everything in quantifiable terms, but in the end the only thing that matters is your happiness and wellbeing. Rant over.

 

[Ad2b]

but in the end the only thing that matters is your happiness and wellbeing

FORMER partner big 4/little 8/mediocre 6; FORMER VP audit public company... single mom, BIG $$$

Don't be me. Don't be 40 and starting. Don't be late 30's and wondering. Your life is not defined by what you chose but by what you choose.

Take a class (gen chem or bio) and see if you like it AND if you can get an A. Then take another class and re-evaluate... if the answer keeps being yes and A's... well, soon enough you'll be meeting others on the MCAT forums wondering what books you buy, what passages are the best for review, what the exam entails, and then ...

you won't be me. At 54.

Don't live with regret - life is too short for that! Best of luck to you 🙂

 

[curbsideconsult]

If you're going to do it, do it NOW. You could be an attending in less than 10 years and you'd have a solid 25 year medical career ahead of you. With your successful career, you could probably get into a very good linkage program.

 

[CandH23]

It's been a while. I think I've been lurking on SDN since I was in undergrad way back in 2008. I've been working steadily since finishing my MBA in 2013. Since then I've experienced a fair amount of success in banking. The last 4 years actually seemed pretty good - nothing to do with the job, but I had some really good friends in the office and I was in a senior position in a small organization. I was content and complacent -enough to not think about things for a change. I recently started a new banking job at the SVP level (first 6 figure job) but I can't feel anything but emptiness and regret. I'm beginning to realize that my friends and lifestyle masked the emptiness I felt in my career. This is a great opportunity, but I'm not excited in the slightest. I'll be 31 next month and while still relatively young, I can't imagine staying in banking or finance for the remainder of my career, despite the economic upside. I honestly can't think of anything but medicine. Not to mention I just helped to launch a lending platform for new medical residents which stung a bit. Anyway, I suppose I'm just ranting at the moment, but it's imperative that you don't give up on your dream of becoming a physician if that's what you really want. I tried to bury my dream with money and professional development. I've done the math for opportunity costs and ROI, rationalized and justified everything in quantifiable terms, but in the end the only thing that matters is your happiness and wellbeing. Rant over.

This is facts

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

In 29 years you’re going to be 60 no matter what you choose to do (excluding of course terrible decisions that will get you dead). That time is going to pass anyway. You can either pass the time doing what fulfills you and bettering the people in your life, or you can not. Either way you’ll be old looking back on your life some day. What do you want to see?

 

[QofQuimica]

I would argue that money can actually solve certain problems very nicely -- or at least blunt the potential pain that those problems due to lack of money can cause you. But no, more money beyond what you need to have a standard of living (however you define that) is not going to give your life purpose and meaning. It's a tool to allow you to achieve your goals, not a life goal in and of itself.

 

[M&L]

I read on one of the forums : a girl complaining to her aunt “but I will be 40 when I am finally a doctor “. The aunt :”you’ll be 40 ANYWAY. Would you rather be 40 and a doctor , or just 40?” (I apologize if I am quoting one of you guys without giving credit ).

 

[TheAverageDoctor]

I love that this thread is in the nontraditional applicant forum. My whole desire to start a blog came from being a physician at 30 years old and realizing that I made this decision when I was 19. I can't imagine doing much else that 19-year-old-me wanted to do. If you go into some specialty-specific forums you'll see plenty of physicians who are wishing the exact opposite of you. Unhappy with corporations taking over medicine, unhappy with the fear of NPs/PAs taking their jobs, unhappy with patient satisfaction scores, patient complaints, relying on other specialists who disrespect them, student loans, etc. etc. etc.

I think the key is knowing that you WANT to do something. If you love finance, go for finance. Same goes with tech, farming, truck driving, law, etc.. It's very true that money isn't everything. But was it a Kanye lyric? "Having money's not everything, not having it is"

Maybe it takes some time doing something else to decide you want to be a doc, or maybe it takes time as a doc to realize you want to do something else.

 

[JSReed]

100% agreed. Looking at people in the upper 50% of income, no one sits on their death bed and wishes they were richer-- they wish they were more impactful.

People generally choose careers based on the glorified mental images they have, not on what the actual day-to-day looks like (medicine included). The problem is that when it actually gets tough (long hours, poor work-life balance, suffering social relationships, political environments, any of life's other struggles), people realize that these mental glorifications don't line up with what they're doing, leading to big mental changes (aka midlife crises). So while I think your process is pretty normal (and based on what I've seen of the banking sector, pretty par for the course), its really great that you at least see a pathway out of it.