Qutting Medicine, going into Computers?

[Optimus Spine]

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I don't think anyone else here has the same question I'm about to ask so I'm just going to ask it.

Here's an outline of where I currently stand, please don't slaughter me!

-I'm an IMG 2nd year Medical school thinking of dropping out.

-I was forced into Medicine due to cultural and family pressure. My father refused to pay for any other education and I really had no other choice, I wasn't strong back then but now I know I need to fight back.

-I don't have an undergrad degree, I did a year of college and then went overseas. During that time I was doing poorly (2.8 GPA) due to depression and lack of interest.

-I'm not sure how I would convince colleges why I've been absent for a year with no academic record during that time. If I tell them that I'm quitting Medical school, that would look really bad right?

-I have no interest in competitive fields, I know I'm an IMG and I can probably just get Internal Med but I have little desire to practice.

-I enjoy all kinds of tech related stuff. Latest gadgets, tweaking comps, messing with all things tech. I don't have any work to show colleges aside from an iOS program I've been working on, but because of Medical school, I wasn't able to finish it.

-I'm not sure what the best IT related field would be for future prospects? Because I'm going to have a lot of debt piled up (will have to pay my dad back)

Is my life ruined?

 

[Lokhtar]

No you've grown a spine as your username suggests and matured as a person. The debt will be an issue but a lot of kids have large amount of undergrad debt these days. Go to a cheap uni to make it not as painful and enjoy your life. Going from IT to medicine, I know firsthand what it feels like to dread every day because you hate your career. It's not worth it.

 

[Mattchiavelli]

this post reminded me of something in The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-mom-i-finally-learned-computers,9769/

More seriously, look into medical informatics. I know a couple of docs that do this, one does no clinical work and one does like 2 half days of primary care clinic. The one that no longer does clinical work spoke at a leadership retreat our school had and his research project for his peds residency was developing a program that allowed a doctor to basically run a NICU on a palm device. Also check out the Society of Physicians with Non-Clinical Careers (just google it, too lazy to link)

 

[OveractiveBrain]

I don't think anyone else here has the same question I'm about to ask so I'm just going to ask it.

Here's an outline of where I currently stand, please don't slaughter me!

-I'm an IMG 2nd year Medical school thinking of dropping out.

-I was forced into Medicine due to cultural and family pressure. My father refused to pay for any other education and I really had no other choice, I wasn't strong back then but now I know I need to fight back.

-I don't have an undergrad degree, I did a year of college and then went overseas. During that time I was doing poorly (2.8 GPA) due to depression and lack of interest.

-I'm not sure how I would convince colleges why I've been absent for a year with no academic record during that time. If I tell them that I'm quitting Medical school, that would look really bad right?

-I have no interest in competitive fields, I know I'm an IMG and I can probably just get Internal Med but I have little desire to practice.

-I enjoy all kinds of tech related stuff. Latest gadgets, tweaking comps, messing with all things tech. I don't have any work to show colleges aside from an iOS program I've been working on, but because of Medical school, I wasn't able to finish it.

-I'm not sure what the best IT related field would be for future prospects? Because I'm going to have a lot of debt piled up (will have to pay my dad back)

Is my life ruined?

Learn PERL and Linux, move to San Fransisco, join a startup. Done.

 

[Rollo]

Do you mind if I ask you what your nationality is?

Anyway, your life is definitely NOT ruined. As somebody mentioned, debt is not that uncommon nowadays amongst young people and 2 years of debt (I'm assuming the debt is less than 80K since you're at an international med school which are cheaper) is NOTHING when you compare it to being stuck in a career that you aren't passionate about.

Except for top-tier colleges, most colleges don't really care about your academic background so long as you have a reasonable explanation. You do.

Not sure if you will find an answer to your last question about the best IT field on here. You need to look for that somewhere else on a tech forum.

There is a valuable lesson to be learned from your experience: don't be pressured and coerced into making a decision that you aren't fully committed to. Your parents might have the best intentions for you, but they need to stop being selfish and let you decide what's best for you. You aren't a kid anymore.

 

[Food]

this post reminded me of something in The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-mom-i-finally-learned-computers,9769/

More seriously, look into medical informatics. I know a couple of docs that do this, one does no clinical work and one does like 2 half days of primary care clinic. The one that no longer does clinical work spoke at a leadership retreat our school had and his research project for his peds residency was developing a program that allowed a doctor to basically run a NICU on a palm device. Also check out the Society of Physicians with Non-Clinical Careers (just google it, too lazy to link)

Do you need to complete a residency to do most of the non-clinical options (i.e. consulting, malpractice, etc)? I assume you would. It might be a time investment, and you might hate doing the residency, but the returns would be pretty good. Consultants can live pretty comfortably.

Your other option is to drop out and figure out a way to either get more loans to finish your bachelors, or make some money. Things are going to be hard, be ready to accept that. I'm assuming going through with this means your dad is cutting you off. How much debt are we talking? Can you take out stafford loans to finish your undergrad? You might even be able to get grants. I think it might be a good idea to start at a CC and transfer to a 4 year state school if that's possible. I'm in Florida, and there are state laws that actually guarantee CC students a transfer to a 4 year university. If you ace your ****, you could probably get into one of the better state schools. Then finish your undergrad and start a graduate degree. Then start applying for jobs. I think you'd probably need a masters at least, but I could be wrong. The job market is a little unpredictable right now.

 

[235009]

Do you need to complete a residency to do most of the non-clinical options (i.e. consulting, malpractice, etc)? I assume you would. It might be a time investment, and you might hate doing the residency, but the returns would be pretty good. Consultants can live pretty comfortably.

you don't need to do a residency to do consulting. no consulting firm will hire a caribbean grad.

 

[Lokhtar]

Do you need to complete a residency to do most of the non-clinical options (i.e. consulting, malpractice, etc)? I assume you would. It might be a time investment, and you might hate doing the residency, but the returns would be pretty good. Consultants can live pretty comfortably.

Your other option is to drop out and figure out a way to either get more loans to finish your bachelors, or make some money. Things are going to be hard, be ready to accept that. I'm assuming going through with this means your dad is cutting you off. How much debt are we talking? Can you take out stafford loans to finish your undergrad? You might even be able to get grants. I think it might be a good idea to start at a CC and transfer to a 4 year state school if that's possible. I'm in Florida, and there are state laws that actually guarantee CC students a transfer to a 4 year university. If you ace your ****, you could probably get into one of the better state schools. Then finish your undergrad and start a graduate degree. Then start applying for jobs. I think you'd probably need a masters at least, but I could be wrong. The job market is a little unpredictable right now.

A degree in something like CS does not require a masters. If you're decent you can make $70k starting salary quite easily. However, if you have $200k in debt, that is going to make it very difficult. Your best bet would then be to work in some sort of government or non profit and try to to the public service loan forgiveness program (hope its still running).

Think of it as a morgage without the house. It sucks, but you have to decide what's more important, being happy or being in debt.

Now, this is assuming that you've decided that NO field in medicine is good enough for you. There are several fields of medicine you could do, and even finish a residency, that are not competitive and then go into a IT/technical area which may work out better. You would be valuable to many companies who are trying to create software/hardware in that area, and perhaps you could do it yourself as well if you are a strong developer.

Obviously if by consulting people mean 'mckinsey & company' then they are just being ridiculous - they hire directly out of places like Harvard and Yale.

So I think my first suggestion is that IF YOU CAN bull through it and finish, you should and then go into something else. If you can't then cut your losses short ASAP and find a way from there.

Good luck man.

 

[DepressedDoc]

No you've grown a spine as your username suggests and matured as a person. The debt will be an issue but a lot of kids have large amount of undergrad debt these days. Go to a cheap uni to make it not as painful and enjoy your life. Going from IT to medicine, I know firsthand what it feels like to dread every day because you hate your career. It's not worth it.

Can I ask you something? I just need an honest answer. One of the big things still making me hesitate is that I know at least NINE other people who have worked in IT, quit their jobs and went to medical school. What's so bad about the field that makes people run away so much? Is it the pay? Lack of advancement? Outsourcing? I hear that the older you get in IT, the less valuable you are and once you're in your 50s, it becomes almost impossible to maintain a job. Do you ever make a figure similar to a general physician?

this post reminded me of something in The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-mom-i-finally-learned-computers,9769/

More seriously, look into medical informatics. I know a couple of docs that do this, one does no clinical work and one does like 2 half days of primary care clinic. The one that no longer does clinical work spoke at a leadership retreat our school had and his research project for his peds residency was developing a program that allowed a doctor to basically run a NICU on a palm device. Also check out the Society of Physicians with Non-Clinical Careers (just google it, too lazy to link)

Wow that looks great. But how would I be able to enter such a field as an IMG? I'm pretty sure that with my current motivation in medicine, I would barely pass the usmle. Could an unlicensed mbbs like me get into a field like this? What would be the process?

Learn PERL and Linux, move to San Fransisco, join a startup. Done.

I love San Francisco 🙂 but to get there I'd have to get into a good College which is the primary problem. What would I say to colleges (good ones) that would convince them to accept me?

Do you mind if I ask you what your nationality is?

Anyway, your life is definitely NOT ruined. As somebody mentioned, debt is not that uncommon nowadays amongst young people and 2 years of debt (I'm assuming the debt is less than 80K since you're at an international med school which are cheaper) is NOTHING when you compare it to being stuck in a career that you aren't passionate about.

Except for top-tier colleges, most colleges don't really care about your academic background so long as you have a reasonable explanation. You do.

Not sure if you will find an answer to your last question about the best IT field on here. You need to look for that somewhere else on a tech forum.

There is a valuable lesson to be learned from your experience: don't be pressured and coerced into making a decision that you aren't fully committed to. Your parents might have the best intentions for you, but they need to stop being selfish and let you decide what's best for you. You aren't a kid anymore.

But what's the reason I would give colleges? My English isn't that grey because it isn't the first language I learned. By the way I'm Indian, this cultural pressure is a HUGE problem in Asian culture. 🙁

 

[Fleur de Me]

Do you mind if I ask you what your nationality is?

Anyway, your life is definitely NOT ruined. As somebody mentioned, debt is not that uncommon nowadays amongst young people and 2 years of debt (I'm assuming the debt is less than 80K since you're at an international med school which are cheaper) is NOTHING when you compare it to being stuck in a career that you aren't passionate about.
.

Do you even have debt, Optimus? You mentioned your dad was paying for your education (in medicine)?

If debt isn't a crippling issue, there's absolutely no reason to stay in something you don't like. Medicine isn't something you should do if you really don't feel motivated by something personal- it is hard even then, forget about making it through the rest of med school, residency, and a career doing something you don't enjoy.

If CS is what you want to do, great! But sometimes the joy of getting an undergraduate degree is exploring all kinds of fields- so take this opportunity to consider going back to undergrad, get yourself together, and try to find something that inspires you as a career.

Best of luck!

 

[Lokhtar]

Can I ask you something? I just need an honest answer. One of the big things still making me hesitate is that I know at least NINE other people who have worked in IT, quit their jobs and went to medical school. What's so bad about the field that makes people run away so much? Is it the pay? Lack of advancement? Outsourcing? I hear that the older you get in IT, the less valuable you are and once you're in your 50s, it becomes almost impossible to maintain a job. Do you ever make a figure similar to a general physician?

Well a lot of people leave IT because theoretical IT is very different from practical IT. Basically, I went into IT because I loved tinkering with computers, figuring things out, learning about the latest technology, writing code (I'm still very proud of the first piece real piece of code I wrote - a set of drivers for my sound card for Linux while I was in high school). That was exciting and I would have loved to do that.

Unfortunately, for many (and I am sure there are exceptions), IT in practice is not like that. Much of your time is spent doing problems that are not exciting but very mind-numbingly boring - you are basically coding a very simple program (e.g, not intellectually challenging) but which has ten thousand business rules that you have to implement separately, write hundreds of pages of documentation, and then perhaps support that and deal with that nightmare. You just spent six months of your life doing something with no real challenge except repetitive boredom - write this code which implements a random business rule - test - document - send it off to user - they want the rule changed - rinse and repeat. Nothing clever, just a bunch of if statements. And then, you write a system for another purpose but with the same constraints, and there go another six months. That's what development is like. Forever. You are there until 7-8 or 9pm when deadlines are coming, doing the same boring thing again, and again, and again.

On the other hand, maybe you're not coding and are doing Network Administration. Your job then is also repetitive. Apply patches. Fix ******* viruses cause people can't stop clicking random links. Apply more patches. Go home. Get paged cause there's an infection. Come in and apply more patches.

E.g, the thing that draws people to IT (fixing interesting problems, solving puzzles) largely goes away unless you're in companies and subfields that allow you to do that (and those are very very few). And to make it worse, most times you're in a cubicle working by yourself and have no face-to-face interaction with other people for 90% of your workday. I personally also know at least five other people who have gone from IT to medicine (three are now practicing physicians and have become my 'mentors' and have also encouraged me to do the same thing).

As for making money, yes you can make 'general physician salary' figures but it's not common and in most cases, you will need to go into management for that, or advance into a very expert and specific level....unless you strike it lucky with an internet type company, that won't happen for 15-20+ years, if it ever happens at all. And yes, there are also huge issues with advancement (many in IT can expect to spend their lives without much of a promotion, as many companies hire non IT people to manage IT people), and the fact that in many cases a person in their fifties is easily discarded by a new college graduate as they are seen to be more 'in tune' with the latest technologies (and the fact that you can work them into the ground while the guy in his fifties will resist that).

I hope that helps. I don't want to discourage you from doing IT, as many people do enjoy it. But I just wanted you to have my personal experience and experience of several other people who've decided it's not for us. 🙂

And for the record, my job was better than most and I did enjoy a lot of it. For me, it was more of a case of being attracted to medicine, rather than running away from IT.

 

[TheSurrealDoc]

I'm surprised that nobody has suggested finance. Optimus is probably good at math and jobs like investment banking analysis nets good salaries.

 

[sergioxl]

Optimus, from what I am hearing here, the only thing you need to concern yourself with is to choose something that you would LIKE to do.

Do not make the same mistake again, because IT is a very diverse field and you might easily choose something that would be equally as boring as medical school seems to be.

If you do what your heart wants, I am sure that all else will fall into place (including sorting out the debt).

 

[Shadowmoses]

Can I ask you something? I just need an honest answer. One of the big things still making me hesitate is that I know at least NINE other people who have worked in IT, quit their jobs and went to medical school. What's so bad about the field that makes people run away so much? Is it the pay? Lack of advancement? Outsourcing? I hear that the older you get in IT, the less valuable you are and once you're in your 50s, it becomes almost impossible to maintain a job. Do you ever make a figure similar to a general physician?

I went from working in IT for a few years to going to medical school. To give you an honest answer of why people tend to hate IT, I found a very honest blog which seems to hit the nail on the head why IT sucks for so many people. I refer people to this blog when they ask me why I changed careers lol.

http://doodlekit.com/blog/entry/55860/top-10-reasons-why-corporate-it-sucks

 

[ArcGurren]

Well a lot of people leave IT because theoretical IT is very different from practical IT. Basically, I went into IT because I loved tinkering with computers, figuring things out, learning about the latest technology, writing code (I'm still very proud of the first piece real piece of code I wrote - a set of drivers for my sound card for Linux while I was in high school). That was exciting and I would have loved to do that.

Unfortunately, for many (and I am sure there are exceptions), IT in practice is not like that. Much of your time is spent doing problems that are not exciting but very mind-numbingly boring - you are basically coding a very simple program (e.g, not intellectually challenging) but which has ten thousand business rules that you have to implement separately, write hundreds of pages of documentation, and then perhaps support that and deal with that nightmare. You just spent six months of your life doing something with no real challenge except repetitive boredom - write this code which implements a random business rule - test - document - send it off to user - they want the rule changed - rinse and repeat. Nothing clever, just a bunch of if statements. And then, you write a system for another purpose but with the same constraints, and there go another six months. That's what development is like. Forever. You are there until 7-8 or 9pm when deadlines are coming, doing the same boring thing again, and again, and again.

On the other hand, maybe you're not coding and are doing Network Administration. Your job then is also repetitive. Apply patches. Fix ******* viruses cause people can't stop clicking random links. Apply more patches. Go home. Get paged cause there's an infection. Come in and apply more patches.

E.g, the thing that draws people to IT (fixing interesting problems, solving puzzles) largely goes away unless you're in companies and subfields that allow you to do that (and those are very very few). And to make it worse, most times you're in a cubicle working by yourself and have no face-to-face interaction with other people for 90% of your workday. I personally also know at least five other people who have gone from IT to medicine (three are now practicing physicians and have become my 'mentors' and have also encouraged me to do the same thing).

As for making money, yes you can make 'general physician salary' figures but it's not common and in most cases, you will need to go into management for that, or advance into a very expert and specific level....unless you strike it lucky with an internet type company, that won't happen for 15-20+ years, if it ever happens at all. And yes, there are also huge issues with advancement (many in IT can expect to spend their lives without much of a promotion, as many companies hire non IT people to manage IT people), and the fact that in many cases a person in their fifties is easily discarded by a new college graduate as they are seen to be more 'in tune' with the latest technologies (and the fact that you can work them into the ground while the guy in his fifties will resist that).

I hope that helps. I don't want to discourage you from doing IT, as many people do enjoy it. But I just wanted you to have my personal experience and experience of several other people who've decided it's not for us. 🙂

And for the record, my job was better than most and I did enjoy a lot of it. For me, it was more of a case of being attracted to medicine, rather than running away from IT.

This x 1000. My mother is a computer engineer who worked in IT for many years and she even told me that the job was mind-numbingly dull. And this was when computer programming was the "hot" field and everything was new and shiny and stuff was being made that was revolutionary.

Another point - the office environment can be pretty variable but in her case it was atrociously bad; people were always bucking for promotions and backstabbing other people. My parents are immigrants so they were sort of shocked at this behavior and eventually she just quit the whole nonsense, and decided to teach compsci, which gives her more freedom. Plus it allows her to go back to theoretical discovery, which is what drew her to it in the first place.

OP I wish you the best in whatever you choose to do. Leaving the field/dropping out of medical school isn't easy and if you're in the kind of family situation I'm guessing, it's probably pretty rough on your family too. But frankly it's not worth it to kill yourself doing a job you don't like. I also had some family pressure to go into medicine but I found out fortuitously that I love surgery, so... yeah. There you go.

 

[Food]

you don't need to do a residency to do consulting. no consulting firm will hire a caribbean grad.

Well yeah, I figured.

 

[MedicalBeast]

if you have any interest in medicine, stick it out and try to incorporate your passion for IT into your speciality. otherwise if your totally not feeling it, then it wouldn't be a problem to get into a college for a compsci/engineering degree. come on, you got into med school! thats like the hardest thing to get into.

 

[Mattchiavelli]

There are no specific residencies for medical informatics but some IM residencies will give you the time and be interested in helping you develop your skills.

I will say this regarding school and transferring- if you quit with just preclinical years done, the classes you took were a waste unless they can transfer credits or something. From what I understand, if you really want to go into IT as a physician you need to stay and do an internship to get licensed, then you can market yourself as a licensed physician. Just having an MD isn't beans really- go into IT now and you will be on the same level as people that just have a degree in CIS, IT, informatics, etc (once you finish that degree of course). The clinical experience from just those three years will give you a lifetime of BS that needs the attention of a possible consulting group you could be a part of. It will be tougher to go a nontraditional route but it is not impossible.

Anyway you really need to talk to your father to figure out what consequences you'll face for quitting before you can make your decision. This is the kind of thing that gets kids written out of wills.

 

[womp]

come on, you got into med school! thats like the hardest thing to get into.

I'm assuming he's at a Caribbean school. Got a low GPA (2.8) first year of undergrad, panicked about his medical school chances, and transferred to a direct entry Caribbean school probably under parental pressure.

 

[Optimus Spine]

I'm assuming he's at a Caribbean school. Got a low GPA (2.8) first year of undergrad, panicked about his medical school chances, and transferred to a direct entry Caribbean school probably under parental pressure.

This is exactly correct. But instead of Caribbean I went to India. I'm sure it's all the same because we have people from USA here as well.


Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. After reading them though, I feel like I'm making a stupid decision in dropping out 🙁 What do you guys say? I don't think that as an IMG, I have much markatability as a non-clinical guy.

 

[ArcGurren]

This is exactly correct. But instead of Caribbean I went to India. I'm sure it's all the same because we have people from USA here as well.


Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. After reading them though, I feel like I'm making a stupid decision in dropping out 🙁 What do you guys say? I don't think that as an IMG, I have much markatability as a non-clinical guy.

I have family friends who also went to some of the IMG schools in India (Manipal comes to mind). They're good schools but if you're really not keen on doing medicine it's better to get out early and before your parents keep spending more money.

As for marketability, dunno

 

[Food]

This is exactly correct. But instead of Caribbean I went to India. I'm sure it's all the same because we have people from USA here as well.


Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. After reading them though, I feel like I'm making a stupid decision in dropping out 🙁 What do you guys say? I don't think that as an IMG, I have much markatability as a non-clinical guy.

I say drop out. You're right about the marketability. It's a very risky decision and you are definitely not going the safe route. But if you really feel passionately enough about it, you have no choice but to take the dangerous road and hope for a better outcome. Just be prepared to work your ass off, and be a little old by the time you finally get to a good point. However, since you skipped 3 years of college to go straight to medschool, I'd say you're not all that behind.

Once you drop out, just look for opportunities. Any and all opportunities that could potentially lead you to a decent tech career, be it medically related or not. I wasn't able to get a good idea of what particular focus you are thinking of, but if you are open minded, just investigate a lot of potential paths. It's all going to come down to proper planning. I guarantee that if you approach this thing with maturity and a good plan in hand, even your parents will end up being proud of you some day.

Disclaimer: This is just my honest opinion about the whole situation based on what you told us. It might not be the best advice since I don't know you personally. I think you should get as many opinions and perspectives as possible so you can rest knowing you at least considered every option before you decided on one.

 

[yorku]

medicine is way too diverse to pass it by....
This is from some one who is from IT (masters of computer science)
Your opportunities are endless in medicine (research surgery teaching)

 

[kcin]

tl;dr post.

Are you sure you'll fit?

 

[mac_kin]

Well a lot of people leave IT because theoretical IT is very different from practical IT. Basically, I went into IT because I loved tinkering with computers, figuring things out, learning about the latest technology, writing code (I'm still very proud of the first piece real piece of code I wrote - a set of drivers for my sound card for Linux while I was in high school). That was exciting and I would have loved to do that.

Unfortunately, for many (and I am sure there are exceptions), IT in practice is not like that. Much of your time is spent doing problems that are not exciting but very mind-numbingly boring - you are basically coding a very simple program (e.g, not intellectually challenging) but which has ten thousand business rules that you have to implement separately, write hundreds of pages of documentation, and then perhaps support that and deal with that nightmare. You just spent six months of your life doing something with no real challenge except repetitive boredom - write this code which implements a random business rule - test - document - send it off to user - they want the rule changed - rinse and repeat. Nothing clever, just a bunch of if statements. And then, you write a system for another purpose but with the same constraints, and there go another six months. That's what development is like. Forever. You are there until 7-8 or 9pm when deadlines are coming, doing the same boring thing again, and again, and again.

On the other hand, maybe you're not coding and are doing Network Administration. Your job then is also repetitive. Apply patches. Fix ******* viruses cause people can't stop clicking random links. Apply more patches. Go home. Get paged cause there's an infection. Come in and apply more patches.

E.g, the thing that draws people to IT (fixing interesting problems, solving puzzles) largely goes away unless you're in companies and subfields that allow you to do that (and those are very very few). And to make it worse, most times you're in a cubicle working by yourself and have no face-to-face interaction with other people for 90% of your workday. I personally also know at least five other people who have gone from IT to medicine (three are now practicing physicians and have become my 'mentors' and have also encouraged me to do the same thing).

As for making money, yes you can make 'general physician salary' figures but it's not common and in most cases, you will need to go into management for that, or advance into a very expert and specific level....unless you strike it lucky with an internet type company, that won't happen for 15-20+ years, if it ever happens at all. And yes, there are also huge issues with advancement (many in IT can expect to spend their lives without much of a promotion, as many companies hire non IT people to manage IT people), and the fact that in many cases a person in their fifties is easily discarded by a new college graduate as they are seen to be more 'in tune' with the latest technologies (and the fact that you can work them into the ground while the guy in his fifties will resist that).

I hope that helps. I don't want to discourage you from doing IT, as many people do enjoy it. But I just wanted you to have my personal experience and experience of several other people who've decided it's not for us. 🙂

And for the record, my job was better than most and I did enjoy a lot of it. For me, it was more of a case of being attracted to medicine, rather than running away from IT.

^^agree

 

[mac_kin]

2

 

[michaelrack]

If you finish MD and don't even do residency you could try working at a consulting group like BCG -> travel the world, provide business consulting to hospitals/health care groups. BCG offers internships for 2-3 months which you could potentially do during a summer in med school to see if you like it.
!

This isn't possible for the OP, he is doing med school in India

 

[sunset823]

OP, you don't have to think you are a unique little snowflake, you have no idea how many (usually desi) kids come on SDN bemoaning the fact their parents forced them into medicine because they apparently didn't have balls when they were 17 or 18 🙄

Anyway, as a person who came into medical school from a completely different career who has a sibling in IT (and who is interested in IT myself, though I don't have any training in it), I'd say tread carefully. I would echo what a lot of other people have said previously that 'computer science' doesn't necessarily mean you get to play with gadgets all day. To get a job at the places, like Apple and Google, that do that stuff, you need to go to school at Stanford or the equivalent, which seems very unlikely with a 2.8 freshman year and two years at an Indian med school behind you. (Really, there is more fun techie stuff going on in the military and certain consulting firms, like Booz Allen Hamilton, but I digress).

Basically, without a fancy schmancy college degree and resume, your chances are slim to none that you will get a well paying, interesting IT job. You'll likely be stuck in a cubicle or doing Geek Squad style repairs. My bro went to a state school for undergrad, but one with an excellent engineering program, and he worked his way up to where he is now - and trust me, it is WORK - he has hours probably as bad or worse than most doctors. You also have to have a very exuberant, extroverted personality to get into more of the business side of things where the money is made. If you are an introvert or a geek, you won't exactly get the six figures overnight.

As for your parents and them paying for school, I know those NRI schools can be expensive, but look at it this way, it is sunk cost for your dad. What's the worst that can happen if you drop out and refuse to pay him back? He won't let you in the house? big whoop, get a job and find your own place to live. They'll come around eventually when they see you've done something with your life.

So, I guess in sum: do what you enjoy, but you have to decide whether working (hard) your way through boring IT jobs would make you happier than just pushing your way through medicine. I can guarantee you are not going to get your dream job.

(for the record, there are plenty of very technology heavy medical specialties - radiology or radonc (which you likely won't match into), or some internal medicine subspecialties - e.g., critical care, a specialty I am very interested in cuz you get to play with a lot of cool toys, like the electronic ICU someone talked about above)

 

[Untraditional]

-I was forced into Medicine due to cultural and family pressure. My father refused to pay for any other education and I really had no other choice, I wasn't strong back then but now I know I need to fight back.

-I have no interest in competitive fields, I know I'm an IMG and I can probably just get Internal Med but I have little desire to practice.

Is my life ruined?

Well first, for your sake, the sake of your patients and your future colleagues get out as fast as you can. If you don't kill yourself someday you will end up seriously harming someone else through apathy.

Your life will only be ruined if you allow it to be. You already know medicine isn't for you, don't waste your life wallowing in it. Maybe some of your preclinical classes can be used toward transfer credits?

 

[Rollo]

Tough job, tough day, tough world. Life is not always sweet. That's life!

Captain Obvious strikes!

 

[Dcr4Med]

Well a lot of people leave IT because theoretical IT is very different from practical IT. Basically, I went into IT because I loved tinkering with computers, figuring things out, learning about the latest technology, writing code (I'm still very proud of the first piece real piece of code I wrote - a set of drivers for my sound card for Linux while I was in high school). That was exciting and I would have loved to do that.

Unfortunately, for many (and I am sure there are exceptions), IT in practice is not like that. Much of your time is spent doing problems that are not exciting but very mind-numbingly boring - you are basically coding a very simple program (e.g, not intellectually challenging) but which has ten thousand business rules that you have to implement separately, write hundreds of pages of documentation, and then perhaps support that and deal with that nightmare. You just spent six months of your life doing something with no real challenge except repetitive boredom - write this code which implements a random business rule - test - document - send it off to user - they want the rule changed - rinse and repeat. Nothing clever, just a bunch of if statements. And then, you write a system for another purpose but with the same constraints, and there go another six months. That's what development is like. Forever. You are there until 7-8 or 9pm when deadlines are coming, doing the same boring thing again, and again, and again.

On the other hand, maybe you're not coding and are doing Network Administration. Your job then is also repetitive. Apply patches. Fix ******* viruses cause people can't stop clicking random links. Apply more patches. Go home. Get paged cause there's an infection. Come in and apply more patches.

E.g, the thing that draws people to IT (fixing interesting problems, solving puzzles) largely goes away unless you're in companies and subfields that allow you to do that (and those are very very few). And to make it worse, most times you're in a cubicle working by yourself and have no face-to-face interaction with other people for 90% of your workday. I personally also know at least five other people who have gone from IT to medicine (three are now practicing physicians and have become my 'mentors' and have also encouraged me to do the same thing).

As for making money, yes you can make 'general physician salary' figures but it's not common and in most cases, you will need to go into management for that, or advance into a very expert and specific level....unless you strike it lucky with an internet type company, that won't happen for 15-20+ years, if it ever happens at all. And yes, there are also huge issues with advancement (many in IT can expect to spend their lives without much of a promotion, as many companies hire non IT people to manage IT people), and the fact that in many cases a person in their fifties is easily discarded by a new college graduate as they are seen to be more 'in tune' with the latest technologies (and the fact that you can work them into the ground while the guy in his fifties will resist that).

I hope that helps. I don't want to discourage you from doing IT, as many people do enjoy it. But I just wanted you to have my personal experience and experience of several other people who've decided it's not for us. 🙂

And for the record, my job was better than most and I did enjoy a lot of it. For me, it was more of a case of being attracted to medicine, rather than running away from IT.

I couldn't have said this any better. I've been in IT in a large corporate environment for quite a while and can't wait to run away from here in 7 weeks for medical school. Most days I would rather bang my head on the wall than do any of the work I have (that is if I have any work to do). Greater than 50% of my time I'm waiting on others to get things done so I can do my work or waiting on environment problems to be resolved.

OP, sounds like you have a 'glorified' vision of working in IT. You don't play with gadgets at 90% or more IT jobs. If you want to design and play with gadgets, do engineering, not computer science. Sounds like you are also interested in a high paying job, most of the fun IT jobs where you play with tech toys or code video games are not high paying and you work twice as much. As far as you being in medicine and knowing it's not for you, I would suggest quitting now and taking some time for yourself to decide what's the right path for you. Sounds like you've started the thinking process, but you need some time away from everything to really think about it. I did this last year by taking leave for a month and it's the best thing I ever did with my life. I'm now on the right path to doing what I love instead checking in and cashing a check.

Good luck in your new career path, whatever that may be!

 

[Optimus Spine]

I couldn't have said this any better. I've been in IT in a large corporate environment for quite a while and can't wait to run away from here in 7 weeks for medical school. Most days I would rather bang my head on the wall than do any of the work I have (that is if I have any work to do). Greater than 50% of my time I'm waiting on others to get things done so I can do my work or waiting on environment problems to be resolved.

OP, sounds like you have a 'glorified' vision of working in IT. You don't play with gadgets at 90% or more IT jobs. If you want to design and play with gadgets, do engineering, not computer science. Sounds like you are also interested in a high paying job, most of the fun IT jobs where you play with tech toys or code video games are not high paying and you work twice as much. As far as you being in medicine and knowing it's not for you, I would suggest quitting now and taking some time for yourself to decide what's the right path for you. Sounds like you've started the thinking process, but you need some time away from everything to really think about it. I did this last year by taking leave for a month and it's the best thing I ever did with my life. I'm now on the right path to doing what I love instead checking in and cashing a check.

Good luck in your new career path, whatever that may be!

Thanks for the insight. Would a high paying IT job be attainable for someone like me who's not an Ivy League student? I don't want to play with gadgets all day or code video games but I definetly want to do some sort of computer related work.

How about EE?