Should I be content going into an uncompetitive specialty?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Lord_Vader

Lord_Vader

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
193
Reaction score
158
Members do not see this ad.
I'm going into Internal Medicine but I feel like more than half my class is doing something like ENT, ortho, optho, uro, etc. I genuinly have no interest in surgery due to shaky hands and dislike the lifestyle and culture but everytime I see my friends who are applying to these fields on facebook going to one of their conferences or whatever I feel like I'm missing out. I'm not sure how I can explain it but I have this feeling that they'll have a better life and make more money than me. I'm more concerned about the former but does anyone else going into noncompetitive specialities feel this way?
 
Last edited:
I can't tell you the number of times people tried to convince me to do something other than outpatient IM. I listened to their advise but I always took it with a grain of salt. Own what your passion is and people will respect you, even if you don't go into a field that is considered competitive. I was always 100% into outpatient IM, but that is what I enjoy doing. You have to go with what you can see yourself doing for the rest of your career and not worry about anyone else.
 
Neurosurgery - very competitive, makes the most money, horrible lifestyle (and probably life I assume as well).

Pediatrics - not very competitive, makes almost the least money, decent lifestyle, one of the highest in satisfaction among all specialties

I've known at least a handful of upperclassmen from my school who were gunning for derm, ophtho from M1 year, got junior AOA, 255+ step 1, honored all rotations, and then realized after some elective rotations that the specialties they were gunning for bored the 5hit out of them and chose to switch into apparently uncompetitive specialties like IM. In general, it seems like the people gunning for super-competitive specialties in my class like to flaunt their accomplishments as some type of way of rewarding themselves for working so hard. I wouldn't take it personally.
 
You should totally do what you want to do and not try to compare yourself to anybody else. The most unhappy friends I have is my doctor friends because they always look at some other doctor and are competing to be them. I realized early on that I shouldn't care that much and enjoy life, and everything is awesome. Everything is cool when you are part of a team.
 
As a current resident in one of those fields, you should absolutely be content going into something "uncompetitive." Personally I'm having a blast and loving what I'm doing, but the hours and workload can be pretty brutal at times and if my heart were only half in it, I think I'd be pretty miserable.

Medicine continually amazed me with how different people are, both as patients as well as other physicians. I remember even back in M1 walking out of a lecture saying to my friends how I thought it was one of the best/worst ever and inevitably someone else I respected felt the exact opposite way.

If you're happy with a given field, then do it and don't look back. Competitiveness is a terrible measure because it fails to account for the wide variation in such within a given field. Rememebr that the CVs of IM residents at top programs look much like the CVs of surgical subspecialty residents at top programs.
 
Based on your post, it just sounds like you need to go to some more IM conferences and you'll be fine. You absolutely should be content going into an "uncompetitive" specialty. I know I plan on doing so. Hell, if I do IM, the subspecialty I would most likely pursue isn't even competitive within the IM subspecialties.
 
Lord_Vader said:
I'm going into Internal Medicine but I feel like more than half my class is doing something like ENT, ortho, optho, uro, etc. I genuinly have no interest in surgery due to shaky hands and dislike the lifestyle and culture but everytime I see my friends who are applying to these fields on facebook going to one of their conferences or whatever I feel like I'm missing out. I'm not sure how I can explain it but I have this feeling that they'll have a better life and make more money than me. I'm more concerned about the former but does anyone else going into noncompetitive specialities feel this way?
Click to expand...

Not sure if any has told you this but Facebook is not an accurate representation of how happy one's life is.

Don't be a dependent personality d/o.
 
Anicetus said:
Not sure if any has told you this but Facebook is not an accurate representation of how happy one's life is.

Don't be a dependent personality d/o.
Click to expand...
Not that I'm trying to take this off topic, but I think that as a future physician you should know what diagnoses stand for before throwing them around.
 
Anicetus said:
Not sure if any has told you this but Facebook is not an accurate representation of how happy one's life is.

Don't be a dependent personality d/o.
Click to expand...

Worrying excessively about the limelight that others are getting on social media seems much more like a histrionic or even Borderline/Narcissistic/Cluster B trait than something characteristic of a dependent personality disorder. Most of the dependent personality d/o patients I have seen tend to have a pretty terrible self-esteem and are not exceptionally ambitious. If they post anything on Facebook it probably would be about their significant other, not themselves.

In any case: OP, stop caring about what stuff is "competitive" and trying to make career decisions based on that. I went into med school with an open mind but pretty much knowing I loved psychiatry. It just so happens that I performed at a level in med school that would make me competitive for any specialty, but I don't love any of those fields like I love psychiatry. I'm finishing up my third month of psych electives right now and every day I get home excited that I get to see such interesting patients every day, spend a good amount of time with them, and practice using new tactics and interpersonal skills to get the most difficult patients to buy into an interview. It is simply the most rewarding work I've done in my life.

I've said this before: if anyone wants to judge me because I went into a "non-competitive" specialty, that's fine because I'm very happy with my choice.
 
As someone who just applied to IM (and another specialty), some thoughts:

  • I definitely am not in love with IM at all. I hate rounding. Its a dumping ground for other specialties. Ton of BS. The way I see it, you got to shovel crap for a few years to get to specialty land.
  • I wouldn't equate earning potential with specialty choice and salary. One of my classmates parent's is a nephrologist who owns dialysis centers and probably makes somewhere close to 1 million/year. You got to be creative in any profession to make serious bank.
  • There are a bunch of superstars in my class 260+ Step 1, AOA, who are going into IM. In fact, I'd say anywhere from 40-60% of my class is IM.
 
Lord_Vader said:
I'm going into Internal Medicine but I feel like more than half my class is doing something like ENT, ortho, optho, uro, etc. I genuinly have no interest in surgery due to shaky hands and dislike the lifestyle and culture but everytime I see my friends who are applying to these fields on facebook going to one of their conferences or whatever I feel like I'm missing out. I'm not sure how I can explain it but I have this feeling that they'll have a better life and make more money than me. I'm more concerned about the former but does anyone else going into noncompetitive specialities feel this way?
Click to expand...

I think you should go into whatever field makes you happy.

I just want to point out that ophtho is not like the other surgical fields, the lifestyle and culture are not similar to the more traditional surgical fields at all.
 
Just so you're aware, nobody actually cares what you're going into. I know plenty of people with competitive applications doing IM. You're going to be stuck doing whatever you apply into for a very long time.
 
sloop said:
Worrying excessively about the limelight that others are getting on social media seems much more like a histrionic or even Borderline/Narcissistic/Cluster B trait than something characteristic of a dependent personality disorder. Most of the dependent personality d/o patients I have seen tend to have a pretty terrible self-esteem and are not exceptionally ambitious. If they post anything on Facebook it probably would be about their significant other, not themselves.

In any case: OP, stop caring about what stuff is "competitive" and trying to make career decisions based on that. I went into med school with an open mind but pretty much knowing I loved psychiatry. It just so happens that I performed at a level in med school that would make me competitive for any specialty, but I don't love any of those fields like I love psychiatry. I'm finishing up my third month of psych electives right now and every day I get home excited that I get to see such interesting patients every day, spend a good amount of time with them, and practice using new tactics and interpersonal skills to get the most difficult patients to buy into an interview. It is simply the most rewarding work I've done in my life.

I've said this before: if anyone wants to judge me because I went into a "non-competitive" specialty, that's fine because I'm very happy with my choice.
Click to expand...

Pt dependent on others approvals via fb to feel at peace with decisions. Attending actually used this to describe something similar to OP.

Guess it depends what we feel fb achieves. I happen to believe it's not always attention seeking on fb but that people need others praise via likes and comments to feel "at peace" with their own decisions they make. Fb can hit a lot of personality d/os in fact.
 
Do you want to be a doctor or not?

Lord_Vader said:
I'm going into Internal Medicine but I feel like more than half my class is doing something like ENT, ortho, optho, uro, etc. I genuinly have no interest in surgery due to shaky hands and dislike the lifestyle and culture but everytime I see my friends who are applying to these fields on facebook going to one of their conferences or whatever I feel like I'm missing out. I'm not sure how I can explain it but I have this feeling that they'll have a better life and make more money than me. I'm more concerned about the former but does anyone else going into noncompetitive specialities feel this way?
Click to expand...
 
Amygdarya said:
Not that I'm trying to take this off topic, but I think that as a future physician you should know what diagnoses stand for before throwing them around.
Click to expand...

I'll throw up a differential next time.
 
Lord_Vader said:
I'm going into Internal Medicine but I feel like more than half my class is doing something like ENT, ortho, optho, uro, etc. I genuinly have no interest in surgery due to shaky hands and dislike the lifestyle and culture but everytime I see my friends who are applying to these fields on facebook going to one of their conferences or whatever I feel like I'm missing out. I'm not sure how I can explain it but I have this feeling that they'll have a better life and make more money than me. I'm more concerned about the former but does anyone else going into noncompetitive specialities feel this way?
Click to expand...
I have these thoughts sometimes. Nothing good ever comes from them and I agree with other posters that immersing yourself in your specialty of interest and surrounding yourself with people as excited about the field as you are will help.
 
Every field is competitive at the top. The rest of the field is as competitive as there are # of spots vs applicants. Maybe you feel tingly 2 seconds after matching into something that doesn't have many spots but you're stuck with it for the rest of your life. Your patients will give 0 ****s about how competitive your field is to get into.
 
Anicetus said:
Pt dependent on others approvals via fb to feel at peace with decisions. Attending actually used this to describe something similar to OP.

Guess it depends what we feel fb achieves. I happen to believe it's not always attention seeking on fb but that people need others praise via likes and comments to feel "at peace" with their own decisions they make. Fb can hit a lot of personality d/os in fact.
Click to expand...
Let's not confuse personality traits with personality disorders, ok? One needs a lot more than posting they care about other people's opinion to get a personality disorder or any other diagnosis. Caring about other people's opinions is not at all specific to dependent personality disorders as sloop pointed out above, and dependent personality disorder has other more important features - just take a look at some psychiatry textbook or DSM. I think you may have misunderstood your attending pointing out this feature as an example for it being a cardinal DPD feature. But in any case, you can't give any diagnosis based on this feature alone - in fact, by itself it's something a lot of non-personality disordered people have. If we follow your approach and give people diagnoses based on a single minor feature, pretty much every single one of us is going to get a personality disorder diagnosis.
Not to mention that diagnosing anyone by Internet is bad form, regardless of how well their description of symptoms fits any diagnosis.
Anicetus said:
I'll throw up a differential next time.
Click to expand...
Haha, ok that'll be more prudent.
 
If you're going to measure your achievements, you get to pick your own yardstick. Rewarding work that truly helps people, a lifestyle you can live with, the ability to spend time with your family, the complexity and intellectual challenge of some of the cases?

Pick your yardstick -
 
DokterMom said:
If you're going to measure your achievements, you get to pick your own yardstick. Rewarding work that truly helps people, a lifestyle you can live with, the ability to spend time with your family, the complexity and intellectual challenge of some of the cases?

Pick your yardstick -
Click to expand...
Im saving this post in a note to refer to in the future.

Fantastic advice/perspective.
 
Mad Jack said:
I did what makes me happy once. It was awful.
Click to expand...
You can't expect to write that and not give us any detail MJ.
giphy.gif

W19 said:
You shouldn't go into IM if you score 250+ in step 1. A good step 1 score is a ticket to heaven.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure that you're joking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Should I go into child neurology?
Replies
5
Views
1K
babybrains
babybrains
MonsterGod
Should I be looking for research before med school even starts?
Replies
6
Views
1K
Dr. Robb Bassett
Dr. Robb Bassett
LucidSplash
A reminder not to be an idiot
Replies
12
Views
2K
SurfingDoctor
SurfingDoctor
L
MD M4 going to a community program where residents said “Residents don’t run the hospital, you’re here to learn.” This makes me worried. Should I be?
Replies
11
Views
2K
mistafab
mistafab
kyhmu
  • Question Question
MD & DO Is an abstract hard to be accepted in a Conference
Replies
3
Views
599
NotAProgDirector
NotAProgDirector
Top