Prob is that it seems in business, or well, the parts of business where you make any money/have a career path, HR seems to only care if you were an NCAA athlete, if you got everything in life right the first time (ie having good internships in college) and are unforgiving if you didn't have a traditional start UNLESS you go to HYP. They also do care if you're tall/good looking if you're a dude. Women in business, stereotypically bossy types, take their hatred of men out on guys who are short/average looking. IE I'm not getting hired except probably another chop shop. Hell, firms even want GMAT scores. Not to mention how much being friends with the right people and having the right connections matter, which is a lot more than getting into med school. At least med schools accept people who didn't have the traditional path more than business. A lot more people start MD schools at 27 and older than start in IBD/PE, except M7 MBA guys.
So for me, even looking at 2500/month in a loan, at a 65k/yr residency, I still come out better than in most of the business (Ops, sales) spots I might be able to ever get, not to mention many residency programs subsidize housing, etc. Additionally, I have an inheritance coming in like 10 years that can cover most of the loan anyway.
Hmm... that's different from the experiences of those I know that went into business had (and they want to Haas and other well-known programs). Generally their experience was it was really cut-throat and you just had to really competitive and eat everyone else alive and come out on top. I never heard about looks really factoring in... Or the women in business hating on certain men. Certainly the networking thing matters--that's half of getting a job in any field (helps for getting into medical school, residency, and beyond...). But obviously what you're experiencing is what you're experiencing.
Still--going into medicine because you're unhappy with your current job isn't necessarily the smartest thing to do. Is there anything else that interests you? Because medicine is a huge commitment, and you should really only go into it if you see it as your vocation. It has a high burn-out rate and way too many physicians regret their decision, and the ones that don't are generally the ones that see it as their calling. Certainly not always, but in my short amount of experience those are the happiest physicians--not the ones who make $500k and know they are set for life. Ironically, it usually seems like the lower-paid physicians are the happiest (probably selection bias--they chose the field they love rather than the field with prestige/money, but interesting nonetheless. Probably explains why geriatricians are the happiest/most-content specialists)
Also--very few residency programs pay $65k in residency. Most start around $50-55k, depending on where in the country you are. My intern salary was closer to $47k, but in a low cost-of living area. $65k is what you might make in NYC or SF (and that's usually with your housing stipend, which some of those big-city programs offer), and after ~25% of that salary goes to taxes, often almost 50% of what you have left over goes to rent in those cities. Most residency programs also do not offer subsidized housing, though some do. I only interviewed at one program that offered subsidized housing, though there was a 1-year waitlist. I did avoid NYC like the plague though...
I'd encourage you to think about things carefully--are you thinking about medicine because you're just unhappy with your job and the grass looks greener or is this truly something you want to do with your life. The career-changers are people that are among the most-dedicated to become physicians because generally they are sacrificing more than anyone else (they often have families, and will often be financially worse-off or no better off overall). They usually decide to become physicians because it's in their blood--and while I'm sure there are some out there, I've never met one that said they made the change for financial reasons (I have heard job stability as a reason--usually I hear that one from people that have kids, and want to make sure they can provide for their family, and they usually have a working spouse and/or family support to help them through medical school)
Medicine is a wonderful field, but like teaching and the priesthood, I think it should be viewed as a vocation/life-long commitment. If you don't, you will probably regret all the things you sacrificed. If you look at it as a vocation, you'll probably be very proud of what you accomplished with your life on your deathbed, and you really won't see any of those sacrifices as significant--you'll just see them as part of what it takes to become who you're meant to be.
