Switching from medicine to engineering

[J8J8J85]

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Hi there , I have MD degree but I don't really want to pursue clinical medicine as a career . I'm interested much more in Engineering and computer science . I have been accepted into medschool right out of high school so I don't hold a bachelor degree in any other field . I have done a lot of self-study in computer programming and I have done self-study on algorithms,data structures,signal processing , Dynamical systems , control systems , mathematics and physics . What are the available career options for someone like me who has an MD and have self-studied these topics ? My passion is really in Engineering and science . I've got into medschool because there were no entry exams , interviews and there were no tuition fees (I live in the mideast) .I'm 23 years old now . Should I pursue a bachelor in engineering ? I want to know what does it take for someone like me to study engineering in Europe or the US . I thought about applying for a PhD in systems biology,Bioinformatics , bioengineering etc but I think that my chances of getting accepted are limited because I lack the formal qualifications . Also , I think that overspecialization could be a problem because I'm more interested in working in the Industry rather than an academic setting .

 

[DermViser]

Do u live in the United States?

 

[J8J8J85]

No , I live in the middle east.

 

[loris]

What the hell Robotman?

 

[MrChance2]

Damn, that's racist..really to an extent that it kinda freaks me out that future doctors or anyone that society gives special power to say stuff like this

 

[DermViser]

Damn, that's racist..really to an extent it kinda freaks me out that future doctors or anyone that society gives special power to say stuff like this

Why are doctors special? Do you think attendings can't be racist/sexist bc they are doctors? You apparently haven't been to the South.

 

[Robotman]

That wasn't racist.

 

[DermViser]

i think so, an extent that it kinda freaks me out that future doctors or anyone that society gives special power to say stuff like this

So do you hold NPs, PAs, or Dentists to the same standard? Does society give them special power as well, or just doctors?

 

[tarheel1408]

So do you hold NPs, PAs, or Dentists to the same standard? Does society give them special power as well, or just doctors?

No point in debating. It's a standard law on SDN that if a thread exists for long enough, it's only a matter of time before someone questions someone else's potential as a future doctor. The only thing that should be surprising is how quickly it happened in this thread...

 

[J8J8J85]

10 Comments so far and no one posted anything specific to the subject of my post .

 

[tarheel1408]

10 Comments so far and no one posted anything specific to the subject of my post .

I would say an extremely small number of us have any experience about switching from medicine to engineering after graduating from med school, and even fewer of us know anything about medical school in the middle east. I would say there's an extremely small likelihood that any of us could give you an informed answer. I would suggest you try looking in the international forums - they'll probably be more knowledgeable about this kind of situation in your part of the world.

 

[DermViser]

10 Comments so far and no one posted anything specific to the subject of my post .

That's bc all of us here live/go to school in the United States not in Saudi Arabia, and considering this website is called Student Doctor Network, we're not going to know much about engineering in Saudi Arabia esp. after getting an MD.

 

[purphant]

.

 

[Shjanzey]

Don't worry about a formal degree. In the U.S. most people working in "programming" are incompetent and don't even have a computer science background. The biggest predictor for whether you will get a job is a magical word called "experience". Managers are so blinded by this theory that they will not consider you as a competitive applicant if they are hiring, for example, a Spring developer even if you have 5 years of Java experience. It never occurs in their tiny little brains that Spring is just a fancy Java API. So my advice to you is to do a bunch of projects on your own using the latest industry standards and put that on your resume. You will probably be more competent than their other applicants. Most people put things on their resume they haven't even worked with before (liars). So the resume is to open the door, then you might have to take a competency test where they ask you "gotcha" questions about very specific API/language oriented details. If you can get past those two hurdles then you just have to not drool in the interview and you will probably get a job.

I know all of what I just said sounds far fetched, but it comes after a decade of experience in the industry. Personally, I would advise you against going into Software. You couldn't pay me enough to work at another corporation again. The technology is pretty cool, but the people...I can't stand the people. The corporate world is a giant malignant tumor and the apathy and lack of work ethic apparent at all levels is going to be a huge factor in further economic troubles down the road. Of course that is just my own anecdotal non-professional opinion.

 

[Dave89]

Why are doctors special? Do you think attendings can't be racist/sexist bc they are doctors? You apparently haven't been to the South.

What is this supposed to mean?

 

[DermViser]

What is this supposed to mean?

What do u think?

 

[Dave89]

What do u think?

I think that "racist" is a meaningless label and that I've met plenty of professors in the North who make very crude jokes.

 

[Ismet]

Please stay on topic and keep your posts considerate. Thank you.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Really wish I could help but most of the people viewing these forums are in the US. Most of us can't contribute anything meaningful to this thread because your training is so different than ours.

I would just say you're young. If you want to be an engineer then you have plenty of time to do it.