Me: 31yo m TC: 70k. Although next year I’ll be making 350k which will be stable for the rest of my career working about 50 hours a week. It’s stressful work (every ten minutes making a decision about a person that could potential harm or heal them). I’ve had a couple of people interested in medical school reach out and want advice but I feel like I should tell them that software development or business development is a better career to go into. More demand, more opportunity. At 31, I’ve consistently been top 0.01% of my class in college and medical school. For the past three years I’ve worked 60-90 hours a week, oftentimes on alternating day and night shifts that fuck up my entire sleep schedule. At the same time, having to make decisions in minutes about what to do to a person that could potential save their life or kill them. From age 19 (starting college) to 31 (finishing residency) It has been mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. I would assume that if someone could perform at this same level as a software engineer or in business development, they would be making much more at 31 and have a higher lifetime cap. This could be a “grass is always greener on the other side” but I’m interested in hearing the other side’s perspective on this. Edit: I’m not planning on switching careers. This is more a hypothetical question to help me form an opinion for the people who I advise. Secondly, I’m a noob at knowing titles but I assume it wouldn’t have been a software engineer role. Eventually over a ten year a career I hope it would be more in management, etc. I got a great message referencing levels.FYI -> For a top performer killing themselves for 10 years of their career it’s possible to make 1m a year in tech.
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At least there is no pip (right?)
If you kill someone, you get pip for life with no severance
Real talk- I can get my license taken away for simply going to a substance abuse rehab facility. And my colleagues in ob gyn have to have malpractice liability that covers them for 18 years after they deliver a baby. We’re in constant pip.
From a financial perspective definitely. From a work perspective maybe. A lot of software engineer jobs pay great and are pretty chill. So it depends how much you enjoy the medical field.
Tbh I think work is work and they all have their pros and cons. Being a doctor is awesome sometimes (that grandma who loves me and thinks I saved her life) and horrible at times (that grandma who hates me and thinks I’m ruining her life). I don’t think I’m someone who ever had a “calling” and a lot of the people I’m advising are the same way. Just people who are willing to work extremely hard to get something done. It seems like the career potential in tech is way higher than the career potential in medicine.
Ya tech isn't my passion. I'm a swe for the money and flexibility. It's pretty great for that but it's not what I'd choose to do if it wasnt for money.
Software engineering has its own challenges.
I'm a software engineer and i feel my work isn't that fulfilling. I always think if i was a doctor i would have more sense of purpose. Maybe it's the fucking relative chromaticity of grass
fucking relative chromaticity of grass bruh you are trying too hard
@Bucketlife Na it’s pretty clever
I sometimes wish I went the doctor route. A lifetime of instant respect from others, truly helping others, and over the long run especially if you run a practice your lifetime earnings will exceed software engineers (unless those engineers got lucky with joining the right company at the right time).
This is an interesting perspective. Maybe it’s because I’m surrounded by other doctors but I definitely don’t feel like there’s instant respect in being a doctor. And now there’s nurse practitioners and physician assistants who can call themselves doctors it’s becoming even less of a unique title to have.
I have instant respect for doctors. I think it takes a ton of commitment and persistence to make it through that schooling, and I think it’s a very noble profession
Your social contribution to society is greater, which can't be measured by TC. However, if this is mentally and emotionally stressful for you, it might not be worth it since this will cost you in the long run.. you could look into becoming a PM or PgM at a healthcare tech company as an entry point, your experience is definitely valued in the tech industry.
It’s such a weird sink cost though. Now that I’ve finished residency, i could be a PM at a heathtech company and make 120-200k or I can just practice medicine and make 350k. If there was someway to make 350k as a PM I would jump immediately. But there’s this weird period of making less (and no guarantee of making more).
True, but in a few years your TC could be easily 300k+. If you're lucky, a startup that goes IPO or gets acquired can have a much higher TC. I'd also want to point out that most PMs and PgM are generalists and don't have enough industry knowledge as you do. Strong domain knowledge + PM skillset can go very very far, scarce commodity IMO.
Well given you’ve already put in the time and money into your MD it’s probably best to get that 350k / yr.
For sure. I’m a lost cause here haha. I think the main question is if I have an 18 yo come up to me and ask for advice on what to do, I want to know the perspective to give them.
Personally I direct people to at least take a coding class and to look into it as a career. It’s a fairly low barrier to entry, you don’t need a 4 year degree (you can go to a boot camp and get a job after 12 weeks). Takes some luck but you can def hit the jackpot and get exit money. I think that in the long run software engineering is going to become the new factory job. Great pay and lower barrier to entry.
Well not everyone could afford going to medical school. So they end up being an engineer.
Software engineering also scales, unlike the work of a doctor.
I’m about 250k in debt and most doctors are too. At least a PhD would have been free.
I love coding so it's worth it for me. I know doctors working in their 70s. Don't think many engineers can do that. Engineering pays well at the highest levels with most engineers making around 100k. Most post residency full time docs make at least 180k. To add have two docs in my immediate family and I was forced into bio which I switched out of first semester.
No, In software engineering , you would work just as hard and then get Pipped
IF he gets into Amazon
The work a software engineer does is not even close to as stressful or high pressure as a doctor. I say this while I've been working 10+ hours a day for the last 4 weeks trying to make a deadline. It's not even in the same universe as dealing with sick, dying people day in and day out.