Doctor vs Engineer

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

<p>I am debating which field of work I would most enjoy. I have always been technology-savvy and I love building computers and robots and programming and all, but lately, I have been considering a job in medicine. Biology interests me, and I make some of my best grades in that class. I also have a family of doctors, and when, for example, my mom teaches me about things in the medical field, it interests me and I don't forget what she tells me. At the same time, I feel like it would be a waste to throw away all of my knowledge in technology. I am merely a freshman, I know there is a lot of time for my prospects to change, but I am very sure that my future job will be in engineering or medicine. Here are the jobs I am considering;</p>

<p>-Electrical/Electronics & Computer Engineering - There is less time wasted in school, you can start making money right out of college. I have always been interested in technology and have independently learned a lot about it in the years I have been alive. I like building computers, overclocking hardware, coding game servers, programming and building robots, anything that is technological. With a passion like mine, income shouldn't be a problem, unless everything goes wrong and I somehow don't get into the engineering schools at the top of my list. There is no locked in salary, there is potential to make half a million or more a year because an engineer can become a CEO. </p>

<p>-Psychiatrist - I like to help people with their problems. I often go on websites like Omegle, circulating through people until I find a person with problems, then I discuss their problems and help them out. When they thank me, I get a great sense of satisfaction. I also like to do the same with people I know. I like to psychoanalyse people as well. There is a secure six figure salary in this field, that is great as well. The negative is that there is the med school years and debt. </p>

<p>-Physician - This field interests me, and there is a secure salary and a sense of job security. The negatives are med school fees, and sometimes, no flexibility and long hours, the same being with other jobs in medicine.</p>

<p>-Radiologist - This is the favorite field of my mom (she is not one but wishes she was). She has always been telling me it is the best field in medicine, and after reading around, I've seen people say that it is a job for people who like to solve puzzles and it sounds like a job that could be exciting. It also has one of the highest salaries in the medical field. The negative is lack of human contact, but some consider that a good thing. Some radiologists make hundreds of thousands by just sitting at home and looking at xrays. </p>

<p>-Anesthesiologist - This is the job that constantly pops up at the top of highest salary in the USA lists, but that is only partially why I would consider it. The big negative with this job is that, if you mess up once, you are screwed for the rest of your career. Your patient will die and you will get sued and lose your reputation. But that's what the years of training and high salary are for. One thing I should mention, with any job in the medical field, a negative is that you will be almost 30 years old or more after you finish your schooling and then you will have lots of tuition to pay off. If you are a successful engineer out of college, you could be quite wealthy by the time a doctor is ready to work. Anyways, I have seen the description for anesthesiologist, and it seems like it would require a lot of knowledge and brainpower, perhaps more than any other field of medicine, and having a great reputation among the doctors sounds wonderful. </p>

<p>Neurologist - The brain is an anomaly, and getting paid to figure it out sounds pretty fun.</p>

<p>Cardiologist - I don't know much about this field, just that it deals with the heart. I will look into it xP</p>

<p>So, that's a lot, but you can see that I am pretty focused on what my future will be like, I have nothing else to do but prepare for the future, really.</p>

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<p>Anesthesiologist I doubt having one patient die is that serious( I truly hope that rarely happens). Doctors aren’t suppose to have 100% success rate, sometimes even after you tried you’re hardest **** just doesn’t seem to be working towards you or the patients benefits. That’s the general understand I got from shadowing a few nurses who worked in ICUs and ERs.</p>

<p>BTW, it appeals to me, but the yrs of Undergrad,Med school, and then a residency where even PAs,LPNs, and lower tiers med careers( in terms of pay) make more then me put me off. Though helping people should be the main focus but that debt aint gonna pay off itself, and how am I suppose to support a family while making 40K. It kida bothers the hell out of me that all those yrs of schooling and hardwork, and when you finally get the chances to do what you love and struggled you barely get compensated), What was the point? Why work so hard? They need to raise the pay of Residents. Almost every other field has a school of its own(Dentist,Pharmacist,Optometrist) why not Anethesiology? Our main job is to relieve pain but it seems like they want Anethesiologist to be General doctors and then some.</p>

<p>Sorry but I just wanted to get that off my chest.</p>

3

<p>Uh, OP: anesthesiologists, radiologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and cardiologists are *all * physicians. A physician is an MD (or DO). All those others are types of physicians.</p>

<p>Anyway, which specialty you’d want to go into isn’t something you can really know until doing clinical rotations in medical school. Try to see if you like medicine as a career more than looking at specific areas of it. Moreover, your understanding of these areas of medicine is cursory and superficial at best, inaccurate at worst. Take some time to investigate, talk to and shadow doctors, etc.</p>

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<p>I agree - I’m just glad GS took the time to write it out. Most of what you purport to know about the various specialties is inaccurate. </p>

<p>I highly recommend you do some shadowing - of physicians, as well as folks in other professions. There’s more to work than being a doctor, engineer, firefighter, movie star, etc.</p>

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<p>I know that everything I listed is a Physician, by saying Physician in general I meant a general practicioner or an internist. Also, I never wanted anyone to imply that what I think about what each specialties’ work is spot-on, I’m just reiterating what I read in various threads started by people who were wondering what medical specialty they should choose.</p>

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<p>Choosing a medical specialty is for your fourth year in medical school, usually when you’re about 26-28 years old.</p>

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<p>The main thing I’m trying to decide is doctor or engineer, I’m not trying to decide specialty at this moment, I just listed specialties that appealed to me.</p>

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<p>SheenR,</p>

<p>Looking ahead is always wise and having a back-up plan is prudent. As I told Midknite in another thread, you can certainly choose EE as your major while taking some chemistry/biology courses. The only problem is that EE may be quite demanding. In that case, you may want to try Physics and take MCAT in Junior year and decide which way to go.</p>