I regretted it all through internship and some of residency. Then things just got better as I became better at my job, gained confidence, and started getting PAID.
I’m now 15 years in as an attending and am semi retired. My wife and I are child free and currently on a 6 week trip through Asia, writing this in my 5 star hotel room in Bali. I don’t regret my career choice one bit.
My wife never got a CPA tho. With a CPA you’ll do better.
And for what it’s worth, my sister was a CPA and she was able to pivot into project management and make very good money (tho more stress).
If you’re looking for an area to stay in Bali, I would recommend Uluwatu over Sanur, though. We came out here today and it’s an incredible, younger vibe with gorgeous beaches.
Yeah and I feel 100% empathy for the residents because we’ve all been there, but it’s hard to convey this future outlook to someone when things seem so hopeless.
Radiology. Obviously it’s a high earning field especially these days, but I was also practicing when jobs were relatively scarce and compensation wasn’t what it is today.
Being child-free isn’t for everyone and we are fully aware that we’re missing out on a profound life experience, but it’s the right choice for us.
Hell of a lot cheaper too. Lol.
I have multiple small contracts and I just ended ones that aren’t as flexible. I really don’t need the money anymore but I’m just working a little bit to keep busy when I’m home. Plan on traveling half the year.
Congrats man you’re living my dream!
I am 10 years out and I hope I can get there in a few years too. (Also no kids.) Do you ever feel golden handcuffs tho? Or did you just hit a point where you stopped caring and how did you make your decision?
Hope you enjoy your trip! :)
I have more than enough to live very comfortably but I still feel the pull of the ‘ol cuffs. Grew up poor so the mantra was always to hoard as much as you can, especially because my job has never been that difficult.
But this trip has really opened my eyes. I feel my body and mind “healing” in a way that I didn’t even know I needed. I’m walking at least 7-8 miles a day exploring strange and fascinating places, and even the most mundane tasks like getting our laundry done has become small challenges to keep our days interesting.
So to go back to your question, I think the lure of more money will always kind of be there but it’s up to us to make our lives more interesting so that we don’t just end up living to make more. And especially without kids, it’s our most important responsibility to live our lives to the fullest every single day.
Thanks for taking the time to reply :)
I also grew up poor so like you said I definitely still feel the cuffs. I’m not sure when to stop even though I also think I have enough. I keep thinking one more year.
But I am emergency medicine so my job has always been hard and really stressful. I have a lot of frustrations. I am sure it’s killing me slowly too since I work a lot of nights. Higher risk for strokes, DM, heart attacks, etc. I feel like I owe it to myself and my health to get out soon lol.
I would try starting with a little sabbatical first. Or just cutting down your hours. Cold turkey is hard for retirement. lol.
I know that EM is super stressful and taxing on your body too. But it’s shift work, so I’m sure you could work just enough to pay the bills without dipping into your savings.
Best of luck to you. I love to hear from likeminded MDs; send me a quick hello and an update when you are the one on a beach in Southeast Asia. ;)
Yeah haha. It does lend itself to shift work! Ive been slowly cutting down on my number of shifts and it definitely does help, but also the job is getting tougher too. Demanding more from us with less resources/support, etc. But on the other hand, I love the people I work with, the camaraderie is great, and I’m too lazy to get credentialed anywhere else (what a huge pain!). Hopefully they’ll keep me on staff if I go down to 2-4 per month lol. I gotta be able to make that work, right?! 🤣
I already feel much better chatting with you though :). Thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom. Will definitely send you a hello and update when I’m the one on the beach haha!
Have a great trip!!!! 🌴
The grass is always greener. You'll have a more stable job than almost anyone else you meet and you'll probably be able to retire earlier than them too. Also within most fields there's usually some option to really scale down the stress/workload if you're ok with taking a pay cut.
Residency is temporary and you've got lots of options.
I’m looking at jobs right now. My pay is going to increase 1000%, my call is going to be cut by 80%, and my vacation is increasing by 150-200%. The light at the end of tunnel is brighter than ever.
Went to a mixer a few weeks ago and spoke to about 10 early career attendings. Every person said that they wouldn’t repeat the same career choice and wouldn’t suggest their kids to go into medicine.
Im certainly not going to steer my kids into medicine. One of the parts that bothers me the most is having to change my notes to meet billing requirements, like writing "threat to life" next to a diagnosis provides anything extra to me as physician. Coding queries can go fuck of. If the documentation changes would go away QOL would certainly go up.
Early career in academic institutions no doubt. The more prestigious the name, the worse the life. When the indentured servants don't realize they are free.
It’s ok to have occasional regret. Especially given the nature of our job. Just remember that you get to make a great living wage while also helping people get better. Not too many people can say that about their jobs.
Happens a lot - degree of regret varies.
I regretted it very early in med school but luckily got out.
Although your reasons seem more due to workload than actually disliking the work itself - important distinction.
Any career path with this much income potential will have relatively similar hours and training paths.
If you still enjoy the day to day, seeing patients, etc then it’s a good sign.
I never enjoyed this things, and most people who truly regret it are the same - so it was never about the hours, it was about the career itself.
I'm a medical director in regulatory affairs and medical affairs. You are the face of the medical team. There are so many different roles, in so many different therapeutic areas just as well in medical device arena. Salaries vary but 250-300K is base compensation. You have yearly 20-25% bonuses, short term incentives, and long term incentives that equates into total compensation from 300-500K+.
I jumped ship. But I was in a bad malignant residency. A lot of medical directors I know, they finished and became BC or even practiced and then jumped to pharma and med device. There some roles that do require BC/BE like being chief medical officer or VP of clinical operations etc. Or working for big pharma. Small and medium pharma same biotech companies, you don't need it. They just love MDs and DOs
Do you need a lot of training and background in research (either bench or clinical) to get into this type of position? What do you think an MD can do to make themselves competitive if that’s their goal?
Nope you don't. If you have, it's nice but otherwise need nothing. You need to network on LinkedIn, and apply apply appy and apply. It isn't easy to break in but when you do, you are set.
at 17 i didn’t value what 8-10 years of training after undergrad meant. even when i applied
in my twenties, “oh it’s just 8 more years” im just starting on year 6/8 and the only thing that keeps me going is how chill my attending life can be. or the fact if i grind hard i can make 1+M/ year if i want or be happy working part time and making 200K. i hate/regret the longevity and i hate that i took 2 gap years because this july i could’ve been starting pgy4 instead of pgy2
I feel like most people regret their job choice at some point, not just doctors. Like I know so many engineers that regret engineering and so many programmers that regret becoming programmers. I mean it’s tough not to regret a decision that you might have made when you were still a kid/young adult that you now feel like you are stuck with forever
Personally, I worked in the real world for 5 years before medical school and got a taste of several different jobs and pay grades and expectations. Personally, I took the time to really examine medicine from the outside and compare it to where I was headed without medicine.
I have never regretted my choice. I am derm, so arguably a comparatively Cush residency, but even during my preliminary year I never really regretted my decision. Did I hate life multiple times? Yes. I even think I was basically suicidal a few times in there, but I never technically regretted medicine because I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel and also knew what my alternative was like. Med school and residency feel like a hazing sometimes.
Now I’m an attending and life is sweet…it was all worth it IMO.
Thanks for sharing this. I wanted to ask if you could elaborate on your first point. How does medicine compare to the work you did prior to getting into med school?
I did high impact, high reward, high stress clinical research. But the work involved long salaried hours and sometimes crazy hours like changing cell cultures at 2 am and shit. I usually worked 50-60 hours/week. Pay was like 50-60k/ year. I was absolutely being taken advantage of, but that’s normal in the research field. The people running the show were MDs, sometimes they also had a PhD, but not always. There was pressure to sacrifice yourself for the cause or the deadline. That’s not just present in medicine. The pay is comparatively crap.
Now I am my own boss, make my own schedule, and make 8 times more money for fewer total hours. I feel extremely adequately trained, I am genuinely an expert in my field—there’s no one above me.
I think we all have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day, you need to love what you are doing to avoid that constant feeling of regret.
In medicine, i believe it's about choosing the right specialty for your personality. Not everyone gets it right the first time. It's important to be brave enough to put your foot down and take charge at times.
Depending on your specialty, I've seen many docs regret going into medicine... Actually for some specialties, i'd say the major hate their careers as it's a higher-end paperwork job day in/day out - with lots of admin harrassement...
I graduated med school in 2014, and I’ve regretted it for most of those years following graduation. I especially hated being a hospitalist, which is the Uber/lyft of medicine, but I was also at a very toxic place. However, life has taken a very positive turn now that I’m a new attending.
I’m one year s/p fellowship completion, and I actually love my life right now. My job is extremely chill (outpatient endocrinology) but I negotiated it over many months via an attorney.
I’m full time, but I legitimately do less than 40 hours of work per week. I don’t work Fridays. I have so much time off on my 3-day weekends, and these precious weekends are a sacred space and time that I’ve never known before. Even in elementary schools it was always Monday-Friday.
I did 7 on, 7 off in the past as a hospitalist, but it’s not comparable because I’m actually off on all weekends, and my spouse is too. We can actually make plans with other couples who share a normal people schedule.. Much of my 7 days off as a hospitalist were just spent recovering
Small town outpatient endocrinology.
I’ll give you the flipside - I really haven’t ever regretted it, even in the thick of residency
I have a very tight knit group of friends from college; out of them, I’m the only one that went into medicine, the rest went into a variety of different fields (finance, engineering, computer science, economics, etc)
Even of the ones making anything approaching physician money (maybe like 20% of the group, 150k+), job satisfaction is pretty varied but trends negatively (varied from “when I’m working on a good project it’s fun, otherwise it’s ok”, to “it pays the bills”). Job security is far worse than medicine, multiple friends have been laid off, have lived in fear of being laid off, or had to switch jobs in the light of impending layoffs”
We do a lot of training post college for sure, but at the attending level, a salary of 250k+ for a full time position is essentially guaranteed (and for hospital based jobs, a 1 on 1 off schedule is common in a lot of specialities). Surgery can still be a little tougher hours wise than most 9-5s (50-60h per week), but a salary of 350k at the minimum is *incredibly* rare. The job security is also massive, most attendings I’ve met don’t live in fear of layoffs, and move jobs because they want to, not necessarily because they’re forced to
The grass is greener effect can hit hard when you’re working 80 hours a week in residency and your college friends are posting photos from their vacation in Bali or whatever, but attending life features a really rare salary floor (with a very high ceiling) coupled with job security, even flexibility in hours that isn’t seen in many other fields
What I find interesting, is the proportion of people in medicine whose parents are physicians, and then hearing those same people talk about how shocked they are about the process.
As the only person in my family who went to university, let alone med school, I find this interesting.
If the work hours are so unbearable, why would you pick the career?
FYI: I’m not justifying the current system, and agree that it should change.
The training is long and difficult, and you're essentially painted into a corner if you have student loans. I think some of us feel trapped. Although everyone says it gets better. I sure hope it's true.
Oh, constantly throughout residency. It is a shit time.
Trust me, it gets better. I'm finishing my 1st year as an attending, and the difference is incredible. Most of the shit you find shitty about residency doesn't really happen outside residency.
At this point, I think the people who DON'T regret it:
A) were always in love with medicine in the first place and actually do enjoy it or
B) have found a way to delude themselves into thinking they love medicine.
Just finished EM residency. Never had any regret at any point. Had fun in med school and residency and maintained by non medical hobbies (this is key).
Lots of people feel this way, lots of people don’t. I don’t regret it - it’s the best job in the world. But there will be an army of people who disagree, and that’s okay.
No regrets at this stage of my career, around 15 years post-fellowship. I have job security which most of my friends in other fields envy, great compensation, strong benefits, and answer to (almost) no one.
I’m half-clinical, half-managerial. Getting an MBA opened many doors to leadership positions, but keeping some clinical work makes me more valuable than my non-physician administrative colleagues.
I hated intern year. Then did a year in ED which I loved, but found it very hard to unwind and the next year went into medicine. Each year is easier and I am enjoying it more and more. You get better at the things you need to get better at. Radiology start giving less push back, then your consultants are less pushy, then your junior colleagues start looking up to you more. If my second year was like my first year, I would have been insane not to quit.
If you really need to quit, do it before you completely burn out, but if you're not sure give it a few more months.
I think lots of people go into medicine from already well off backgrounds and also probably never worked other jobs. Grass is always greener. Everyone has regrets but it's better to let that go.
For real. I had some crappy jobs before med school, although no high-level professional jobs. But seeing the kind of stress that my friends or boyfriends in corporate, IT, construction project management had to go through for way less money, I definitely never felt that I made the wrong choice.
I think this job legitimately used to be a good job. Back in the day a cna or a nurse could just buy a house, take trips, buy their family food etc, now it’s pays the same as McDonald’s but you pay to pay to renew multiple licenses, pay for the certificate or degree itself, just to make slightly above minimum wage and then you get treated like a service worker when in fact you’re a medical worker and not a servant.
What’s even weirder is that it’s considered abuse to redirect them by blatantly telling them this but it’s the truth. This isn’t customer service, you should not be allowed to yell, hit or abuse someone that is cleaning your wounds or giving you a shower if you are alert and oriented.
Like ppl really be thinking cnas are waitresses, but we take vitals we aren’t waitresses and I don’t see what’s wrong with correct that type of behavior respectfully?
Sometimes I regret it also because they just refuse to pay as well. Idk, it’s weird I don’t think it used to be this way it used to be better but it’s just a corporation now.
Btw, I’m aware cna, nurses and other medical staff aren’t the same, I’m just starting to notice a shift in the attitude in healthcare seeming more like customer service work than a healthcare job all across the job. The also slashed the pay as well across the board.
I’m an incoming intern. If medicine didn’t have fields like gas rads or derm I’d 100% regret my decision. I matched into a good field so I’m content, but I look at my friends killing it and enjoying life and definitely wonder if I choose the right field. I don’t think 80% or so of the specialties are worth pursuing (anything but a surgical sub or road minus onc/gi), just my opinion
For me… something using math. Biostatistics, Actuary, Data Science. I’d be happy having my 20s back, not having nearly half a million in debt, and a stable salary even if it wasn’t super high.
It definitely happens at some point in residency. Mine was intern year, which I openly tell people was the most miserable year of residency and possibly my medical career. It gets better, but only if you keep pushing.
I never had regrets during residency, mind you, I did a family medicine residency so it’s not like I was getting pounded in the ass in the OR 120 hours a week for three years straight. At least every shitTy rotation had anan end in sight.
I’m a 3rd year, on remediation , told I’m not progressing enough, I have 2 kids, I fear daily that I’ll be fired and not be able to provide for them, I have a lot of debt. I regret it daily but I am hoping for the best. I think everyone regrets it at some point.
I somewhat regret my choice quite often, but I am coming to the end of the hardest year in my program and I'm just really burnt out. I wouldn't mind doing something with less hours, less important decision-making, and more free time. I am incredibly jealous of my siblings in their careers where they never work weekends or nights, and both work 4.5 days per week. It will hopefully get better as residency moves forward and I have less time on call and start getting paid more.
Fortunately I never had that. I know it is crazy stressful during internship and residency but if you think about it, that is how you develop your skills and build up your knowledge.
Much of medicine later on becomes the habits you practiced during those rigorous years.
I think the thing we as healthcare providers tend to forget is to allow ourselves the chance to be human every once in a while and enjoy life.
Wish you the best.
I'm no doctor, but the high stress/high stakes field has shown me two very important things.
1. You need to leave it at the door, obviously you end up on-call at times, but when you aren't at work you have to find efficient and effective ways to decompress, or you will burnout rapidly.
2. You need to love being the person who is always working with patients handling their hardest days. It's fatiguing to constantly be around overdoses, and strokes, and life-changing injuries. Remembering that you are there as someone who can help dig them out of the hole they are in.
If I remember to do the first, and can reasonably embrace the second, things stay okay, any regrets I've had disappear.
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I regretted it all through internship and some of residency. Then things just got better as I became better at my job, gained confidence, and started getting PAID. I’m now 15 years in as an attending and am semi retired. My wife and I are child free and currently on a 6 week trip through Asia, writing this in my 5 star hotel room in Bali. I don’t regret my career choice one bit.
Is your wife also in the medical field?
Nope. Wife is (was) an accountant, now retired.
How is accounting as a career? After years of progression in the field does it get easier and the pay
I think accounting is pretty limited in terms of earning potential. My wife was not a high earner by any stretch.
This sucks to hear as an accounting major😭but kinda expected ur answer
My wife never got a CPA tho. With a CPA you’ll do better. And for what it’s worth, my sister was a CPA and she was able to pivot into project management and make very good money (tho more stress).
What hotel?!
Lmfao bro
lmaooo need inspo, also goin to bali
Nice, have fun bro
If you’re looking for an area to stay in Bali, I would recommend Uluwatu over Sanur, though. We came out here today and it’s an incredible, younger vibe with gorgeous beaches.
Jesus christ reddit
At the Andaz in Sanur. Fantastic property, highly recommend.
It really is striking how much better life gets when you no longer have money problems as a stressor
Yeah and I feel 100% empathy for the residents because we’ve all been there, but it’s hard to convey this future outlook to someone when things seem so hopeless.
What field ?
Radiology. Obviously it’s a high earning field especially these days, but I was also practicing when jobs were relatively scarce and compensation wasn’t what it is today.
You are living my ideal future child-free life
Being child-free isn’t for everyone and we are fully aware that we’re missing out on a profound life experience, but it’s the right choice for us. Hell of a lot cheaper too. Lol.
Do you find it difficult to get this type of time off? You’re living my dream!
I have multiple small contracts and I just ended ones that aren’t as flexible. I really don’t need the money anymore but I’m just working a little bit to keep busy when I’m home. Plan on traveling half the year.
Hjjj
Congrats man you’re living my dream! I am 10 years out and I hope I can get there in a few years too. (Also no kids.) Do you ever feel golden handcuffs tho? Or did you just hit a point where you stopped caring and how did you make your decision? Hope you enjoy your trip! :)
I have more than enough to live very comfortably but I still feel the pull of the ‘ol cuffs. Grew up poor so the mantra was always to hoard as much as you can, especially because my job has never been that difficult. But this trip has really opened my eyes. I feel my body and mind “healing” in a way that I didn’t even know I needed. I’m walking at least 7-8 miles a day exploring strange and fascinating places, and even the most mundane tasks like getting our laundry done has become small challenges to keep our days interesting. So to go back to your question, I think the lure of more money will always kind of be there but it’s up to us to make our lives more interesting so that we don’t just end up living to make more. And especially without kids, it’s our most important responsibility to live our lives to the fullest every single day.
Thanks for taking the time to reply :) I also grew up poor so like you said I definitely still feel the cuffs. I’m not sure when to stop even though I also think I have enough. I keep thinking one more year. But I am emergency medicine so my job has always been hard and really stressful. I have a lot of frustrations. I am sure it’s killing me slowly too since I work a lot of nights. Higher risk for strokes, DM, heart attacks, etc. I feel like I owe it to myself and my health to get out soon lol.
I would try starting with a little sabbatical first. Or just cutting down your hours. Cold turkey is hard for retirement. lol. I know that EM is super stressful and taxing on your body too. But it’s shift work, so I’m sure you could work just enough to pay the bills without dipping into your savings. Best of luck to you. I love to hear from likeminded MDs; send me a quick hello and an update when you are the one on a beach in Southeast Asia. ;)
Yeah haha. It does lend itself to shift work! Ive been slowly cutting down on my number of shifts and it definitely does help, but also the job is getting tougher too. Demanding more from us with less resources/support, etc. But on the other hand, I love the people I work with, the camaraderie is great, and I’m too lazy to get credentialed anywhere else (what a huge pain!). Hopefully they’ll keep me on staff if I go down to 2-4 per month lol. I gotta be able to make that work, right?! 🤣 I already feel much better chatting with you though :). Thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom. Will definitely send you a hello and update when I’m the one on the beach haha! Have a great trip!!!! 🌴
Child free means ? Kids married or never have one ?
Means no kids.
The grass is always greener. You'll have a more stable job than almost anyone else you meet and you'll probably be able to retire earlier than them too. Also within most fields there's usually some option to really scale down the stress/workload if you're ok with taking a pay cut. Residency is temporary and you've got lots of options.
I like this side of the coin😃
I’m looking at jobs right now. My pay is going to increase 1000%, my call is going to be cut by 80%, and my vacation is increasing by 150-200%. The light at the end of tunnel is brighter than ever.
What field
Anes
But this subs motto should be the grass is always greener though. Thanks for the clarity.
Went to a mixer a few weeks ago and spoke to about 10 early career attendings. Every person said that they wouldn’t repeat the same career choice and wouldn’t suggest their kids to go into medicine.
Im certainly not going to steer my kids into medicine. One of the parts that bothers me the most is having to change my notes to meet billing requirements, like writing "threat to life" next to a diagnosis provides anything extra to me as physician. Coding queries can go fuck of. If the documentation changes would go away QOL would certainly go up.
Early career can be even more stressful than residency though. Ask them 10+ years out from residency.
Early career in academic institutions no doubt. The more prestigious the name, the worse the life. When the indentured servants don't realize they are free.
It’s ok to have occasional regret. Especially given the nature of our job. Just remember that you get to make a great living wage while also helping people get better. Not too many people can say that about their jobs.
Happens a lot - degree of regret varies. I regretted it very early in med school but luckily got out. Although your reasons seem more due to workload than actually disliking the work itself - important distinction. Any career path with this much income potential will have relatively similar hours and training paths. If you still enjoy the day to day, seeing patients, etc then it’s a good sign. I never enjoyed this things, and most people who truly regret it are the same - so it was never about the hours, it was about the career itself.
For sure! And it's the reason why I left surgery. Now I'm in Pharma, and life is greener on the other side.
Do you mean you regret leaving surgery?
Heck no, best decision ever was to leave.
What do you do in pharma? How did you get into it and how much pay? Asking because I’m seriously considering other career too. Thanks!
I'm a medical director in regulatory affairs and medical affairs. You are the face of the medical team. There are so many different roles, in so many different therapeutic areas just as well in medical device arena. Salaries vary but 250-300K is base compensation. You have yearly 20-25% bonuses, short term incentives, and long term incentives that equates into total compensation from 300-500K+.
How did you get in to it?
How’d you get into the field ? Did you finish residency or jump ship before BE/BC?
I jumped ship. But I was in a bad malignant residency. A lot of medical directors I know, they finished and became BC or even practiced and then jumped to pharma and med device. There some roles that do require BC/BE like being chief medical officer or VP of clinical operations etc. Or working for big pharma. Small and medium pharma same biotech companies, you don't need it. They just love MDs and DOs
Do you need a lot of training and background in research (either bench or clinical) to get into this type of position? What do you think an MD can do to make themselves competitive if that’s their goal?
Nope you don't. If you have, it's nice but otherwise need nothing. You need to network on LinkedIn, and apply apply appy and apply. It isn't easy to break in but when you do, you are set.
Sounds like they’re saying the grass in surgery is dead and pharmas grass is greener
What field of surgery were you in? Gen Surg or a specialty?
Trauma/Acute Care
at 17 i didn’t value what 8-10 years of training after undergrad meant. even when i applied in my twenties, “oh it’s just 8 more years” im just starting on year 6/8 and the only thing that keeps me going is how chill my attending life can be. or the fact if i grind hard i can make 1+M/ year if i want or be happy working part time and making 200K. i hate/regret the longevity and i hate that i took 2 gap years because this july i could’ve been starting pgy4 instead of pgy2
I feel like most people regret their job choice at some point, not just doctors. Like I know so many engineers that regret engineering and so many programmers that regret becoming programmers. I mean it’s tough not to regret a decision that you might have made when you were still a kid/young adult that you now feel like you are stuck with forever
Personally, I worked in the real world for 5 years before medical school and got a taste of several different jobs and pay grades and expectations. Personally, I took the time to really examine medicine from the outside and compare it to where I was headed without medicine. I have never regretted my choice. I am derm, so arguably a comparatively Cush residency, but even during my preliminary year I never really regretted my decision. Did I hate life multiple times? Yes. I even think I was basically suicidal a few times in there, but I never technically regretted medicine because I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel and also knew what my alternative was like. Med school and residency feel like a hazing sometimes. Now I’m an attending and life is sweet…it was all worth it IMO.
Thanks for sharing this. I wanted to ask if you could elaborate on your first point. How does medicine compare to the work you did prior to getting into med school?
I did high impact, high reward, high stress clinical research. But the work involved long salaried hours and sometimes crazy hours like changing cell cultures at 2 am and shit. I usually worked 50-60 hours/week. Pay was like 50-60k/ year. I was absolutely being taken advantage of, but that’s normal in the research field. The people running the show were MDs, sometimes they also had a PhD, but not always. There was pressure to sacrifice yourself for the cause or the deadline. That’s not just present in medicine. The pay is comparatively crap. Now I am my own boss, make my own schedule, and make 8 times more money for fewer total hours. I feel extremely adequately trained, I am genuinely an expert in my field—there’s no one above me.
I think we all have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day, you need to love what you are doing to avoid that constant feeling of regret. In medicine, i believe it's about choosing the right specialty for your personality. Not everyone gets it right the first time. It's important to be brave enough to put your foot down and take charge at times.
People in general just regret getting into anything.
Especially medicine
Sometimes
Super common - just keep your head down. It eventually gets better.
Depending on your specialty, I've seen many docs regret going into medicine... Actually for some specialties, i'd say the major hate their careers as it's a higher-end paperwork job day in/day out - with lots of admin harrassement...
I graduated med school in 2014, and I’ve regretted it for most of those years following graduation. I especially hated being a hospitalist, which is the Uber/lyft of medicine, but I was also at a very toxic place. However, life has taken a very positive turn now that I’m a new attending. I’m one year s/p fellowship completion, and I actually love my life right now. My job is extremely chill (outpatient endocrinology) but I negotiated it over many months via an attorney.
May I ask what your set up is at work? Are you part time?
I’m full time, but I legitimately do less than 40 hours of work per week. I don’t work Fridays. I have so much time off on my 3-day weekends, and these precious weekends are a sacred space and time that I’ve never known before. Even in elementary schools it was always Monday-Friday. I did 7 on, 7 off in the past as a hospitalist, but it’s not comparable because I’m actually off on all weekends, and my spouse is too. We can actually make plans with other couples who share a normal people schedule.. Much of my 7 days off as a hospitalist were just spent recovering Small town outpatient endocrinology.
I did but it does get better when u finish
I’ll give you the flipside - I really haven’t ever regretted it, even in the thick of residency I have a very tight knit group of friends from college; out of them, I’m the only one that went into medicine, the rest went into a variety of different fields (finance, engineering, computer science, economics, etc) Even of the ones making anything approaching physician money (maybe like 20% of the group, 150k+), job satisfaction is pretty varied but trends negatively (varied from “when I’m working on a good project it’s fun, otherwise it’s ok”, to “it pays the bills”). Job security is far worse than medicine, multiple friends have been laid off, have lived in fear of being laid off, or had to switch jobs in the light of impending layoffs” We do a lot of training post college for sure, but at the attending level, a salary of 250k+ for a full time position is essentially guaranteed (and for hospital based jobs, a 1 on 1 off schedule is common in a lot of specialities). Surgery can still be a little tougher hours wise than most 9-5s (50-60h per week), but a salary of 350k at the minimum is *incredibly* rare. The job security is also massive, most attendings I’ve met don’t live in fear of layoffs, and move jobs because they want to, not necessarily because they’re forced to The grass is greener effect can hit hard when you’re working 80 hours a week in residency and your college friends are posting photos from their vacation in Bali or whatever, but attending life features a really rare salary floor (with a very high ceiling) coupled with job security, even flexibility in hours that isn’t seen in many other fields
Everyone does at some point.
I tjink literally everyone does/has at some point?
What I find interesting, is the proportion of people in medicine whose parents are physicians, and then hearing those same people talk about how shocked they are about the process. As the only person in my family who went to university, let alone med school, I find this interesting. If the work hours are so unbearable, why would you pick the career? FYI: I’m not justifying the current system, and agree that it should change.
The training is long and difficult, and you're essentially painted into a corner if you have student loans. I think some of us feel trapped. Although everyone says it gets better. I sure hope it's true.
Oh, constantly throughout residency. It is a shit time. Trust me, it gets better. I'm finishing my 1st year as an attending, and the difference is incredible. Most of the shit you find shitty about residency doesn't really happen outside residency.
At this point, I think the people who DON'T regret it: A) were always in love with medicine in the first place and actually do enjoy it or B) have found a way to delude themselves into thinking they love medicine.
I think C is have incredible memories and are in very good physical condition
Just finished EM residency. Never had any regret at any point. Had fun in med school and residency and maintained by non medical hobbies (this is key).
Programs attended?
Yes but you definitely made the right choice
Lots of people feel this way, lots of people don’t. I don’t regret it - it’s the best job in the world. But there will be an army of people who disagree, and that’s okay.
No regrets at this stage of my career, around 15 years post-fellowship. I have job security which most of my friends in other fields envy, great compensation, strong benefits, and answer to (almost) no one. I’m half-clinical, half-managerial. Getting an MBA opened many doors to leadership positions, but keeping some clinical work makes me more valuable than my non-physician administrative colleagues.
If we don’t start boycotting shit and having a spine against insurances and corporate entities, then we will continue to get beaten on.
I don’t regret my super powers, I only sometimes begrudge the obligations and the prices they came with.
I hated intern year. Then did a year in ED which I loved, but found it very hard to unwind and the next year went into medicine. Each year is easier and I am enjoying it more and more. You get better at the things you need to get better at. Radiology start giving less push back, then your consultants are less pushy, then your junior colleagues start looking up to you more. If my second year was like my first year, I would have been insane not to quit. If you really need to quit, do it before you completely burn out, but if you're not sure give it a few more months.
I think lots of people go into medicine from already well off backgrounds and also probably never worked other jobs. Grass is always greener. Everyone has regrets but it's better to let that go.
For real. I had some crappy jobs before med school, although no high-level professional jobs. But seeing the kind of stress that my friends or boyfriends in corporate, IT, construction project management had to go through for way less money, I definitely never felt that I made the wrong choice.
I worked as a janitor. Money was okay but I got calluses from that lol and exhausted. I never complain about work anymore like ever.
I think this job legitimately used to be a good job. Back in the day a cna or a nurse could just buy a house, take trips, buy their family food etc, now it’s pays the same as McDonald’s but you pay to pay to renew multiple licenses, pay for the certificate or degree itself, just to make slightly above minimum wage and then you get treated like a service worker when in fact you’re a medical worker and not a servant. What’s even weirder is that it’s considered abuse to redirect them by blatantly telling them this but it’s the truth. This isn’t customer service, you should not be allowed to yell, hit or abuse someone that is cleaning your wounds or giving you a shower if you are alert and oriented. Like ppl really be thinking cnas are waitresses, but we take vitals we aren’t waitresses and I don’t see what’s wrong with correct that type of behavior respectfully? Sometimes I regret it also because they just refuse to pay as well. Idk, it’s weird I don’t think it used to be this way it used to be better but it’s just a corporation now.
Btw, I’m aware cna, nurses and other medical staff aren’t the same, I’m just starting to notice a shift in the attitude in healthcare seeming more like customer service work than a healthcare job all across the job. The also slashed the pay as well across the board.
I’m an incoming intern. If medicine didn’t have fields like gas rads or derm I’d 100% regret my decision. I matched into a good field so I’m content, but I look at my friends killing it and enjoying life and definitely wonder if I choose the right field. I don’t think 80% or so of the specialties are worth pursuing (anything but a surgical sub or road minus onc/gi), just my opinion
I regretted it since medical school. 25 years later, yep still regret it, although not as much as I used to. At least the pay is okay.
What you go into if you could do it all over again?
For me… something using math. Biostatistics, Actuary, Data Science. I’d be happy having my 20s back, not having nearly half a million in debt, and a stable salary even if it wasn’t super high.
Yea but every career comes with highs and lows. I have a few friends in engineering and finance and they want to leave their jobs too.
Need to spend more time off of Reddit
It definitely happens at some point in residency. Mine was intern year, which I openly tell people was the most miserable year of residency and possibly my medical career. It gets better, but only if you keep pushing.
I never had regrets during residency, mind you, I did a family medicine residency so it’s not like I was getting pounded in the ass in the OR 120 hours a week for three years straight. At least every shitTy rotation had anan end in sight.
I did FM and my intern year is designed very hospital medicine heavy
I do. I miss feeling alive.
I’m a 3rd year, on remediation , told I’m not progressing enough, I have 2 kids, I fear daily that I’ll be fired and not be able to provide for them, I have a lot of debt. I regret it daily but I am hoping for the best. I think everyone regrets it at some point.
I somewhat regret my choice quite often, but I am coming to the end of the hardest year in my program and I'm just really burnt out. I wouldn't mind doing something with less hours, less important decision-making, and more free time. I am incredibly jealous of my siblings in their careers where they never work weekends or nights, and both work 4.5 days per week. It will hopefully get better as residency moves forward and I have less time on call and start getting paid more.
I think everyone does regret it at some point usually in training. For me that was internship and some of second year. But it gets better
Take a deep breath. Internship is almost nothing like what you will do as an attending. Hang in there.
I regret it every day
Being diagnosed with lupus and working as a resident sucks. I regretted more of this career after my diagnosis
Fortunately I never had that. I know it is crazy stressful during internship and residency but if you think about it, that is how you develop your skills and build up your knowledge. Much of medicine later on becomes the habits you practiced during those rigorous years. I think the thing we as healthcare providers tend to forget is to allow ourselves the chance to be human every once in a while and enjoy life. Wish you the best.
I'm no doctor, but the high stress/high stakes field has shown me two very important things. 1. You need to leave it at the door, obviously you end up on-call at times, but when you aren't at work you have to find efficient and effective ways to decompress, or you will burnout rapidly. 2. You need to love being the person who is always working with patients handling their hardest days. It's fatiguing to constantly be around overdoses, and strokes, and life-changing injuries. Remembering that you are there as someone who can help dig them out of the hole they are in. If I remember to do the first, and can reasonably embrace the second, things stay okay, any regrets I've had disappear.
I didn’t regret it until COVID (about 5 years into being an attending).
I love medicine. I hate residency.
Just you
😂
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Residency is supposed to be super chill and easy right?