If you could do it all again...would you?

[alex MD]

Wholly agree with yazoo there!! Simran, your obviously a very clever guy and from your sig before, I'd say you could probably get into most careers easily. So here's the killer question, if you don't find medicine is your calling (as I do) and you find law very appealing, why not do law?? Why instead, embark upon a career which entails some serious obstacles and demands when you could very easily become a city lawyer earning mega bucks? As for your earlier point about the people who find medicine a calling are usually the first jaded, I had 2 rejections within 4 days and my passion and enthusiasm have never been stronger!! But everyone has differing opinions and I wish you luck in your med degree mate.

Alex

[Gizmo says -]

i am sure it possible to want to do law and medicine. i certainly want to do careers as diverse as eatlhcare practice, cake bekking and rally driving in the time i ave left on this earth.

its just 'ighly unlikely that that undreds of peeple we get on ere every year wanting to do law or medicine (or law or vet medicine) and nuffing else ave really made a decision about there career.

it says a lot that 'undreds of the peeple on ere are like that, and then when you go into real life outside this forum, no one is like that.

[alex MD]

well i considered law before medicine which seems ages ago now (must be getting old)!! but then I thought about medicine and got plenty of work experience in and realised that medicine is what I definitely wanted to do. My point before was that if someone feels that another career such as law is damn appealing then why not do that instead of medicine?? In law, the money is a lot 'better' and getting employment is (probably, as far as I know) easier than getting your first choice ST post. If someone doesn't really feel a burning enthusiasm for medicine before they've even started their degree, then its probably going to be a long 5/6 years!

Alex

[Gizmo says -]

theres room for sitting on the fence too of course.

i ave no interest in doing most of the histology course ere, nor any anatomy that doesnt relate to clinical usage. Similarly i dont want to do embryology or communication skills.

i'm pretty much only interested in the clinical work i will do, so the prospect of doing all these other modules that benefit my tutors but not me puts me right off the 5/6 years of medicine i am doing now.
BUT this is becos i want to do medicine, not becos i want to do summat else.

[alex MD]

Thats a good point, everyone's gonna have aspects of the course which they find crap and uninteresting!! But like you say, YOU do it because you want to study medicine, some people find other careers incredibly appealing whereas you seem to see medicine as more of a vocation, which is strengthened by the fact you find clinical most interesting.

[Gizmo says -]

ah rite, Alexy. Like Archie, you ave it and all.

[alex MD]

But I guess thats just me 2p on it!! Hopefully I don't sound like an overly naive, over enthusiastic 17 year old idiot!

Alex
btw, whos Archie?

[rjm]

Originally Posted by Singh.Simran

Perhaps true. But its the amount that differs.

Unless you suggest that you need the same degree of those skills for tescos and surgery?

If anything it supports my point that few jobs have unique skills so there's no reason not to consider them all if you have those skills. yes also in theory shelf-stacking but in reality it doesnt pay enough and has little to no career progression.

So money is the issue again. Of course shelf-stacking at tesco has career progression...maybe even to store manager.
You exactly understand my point that all jobs use these skills, so why dont these wanabe medic/lawyer types consider shelf-stacking?

[rjm]

I would disagree with you also that medicine isnt a vocation. Medicine is all I ever wanted to do, and I love it and have never been put off. It is hard work, and more and more now it is difficult to float through a medical career, there is definitely sink or swim in it. And sometimes even if you swim you dam hardest the current wont take you in the right direction, but I'm sure this is true of most jobs. I just hope I will still enjoy it in 10, 20 and 30 years time.

Yazoo - what you applying to? Good luck with it. I know the feelings, thankfully just got sorted early.

[Dr Noodle]

Originally Posted by Singh.Simran

I think you can draw good comparisons between medicine and law. Typically, someone good at one will be good at the other, and they require a lot of the same skills; assimilation and communication of knowledge, team/individual working, independant research, what have you.

I don't see any job as a "vocation" and people who think they have a calling are misguided and often the first to get jaded. So there's nothing wrong with liking more than one avenue and just picking one logically, like nearly everyone does.

After all, law is damm appealing.

I'd be useless at law, guess I'm screwed.

vo·ca·tion (v-kshn)n.1. A regular occupation, especially one for which a person is particularly suited or qualified.
2. An inclination, as if in response to a summons, to undertake a certain kind of work, especially a religious career; a calling.

After a quick google search I came up with this. Heh, going by the first definition, maybe my job is a vocation, I think I'm suited for it.