Career options within and outside of medicine with a medicine degree

[Mad Jack Slam]

A medical degree undoubtedly opens lots of doors. Try and get hold of the book So You Want to Be a Brain Surgeon? It is a comprehensive list of the career options available to you once you have qualified.

Many people find that medicine is not for them, not just now, but after qualification and beyond. As others have said, you should seriously consider the time, financial investment and commitment you will need to give. Will it be worth it, if you don't follow a medical career? You will be able to apply what you have learned in a variety of ways that will make you financially comfortable, if not rich. However, people don't go into medicine to be rich (well, most of them don't) but to help others. Would you be depriving a more committed individual of that opportunity?

[terpineol]

At present if all goes well training posts wise and so on I would ideally like to stick with medicine, however I also know that with the way things are going this is unlikely, so i shall probably sod off and so something else at some time or another.

Hence i think the thread starter made a great point. Doing a medical degree isn't a golden ticket to a decent job in medicine.

[Clarkey]

I am going to be a tv doctor who also writes childrens stories about healthcare and maybe i'll do medicine sometimes when i'm not at my job in the city.

[ben_]

Thank you. Without that post I'd have never know that awe istilling, valuable piece of information.

Yes. People change their minds. Of course they do. But if somone's having feelings that they may want to change their careers, before they're applying to medical school. Maybe they shouldn't be applying to medical school. I mean, the whole reason you apply to medical school is so that you can be a doctor! Why put yourself through the horror that is UCAS A100 and the gruelling five years at medical school if you don't even want to be a doctor?

Kinkerz, your sarcasm is wholly unnecessary. Checking your options before committing to something is an eminently sensible thing to do. Would you disagree? I would commend anyone with the foresight and self-knowledge to realize that they may very well feel differently about their chosen career in ten or fifteen years' time, no matter how strongly they feel about it now. Acting like medicine (sorry, 'UCAS A100') is somehow exempt from this is, frankly, a little bit dumb.

[Kinkerz]

Kinkerz, your sarcasm is wholly unnecessary. Checking your options before committing to something is an eminently sensible thing to do. Would you disagree? I would commend anyone with the foresight and self-knowledge to realize that they may very well feel differently about their chosen career in ten or fifteen years' time, no matter how strongly they feel about it now. Acting like medicine (sorry, 'UCAS A100') is somehow exempt from this is, frankly, a little bit dumb.

If you were to read the second paragraph of my post instead of dwelling on the first paragraph and also read post seven of this thread, you may have gathered that I agreed that some may change their minds. I believe that if you're having doubts now that you'll change your mind, then you should reconsider applying to medical school. Or apply to medical schools where you can leave half way through with a degree i.e. Nottingham and their BMedSci.

PS: I wasn't calling medicine UCAS A100, I was calling the application process UCAS A100, so your little dose of sarcasm is somewhat redundant.

[ben_]

but you'd ave to be a fcuking idiot to take on a five year course if you werent completely committed.

massive debt for no reason
loss of those years of life most useful for moving up the employment ladder.
loss of those years in life most suited to sports that university expenditure cannto possibly contend wif.
starting out on the job/mortgage/children ladders years after your friends.
loss of potential earning for 2-5 years, amounting to anyfing between £25,000 to £100,000.

ok, you might start off in the wrong job for six months, but you'd move soon enough. really, only a total buffon would mek that kind of mistake where you lose out on those five years of life in oder to gain a massive loss (considering you could ave made a msaller loss for a more appropriate degree, it is a massive loss).

if you arent sure about medicine, dont do it, its got to be said.

but yeah i know ben, the skool is full of buffoons like this.
its called an admissions policy.

Gizmo, your points are well made - but the OP never said 'I don't want to be a doctor' or 'I'm not sure about being a doctor', simply 'what options would be open to me having completed a medical degree?'.

Very few people are lucky enough to have the kind of single-mindedness where they never experience doubt about what they are doing with their lives - or consider how to get out of it if they have made a mistake. I know I'm not one of them.

[ben_]

If you were to read the second paragraph of my post instead of dwelling on the first paragraph and also read post seven of this thread, you may have gathered that I agreed that some may change their minds. I believe that if you're having doubts now that you'll change your mind, then you should reconsider applying to medical school. Or apply to medical schools where you can leave half way through with a degree i.e. Nottingham and their BMedSci.

I answered your post adequately - you seemed to be suggesting that because medicine is medicine people do not have the same doubts about it as with other subjects. If you agreed that some may change their minds then why grace me with your unwarranted mockery?

PS: I wasn't calling medicine UCAS A100, I was calling the application process UCAS A100, so your little dose of sarcasm is somewhat redundant.

This is ironic!

[Kinkerz]

I answered your post adequately - you seemed to be suggesting that because medicine is medicine people do not have the same doubts about it as with other subjects. If you agreed that some may change their minds then why grace me with your unwarranted mockery?

Hardly mockery! Lighten up.

It's because your post suggested that I'd never heard of people ever changing their minds and I found it patronising. So I responded with a sarcastic comment, followed by my opinion...

This is ironic!

Ironic? Could you elaborate please.

[ben_]

Well I think that your incredulity that someone would ever even consider what else they might do with a medical degree merited a bit of patronizing...

[Gizmo says -]

Gizmo, your points are well made - but the OP never said 'I don't want to be a doctor' or 'I'm not sure about being a doctor', simply 'what options would be open to me having completed a medical degree?'.

Very few people are lucky enough to have the kind of single-mindedness where they never experience doubt about what they are doing with their lives - or consider how to get out of it if they have made a mistake. I know I'm not one of them.

then if you were a real friend, you'd surely advise them dont start medicine till they are sure everyfing fits its bill better than it fits anyfing else.
medicine is a ludicrously stupid job to do if its not pulling you wild horses. you need the passion to get it right, or you'll just end up as one of the uncaring docs running the ropes and not giving a monkeys that we all saw on our work experience. all the needless deffs and problems they cause.

working out the bill is another matter altogether, macca. i'd not start on anyfing lasting twenty years which didnt grab me and which fitted my circumstances well. any advice otherwise means you are advising that person to kiss their life away, and certainly the bets years of their life.
they are never given back to you, so they are worth even a good year to fink about.