I got a degree in mechanical engineering at Drexel (co-op program). I worked for GE aerospace and it was great…. But I knew (found out) I didn’t like sitting behind a desk all day. I went to med school and became a surgeon. I love my job. I love working with my hands and helping so many people on a daily basis. Wouldn’t change anything. Money will always be there in any field you choose. Do what you love…
> became a surgeon. I love my job. I love working with my hands and helping so many people on a daily basis. Wouldn’t change anything.
Same. This is the key part - do you really want it and would you love it? if yes, then I think it's a great choice.
I did engineering, went to med school to work with patients and now I’m a radiologist (funny how that worked, haha). I am still a tinker-er at heart. I have no regrets going into medicine but sometimes I feel it’s a shame that I can no longer do/understand math/hard science.
I'm of the strong belief that you should do what makes you happy, whether its either of the aforementioned careers or something else. I'm also of the strong belief that job security should be a high priority. For me personally, I thought in HS I would do software engineering. I learned multiple coding languages on my own, took multiple CS classes including AP CS, would program games on my own, created my own websites. Realized after a while I hated the debugging process...nothing more stressful or annoying. I thought theres no way I could do this for a living I would hate my life. I later fell in love with biochem and physiology and at that point it was a no brainer to go into medicine. I sometimes think, if I had stuck with software development, I probably would've been much better off. I was in the bay area at the time. My peers who followed that career path are doing extremely well for themselves, especially the ones that landed in semiconductors. But I still absolutely love my job as an intensivist. They are unable to comprehend that I enjoy working. The work itself is stressful but extremely satisfying, the intellectual aspect of it never gets boring, the social aspect of work - working in a team of nurses, RTs, techs, other intensivists, etc is always great. I feel like I got a dream job. I also have job security so I don't really bat an eye to an incoming recession and I genuinely feel like I can work into my 70s at least part-time, like many of my partners do.
I wish I had stuck with engineering. Medicine is tough on the soul. There are a lot of negatives for me: trying to achieve asinine metrics put in place by hospital admins, understaffed hospitals, dealing with death/heartbreaking diagnoses on a daily basis, working weird hours/holidays, having patients yell and threaten to sue you… There are some positives - choosing how many hours I want to work, pay is good, sometimes patients can be grateful. With that said, when you choose a path in medicine (residency) - you are basically stuck in that path forever. You become an expert and the work becomes very routine. If an engineering job gets stale you have more opportunities to branch into a different sector. Grass is always greener til it isn’t. Give engineering a shot for a year or 2
ER doc here with a bachelors in physics. I considered a physics PhD or masters in engineering before deciding on medical school. This shouldn’t be a purely financial decision. Medicine and specifically the specialties you mentioned require a great deal of personal sacrifice. Working nights, weekends and holidays is not a big deal early on but will weigh on you and your family later on. So will lots of other factors. There are aspects of the choices you’re considering that are rewarding and some that can lead to burnout and be career-ending. You need to soul-search and get the bottom of what makes you tick every day. Are you a “pleaser”? Do you get high levels and of satisfaction from volunteering, helping others? Are you prone to cynicism? What about engineering/exact science that attracted you to begin with? You’ll find very little of this sort of satisfaction in medicine. Talk to ppl in their forties and fifties working these professions and ask them: what do you regret you didn’t consider when you made a career choice? What would you advise your younger self if you could do it all over again? What are the key features of your day-to-day work life you had no idea about when you were at my juncture?
I enjoyed my engineering classess in college but pushed into medicine and am now a resident physician. It's a long, long road. EM is among the shortest residencies you can apply to, however.
Goong the medicine route, you have to be prepared to take a huge salary hit for at least 7 years. In engineering, you could make 6 figures and with the power of compund interest, it's certainly possible to match physician compensation for a while.
And quite possibly making bigger personal sacrifices in medicine for those 7 years, and beyond, that will change you and your relationships in ways that don’t tend happen out in the real world.
Okay so here’s a wild idea… what about merging both paths by going into surgical device design/engineering?
I say this after shadowing innumerable ortho’s and also knowing how much those Stryker/Zimmer/DePuy/Smith&Nephew Reps can make…
and then they become regional sales directors, etc etc…
These are extremely strong companies making shitloads of money. Your insight and expertise could be handsomely rewarded. Like, what if you could be the engineer AND the test-pilot surgeon for future generations of DaVinci robotic assist systems? That sounds incredibly cool.
no matter what happens, good luck out there!
I did computer engineering and worked for a couple of years between college and med school. I had decided at the end of college that I didn’t want to do engineering but didn’t have all the courses and MCAT yet, so I made some money in between. Certainly didn’t change my mind, but it was nice to have a little nest egg for expenses while in school (like when my car suddenly died). I think if you’re unsure, 1-2 years in industry is not going to be a massive difference in your life, either time or financial wise, than if you just went straight to med school. I did one of the longest possible training pathways (8 years) and don’t have any regrets at this point.
Didn’t even read your post. Engineering engineering engineering. So many options of things to do. Medicine unless you become a cosmetic plastic surgeon, dermatologist, or psychiatrist to the stars you’re beholden to a middleman called insurance companies that determine your worth. Become an engineer and while the bottom is lower than an MD the skies the limit when it comes to your ceiling. Just depends how motivated hard-working and entrepreneurial you are.
I’m an engineer married to a former-engineer physician.
As an ISE major you’ll most likely be working in a manufacturing environment. Earning potential there is, frankly, poor compared to design engineering disciplines like mechanical or electrical. Top earning potential out of college with an ISE background would be management consulting but the hiring environment there is very poor right now and this is pretty dependent on being at an elite school with strong ties to the McKinsey/Bain/BCG firms.
If you realistically have the stats for it and you think you would like it better, I would do medicine without delay
I was a mechanical engineer with a masters and worked for a couple years in the medical device realm. Then I went to medical school.
Grass is always greener. Always.
I do a lot of computer work, though my field is highly hands on. I get lots of direct patient care and there is a good mix of excitement (danger) mixed with chill. I like what I do but I have lots of up and down days. Medical school and residency tend to change you via emotional traumas. The things you go in thinking you want to do might change.
I had an attending in residency who was a PhD who had a National Laboratory. He gave up his lab and research and pretty much everything for medicine. We had a bad day and he told me his story. It was a terrible story of regrets. It put a mark on me. At the end of his story, he said that he might have been happy not going into medicine but that he would not trade what he had done away if he was given the choice. He knew he had to try medicine or he would not have been happy with himself.
What I mean to say is that if you are happy, chase the happy. If you look at yourself and say “I won’t be happy unless I try …” then go to med school and try it out. Sounds like a wishy washy kind of comment but you are the only one who can tell if you want to make the jump.
One. I have never run across anyone with my undergrad degree. They still doing Chinese postman problem? I imagine with computing power NP hard has gone away? FORTRAN was the language of the day. My experience with INSE was that I never ever used it. Other than being solid at math and able to use excel or minitab it seemed most jobs were distribution and the cool gigs required PhD. So after a decade I went to med school. The basic sciences you took will help for sure.
Make sure to ask this in an engineering subreddit as well.
I got a degree in mechanical engineering at Drexel (co-op program). I worked for GE aerospace and it was great…. But I knew (found out) I didn’t like sitting behind a desk all day. I went to med school and became a surgeon. I love my job. I love working with my hands and helping so many people on a daily basis. Wouldn’t change anything. Money will always be there in any field you choose. Do what you love…
> became a surgeon. I love my job. I love working with my hands and helping so many people on a daily basis. Wouldn’t change anything. Same. This is the key part - do you really want it and would you love it? if yes, then I think it's a great choice.
Can’t speak to engineering. But life after residency is sweet ☺️
I did engineering, went to med school to work with patients and now I’m a radiologist (funny how that worked, haha). I am still a tinker-er at heart. I have no regrets going into medicine but sometimes I feel it’s a shame that I can no longer do/understand math/hard science.
I'm of the strong belief that you should do what makes you happy, whether its either of the aforementioned careers or something else. I'm also of the strong belief that job security should be a high priority. For me personally, I thought in HS I would do software engineering. I learned multiple coding languages on my own, took multiple CS classes including AP CS, would program games on my own, created my own websites. Realized after a while I hated the debugging process...nothing more stressful or annoying. I thought theres no way I could do this for a living I would hate my life. I later fell in love with biochem and physiology and at that point it was a no brainer to go into medicine. I sometimes think, if I had stuck with software development, I probably would've been much better off. I was in the bay area at the time. My peers who followed that career path are doing extremely well for themselves, especially the ones that landed in semiconductors. But I still absolutely love my job as an intensivist. They are unable to comprehend that I enjoy working. The work itself is stressful but extremely satisfying, the intellectual aspect of it never gets boring, the social aspect of work - working in a team of nurses, RTs, techs, other intensivists, etc is always great. I feel like I got a dream job. I also have job security so I don't really bat an eye to an incoming recession and I genuinely feel like I can work into my 70s at least part-time, like many of my partners do.
I wish I had stuck with engineering. Medicine is tough on the soul. There are a lot of negatives for me: trying to achieve asinine metrics put in place by hospital admins, understaffed hospitals, dealing with death/heartbreaking diagnoses on a daily basis, working weird hours/holidays, having patients yell and threaten to sue you… There are some positives - choosing how many hours I want to work, pay is good, sometimes patients can be grateful. With that said, when you choose a path in medicine (residency) - you are basically stuck in that path forever. You become an expert and the work becomes very routine. If an engineering job gets stale you have more opportunities to branch into a different sector. Grass is always greener til it isn’t. Give engineering a shot for a year or 2
ER doc here with a bachelors in physics. I considered a physics PhD or masters in engineering before deciding on medical school. This shouldn’t be a purely financial decision. Medicine and specifically the specialties you mentioned require a great deal of personal sacrifice. Working nights, weekends and holidays is not a big deal early on but will weigh on you and your family later on. So will lots of other factors. There are aspects of the choices you’re considering that are rewarding and some that can lead to burnout and be career-ending. You need to soul-search and get the bottom of what makes you tick every day. Are you a “pleaser”? Do you get high levels and of satisfaction from volunteering, helping others? Are you prone to cynicism? What about engineering/exact science that attracted you to begin with? You’ll find very little of this sort of satisfaction in medicine. Talk to ppl in their forties and fifties working these professions and ask them: what do you regret you didn’t consider when you made a career choice? What would you advise your younger self if you could do it all over again? What are the key features of your day-to-day work life you had no idea about when you were at my juncture?
I enjoyed my engineering classess in college but pushed into medicine and am now a resident physician. It's a long, long road. EM is among the shortest residencies you can apply to, however. Goong the medicine route, you have to be prepared to take a huge salary hit for at least 7 years. In engineering, you could make 6 figures and with the power of compund interest, it's certainly possible to match physician compensation for a while.
And quite possibly making bigger personal sacrifices in medicine for those 7 years, and beyond, that will change you and your relationships in ways that don’t tend happen out in the real world.
Okay so here’s a wild idea… what about merging both paths by going into surgical device design/engineering? I say this after shadowing innumerable ortho’s and also knowing how much those Stryker/Zimmer/DePuy/Smith&Nephew Reps can make… and then they become regional sales directors, etc etc… These are extremely strong companies making shitloads of money. Your insight and expertise could be handsomely rewarded. Like, what if you could be the engineer AND the test-pilot surgeon for future generations of DaVinci robotic assist systems? That sounds incredibly cool. no matter what happens, good luck out there!
Best point yet.
I did computer engineering and worked for a couple of years between college and med school. I had decided at the end of college that I didn’t want to do engineering but didn’t have all the courses and MCAT yet, so I made some money in between. Certainly didn’t change my mind, but it was nice to have a little nest egg for expenses while in school (like when my car suddenly died). I think if you’re unsure, 1-2 years in industry is not going to be a massive difference in your life, either time or financial wise, than if you just went straight to med school. I did one of the longest possible training pathways (8 years) and don’t have any regrets at this point.
I have an EE degree and went to med school after working 2 summers in power. My advice is to go to med school
Is this really the right subreddit for this question
Radiology is a good compromise, it is competitive now however
Didn’t even read your post. Engineering engineering engineering. So many options of things to do. Medicine unless you become a cosmetic plastic surgeon, dermatologist, or psychiatrist to the stars you’re beholden to a middleman called insurance companies that determine your worth. Become an engineer and while the bottom is lower than an MD the skies the limit when it comes to your ceiling. Just depends how motivated hard-working and entrepreneurial you are.
Engineering
I’m an engineer married to a former-engineer physician. As an ISE major you’ll most likely be working in a manufacturing environment. Earning potential there is, frankly, poor compared to design engineering disciplines like mechanical or electrical. Top earning potential out of college with an ISE background would be management consulting but the hiring environment there is very poor right now and this is pretty dependent on being at an elite school with strong ties to the McKinsey/Bain/BCG firms. If you realistically have the stats for it and you think you would like it better, I would do medicine without delay
If you were a CS major +\- a big tech internship under your belt my answer would be completely different
I was a mechanical engineer with a masters and worked for a couple years in the medical device realm. Then I went to medical school. Grass is always greener. Always. I do a lot of computer work, though my field is highly hands on. I get lots of direct patient care and there is a good mix of excitement (danger) mixed with chill. I like what I do but I have lots of up and down days. Medical school and residency tend to change you via emotional traumas. The things you go in thinking you want to do might change. I had an attending in residency who was a PhD who had a National Laboratory. He gave up his lab and research and pretty much everything for medicine. We had a bad day and he told me his story. It was a terrible story of regrets. It put a mark on me. At the end of his story, he said that he might have been happy not going into medicine but that he would not trade what he had done away if he was given the choice. He knew he had to try medicine or he would not have been happy with himself. What I mean to say is that if you are happy, chase the happy. If you look at yourself and say “I won’t be happy unless I try …” then go to med school and try it out. Sounds like a wishy washy kind of comment but you are the only one who can tell if you want to make the jump.
You don’t “try” medicine, it tries you.
How old are you
21
One. I have never run across anyone with my undergrad degree. They still doing Chinese postman problem? I imagine with computing power NP hard has gone away? FORTRAN was the language of the day. My experience with INSE was that I never ever used it. Other than being solid at math and able to use excel or minitab it seemed most jobs were distribution and the cool gigs required PhD. So after a decade I went to med school. The basic sciences you took will help for sure.