[tuvistavie]

> The difference is that what the doctors put so much time into learning can actually be quite useful for their job.

I'd be curious to hear what a doctor would think about that. My intuition would be that, as for almost any exam, a lot of time is spent on things that will not be useful for any other purpose than the exam itself.

[cableshaft]

Even if it isn't, do doctors have to retake these exams multiple times (as developers have to do this for multiple interviews) every two years when wanting to switch jobs (doctors often don't have to switch jobs, they often have their own practice).

[dntrkv]

They also have to go to school for 10 years before they’re even allowed in the job market.

I’ll take our sometimes silly interview processes over that.

[filoleg]

>They also have to go to school for 10 years before they’re even allowed in the job market.

Not to mention that during that time they are accruing loans in insane amounts (we are talking about $200-300k) and get worked in insane shifts (24-36 hour shifts are not unheard of during residency rotations).

Oh, and they don't get paid at all until they start residency rotations which is AFTER 4 years of med school, and their pay during residency is on the order of $30k-50k for what effectively amounts to 80-100 hours a week. Mind you, that's on top of the fact that in the US, you only enter a med school after you already got a college degree. So you enter a med school at the age of 23.

I have respect for the doctors, but I definitely do not envy their position. Their real work doesn't even start until their 30s, at which point they are already really deep in student loan debt. Of course it is manageable, since they get paid handsomely. But their work-life balance and the entire process where you start your "real work" after the age of 30 with $200-300k in loans, at that point, isn't something that a lot of people consider when they think "those doctors are having it nice."

It isn't even a second thought to me that I would much much rather study for interviews every single time i switch a job as a software engineer than deal with what doctors deal. And that's not even mentioning that studying for a typical software dev interview is absolutely nothing compared to the studying that med school students have to do in order to pass their board exams.

[stainforth]

If there were poor doctors who had to drive for Uber eats after hours we would be hearing about it

[filoleg]

I am not saying that doctors in the US are poor, quite the opposite.

They are, however, very poor (and in tons of debt) until they actually become a full doctor (which is typically in their early 30s, after they are done with med school, residency, and board exams) and extremely overworked (which still holds true for most of them even after becoming "real" doctors).

You don't hear about "poor doctors", because during the decade in which they are poor they are counted as "students" by most people, and poor students isn't exactly something surprising or eyebrow-raising for most people. It's just the magnitude of that poorness and overworking is completely invisible to most people who don't have someone in their friend group or family who just recently became a doctor.

[reidjs]

In somewhat of a parallel, you don’t have to switch jobs either, you can start your own software company at any time ;)

[cableshaft]

I've tried doing freelance before, and I was a terrible marketer for myself. While that's definitely an option for people in this industry, I'm not sure it's a great path for me.

[s0rce]

Same with medicine. Although under-served markets are common you still have to market yourself in private practice. New specialists advertise to GPs to get referrals for example.