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by virtueman 1251 days ago
- extreme longevity of a career (if that appeals to you) or retire early (if that appeals to you)

- ability to help people and even work directly with/in international communities to promote global health (eg, doctors without borders)

- dictate your schedule including working minimal hours

- answer a calling (life is more than money)

- ability to work in any area of the country or world (every city needs a doctor)

- solid job security and pay for your entire life

- respect / social status (people want to have a doctor as their friend / spouse)

- ability to develop and maintain social skills (ie, be more "broad") which are exercised as a physician significantly more than (in my experience) as a software engineer

- have months of vacation every year without any consequences

- life time of growth and learning

1 comments

What sorts of doctors can dictate their own schedules, work minimal hours, or take months of vacation each year? If they exist, surely they're firmly in the minority.
They are tradeoffs certainly, those benefits generally come with less pay.

I do agree they are in the minority. It is possible if you own your own practice. But also attainable by most physicians willing to work locums, essentially being a substitute doctor. You can take gaps between these locums contracts to travel.

As a software engineer in a great job at an exciting company, I think programming is like magic but I've never completely felt at home doing it.

I still have this have this urge to go be a doctor, despite investing 7 years of my life into computer science. Thanks virtueman for your input here, it really summarizes the biggest pros of medicine.

It's apparent that you've thought deeply about this virtueman, what's your relationship to medicine?