Has anyone thought about switching to medicine from banking
Worked a few years in banking and thinking about making the switch for a few following reasons
There is much less stress and career longevity post-residency
- In banking, mass layoffs come in every few years and its just so stressful finding exits, networking, schmoozing, etc. Even as an MD, most people still work and do call in late evening on a weekday or even weekends
- In medicine, residency pay and hours suck. But post-residency you control your own hours in private practice. Less stressful life and resilient to economic cycle
- Some specialties like rads, fm or psych even allow remote work so you can spend a few months traveling a year. Review a few rad scans and write some comments while you are on a Bali beach and need a few grands extra money
- The money is more than enough. Less than banking or PE at MD level, but comparable or more than corp dev or many other positions than banking, especially taking into account cushy specialty private practice is just regular 9-6 no overtime
- You can also move to LCOL area and practice part-time even in your 60s (just work 5-10 hours a week if you are too bored)
- If you really want to make money, there are plastics, derm, etc. which still pay very well and these specialties are inherently "protected" by having a small intake every year unlike banking we always have unlimited supply of [class of 20xx]
- You are replaceable but at least you see more meaning in your job. People in the community will know about you and appreciate your work instead of pitching some M&A that will happen regardless of your work or "please fix"
- If you are more hardo, you can also do the academic role. Publish and teach, just more personal satisfaction if you are not looking for money but looking for contribution, impact and status
This is the epitome of the grass being greener. If you decide to make the switch, it will be like 12 years until you would actually be working as a physician.
And yeah, you’re right - some specialties are chiller than others, WLB wise. To get to that point is incredibly not chill. Going through residency is extremely stressful, and unlike banking where a lot of errors are bound to happen but most things would still be okay if they happened, in medicine you’re dealing with someone’s life, and mistakes are completely unacceptable. There are radiologists who have been working for over 30 years who misdiagnose shit that they absolutely should not have misdiagnosed, but the consequences for the patient can be horrendous. That is very unchill to me.
Know two ex-bankers (not IB, think middle / back office) who got canned in the GFC. Both went into medicine eventually. The one I know fairly well is extremely happy as a primary care doc right now (EDIT: just looked up his reviews and he's very highly rated by his patients which is rare in that profession).
No clue about the other. Agree with the other poster, grass is greener on the other side. Getting sued is definitely an issue and the corporatization of healthcare really has taken out a lot of autonomy the profession once had. Suicidal rates for medical doctors is also alarmingly high probably due to the stress the job entails (even if its lighter hours than banking).
Only do medicine if you know you really want to. The person I mentioned above who I know fairly well was lost professionally through his 20s and eventually realized with time, he really enjoys medicine. I have friends who are doctors and don't like their jobs that much but it's a nice paycheck. But I will be fair, I've also seen people in finance crash and burn / recover their career eventually (probably more so than doctors to be honest, the few doctors I know who left clinical medicine ended up in funny enough, more lucrative careers. Can't say the same for the bankers I know).
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