Ask HN: Has anyone gone to med school after working as a SWE? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Has anyone gone to med school after working as a SWE?

9 pointsaquajet11 comments

What's the process like, and what convinced you to go to med school?

My eye doctor graduated with EE degree, worked as EE for 6 years for a defense contractor, then went to medical school. He wanted to do things that save people and not kill them.

In reverse, I have a cousin who went to medical school, became a doctor, worked at a hospital for few years, didn’t like the work, couldn’t handle seeing sick people day in day out, decided to do MBA, then joined IT consulting firm, bounced between different consulting companies, later started his own IT consulting firm focusing on healthcare.

Currently a 3rd year student after several years as a SWE. I have found the process to be extremely challenging. All of your income and free time are taken away and replaced by endless studying in an environment that is (comparatively) infantilizing. You are about 9 years away from being an attending physician - 2 years of full time effort just to create a competitive application, 4 years of med school, and 3+ years of residency. Nothing is guaranteed and each step in the process has significant filters. I still feel like I made the right choice. I am looking for personal growth and being challenged along many dimensions.

How competitive are the filters? Also, what did you do in the 2 years to make a competitive app? I have published some CS research in the past, so I imagine I would have to do some. Shadowing in addition to the hard constraints of MCAT/classes.

In my opinion, the biggest filter is just getting accepted into medical school. Once you are in, there is a high probability that you can finish and become some type of physician, although maybe not the specialty you want. I know some people who reapplied four consecutive years before they were accepted. One attending physician in an extremely competitive surgical subspecialty recently told me he took the MCAT three times.

Other filters include the licensing exams (USMLE Step 1, 2, 3) and the residency match. The number of residency spots for certain specialties are not growing nearly as fast as new medical schools. If you want to do a primary care specialty, this isn't a concern. However if you want a surgical specialty, radiology, dermatology, etc, you need to truly be an exceptional applicant.

During those initial two years, I took all the prerequisite classes, volunteered, shadowed, wrote application essays, took the MCAT, and flew around the country for interviews. You should strongly consider working as a medical scribe during this time. One interviewer at my preferred school told me, "if you aren't accepted, you need to go work as a scribe and reapply". I wasn't accepted there.

Your CS research and working experience will help. I personally do not think you need more research just to get accepted. But certainly if you want a competitive specialty, while in medical school, you will need to be listed on multiple publications in that field.

Good luck!

In germany there are courses, that enable you to work as a first responder in an ambulance. They are just a couple of months long. I want do them when I have a few months of free time to get some insight about the field and learn useful skills.

Maybe there is a similar scheme where you live? This could you give you an insight about whether you like it at relatively low stakes.

Thanks, I live in Boston. I know there are EMT courses, so that might work.

Ed Roberts the inventor of the Altair 8800 did just that. He was over 30 when he decided to go to medical school and become a doctor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roberts_(computer_engineer)...

For context I'm interested in going to med school, but I'm also hesitant because of the long commitment to education.

In the US, med school also requires a significant financial investment (debt) and health investment (long hours). If it weren't for the reward of helping people, I don't think many would do it. I think med school should be more incentivized.

I'm definitely not contemplating becoming a doctor, but I'm curious.

Does anybody know how much doctors in the US typically make? Both at the start of their career and at the end of their career?

Are those numbers uniform across the country?

What about in Europe?

(Yeah I know a doctor's incentive might not be money, still)

I'm not sure off the top of my head, but it depends on what exactly the specialization is. I'd imagine it's roughly around the salary of a software developer. However, education is a much larger investment, so a lot of that money is put towards loans.

Personally I was lucky and didn't have any debt graduating with a CS degree (actually an MS and BS), but if I were to do med school I would need to take out loans

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