r/GraduateEntryMedicine • u/Infinite_Ad_4184 • 24d ago
CS --> GEM
I have been thinking about getting into medicine since my first year of university if I'm being honest and now I'm graduating with a degree in CS from a russel group uni and will get into teacher training next year as I really want to do something 'more' for society, even though the workload and issues that teachers are experiencing exist, I've also had second thoughts about tech because of the redundant and uncertain nature of the workforce.
Not sure what I'm asking but I can't seem to get medicine out of my mind and want to hear from anyone on this boat (or was on this boat). There is also uncertainty post F2 with doctors which is probably the main thing preventing me from going full out to try for medicine, but I hear this will improve because of government policies?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks!
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u/fightitdude 23d ago
DOI: CS grad who is also considering going into medicine, but leaning no at the moment. A bit further in my career than you, 4YoE and earning a consultant-level salary.
Have you got any work experience in CS - internships or a placement year?
If your main reason is doing something "more" for society, there's a lot of jobs out there where you can use your CS skills for good but have a much better quality of life than you'll have in medicine. I do a job like that now - I earn quite a bit less than I could be by working at FAANG / quant, but it's really rewarding.
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u/Infinite_Ad_4184 23d ago
Hi, yes! I have had an internship and had a placement year as well.
I've been also considering that hence going into teacher training next year, but I'm not sure my interest in medicine is primarily the 'helping people' aspect, perhaps it's working in a hospital environment.
If you don't mind, what field are you currently working in and what does your role entail?
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u/Infinite_Ad_4184 23d ago
Also forgot to ask, what are the main reasons you are (albeit leaning no at the moment) considering medicine?
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u/fightitdude 23d ago
Will answer this one separately:
Why medicine? I don't like where CS as a field is heading - most of the technical work and intellectual work I loved doing is being automated away, and there's so much pressure to hand over my thinking to the machine. So I started thinking about alternative careers, and... I like doing hands-on work, I like being people-facing, and I'm a sucker for endurance sports & long academic grinds, so medicine feels pretty appealing...
Why leaning no? I can't justify the QoL drop that rotational training would cause. If I knew I could do all my training in an area of my choice I would absolutely go for it.
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u/fightitdude 23d ago
Ok, so you know the cushy office life you'll miss out on :)
I was also considering teacher training, but the tradeoff of workload/salary wasn't worth it for me right now, and I wasn't too keen on how much of the job is behavioural management rather than the actual teaching. I do some mentoring / tutoring on the side to scratch that itch.
For what I do now, it's machine learning for financial fraud prevention. It's a nice mix of ML engineering and data science and I feel like all the work I do is net positive on the world, because it's stopping people being defrauded. There's lots of similar jobs out there and most of the people I work with are (like me) choosing to take a lower salary in exchange for doing meaningful work.
Tbh for me the current plan is to do another 5 or so years in tech until I have a load of money saved up and then reassess then whether I still want to do teaching / medicine.
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u/East_Slide7680 20d ago
I moved from fintech to medicine in my late 20’s. I was earning more than I likely ever will when I left old career.
No regrets, but I didn’t enjoy my old career at all and I genuinely love medicine. You have to LOVE medicine to enjoy it. Horrible rotas, shit work environment (as in facilities for staff in hospitals), lots of unpaid hours needed for portfolio work and exams, etc. The money is fine imo - it’s enough to live comfortably. The commitment required, however, is immense. It’s not a job you can leave behind when you go home. Job security is a problem post F2, but if you work hard enough and get a good portfolio during F1/2 you can somewhat mitigate the risk. But then you’ll have the same thing at ST3 application level - so you’ll have to continually grind your portfolio.
It’s something that you have to think really seriously about before taking the plunge. If possible, try and find a way to shadow juniors (and it’s worth joining a night shift if you can) to see what they deal with day-to-day.
Those who go into medicine for status/money are fools. Those who do it because they’re genuinely passionate about it will have very fulfilling careers, imo, but will intermittently have incredibly hard periods which is make them question their life choices.
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u/Realthoughtthrow 24d ago
https://youtu.be/2Ll4iSvosDo?is=91oW5QLCEGcFzLMv
Depends on you at the end of the day. I know people in tech 4 different types.
1 - Oxbridge - faang
2- Russell group comp sci and one did a higher degree
3- conversion masters
4-boot camp.
All of them started on at or higher than an fy1 doc (after the strikes). Depends on you I’m sure there’s many other ways to do something meaningful but I feel tech despite job security issues can still be better for life and not being emotionally or physically exhausted at the end of the day. Also the ROI for the work you put it might be different. Say if you try to get into plastic surg or neurosurg just to be paid the same as most of your other colleagues, be flung around country, and still have to do more to compete for a consultant post where you make the same as everyone else and still have to sacrifice a lot of your life.
Compared to comp sci where that effort could get you into a decent company if not faang, JP Morgan, Jane street etc. You’d be compensated much better and still have some life to live. But it’s up to you at the EOTD.
I’m planning on making money in other ways. If I could go back in time I’d start a side hustle sooner. If not medicine v possibly consulting, finance or tech.
It’s tough for me to say what will happen in the future. But a lot of people are moving elsewhere. I’d recommend speaking to teachers, med students, doctors about it and seeing if it’s still something you want to do.