Medicine vs CS (Tech)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who's done both and made a late career switch, medicine is where I'm much happier. While there are many stressful fields in medicine, the are subspecialties that are lifestyle friendly, pay well, and in demand particularly in private practice.

What else, except the ROAD specialties ?
Another factor is those specialties are highly competitive.

Most specialities are flexible these days due to high demand for doctors.

Primary care doctors now only work 4 days for it to be full time. Same with oncologists. Some work 7 weeks on and then 7 weeks off like hospitalist or critical care. I can’t think of a speciality that can’t be somewhat flexible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s silly to compare medicine with IT.

Computer Science is more than IT.

Computer Science is essentially software development. Some programs have “tracks” to focus on areas like cybersecurity, but really, it’s a degree in software. That’s one discipline under the scope of information technology, but could also be classified under mathematical sciences or software engineering. Regardless, the vast majority of graduates work in some form of information technology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Med is always in demand. CS is not. Was hot soon to be cooler

This is wholly inaccurate. The layoffs were across jobs and a few big companies and the people with CS backgrounds all had new jobs within a week.

Just a beginning far from over. You make it sound like it’s over and done with.

I’ve been in tech since the 90s. I’ve never been without work, and when I wanted a change I always had multiple offers. Tech workers have heard people rooting for us to fail before. We laugh all the way to the bank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Med is always in demand. CS is not. Was hot soon to be cooler

This is wholly inaccurate. The layoffs were across jobs and a few big companies and the people with CS backgrounds all had new jobs within a week.

Just a beginning far from over. You make it sound like it’s over and done with.

It’s more that people are lumping all jobs at tech companies as CS, and they’re not even close to being accurate. Very many of those jobs were non-technical and had nothing to do with computer science. Also, it’s a field that is hired at very many companies that aren’t FAANG and many of those have a lot of openings to fill those hires for the technical roles. Stating there is some issue with CS graduates getting hired is inaccurate and will remain so for a long time.

Endless demand is what you are saying? Does that make sense to you?

You’re making no sense. No one said endless demand. There is currently not concern that there will be not be jobs for new graduates. Demand for $400K salaries is a different discussion.

How about demand in 4 years when DC's kid graduates?

Or 10 years or 20 years down the road? Will it be as good as medicine? I think not.

It hasn't been better than medicine for ages now. Outsourcing and automation of project tracking and Agile had change playing field and turned tech work into glorified factory work. Even if you are a high skilled SME you can expect to be treated like an assembly line worker. And if you are a manager then you are expected to run your team like a factory floor or risk displeasing upper management. Some of it is starting to happen in medicine as well, but not to the same extent and doctors can set their own hours, open their practice and decide how many patients they see. In Tech or IT most work is full time and this means around the clock (because a lot of teams are on different time zones). You can be a crappy doctor and still see patients just because they need routine stuff and prescriptions. Correct me if I am wrong.

Bro, if your work environment is like working in a factory, then you’re doing Agile wrong. It’s actually the total opposite of constant managerial oversight — it’s lead by self organizing teams of developers, and it’s a highly skilled craft. What you describe is not Agile, it’s what Robert Martin calls out as clueless middle managers killing Agile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who's done both and made a late career switch, medicine is where I'm much happier. While there are many stressful fields in medicine, the are subspecialties that are lifestyle friendly, pay well, and in demand particularly in private practice.

What else, except the ROAD specialties ?
Another factor is those specialties are highly competitive.

Most specialities are flexible these days due to high demand for doctors.

Primary care doctors now only work 4 days for it to be full time. Same with oncologists. Some work 7 weeks on and then 7 weeks off like hospitalist or critical care. I can’t think of a speciality that can’t be somewhat flexible.

This is accurate. But to add to the ROAD specialties, psychiatry, PMNR, pathology, pain, rheum, GI, are just a few of the many specialties you can make a great salary and not be overworked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who's done both and made a late career switch, medicine is where I'm much happier. While there are many stressful fields in medicine, the are subspecialties that are lifestyle friendly, pay well, and in demand particularly in private practice.

What else, except the ROAD specialties ?
Another factor is those specialties are highly competitive.

Most specialities are flexible these days due to high demand for doctors.

Primary care doctors now only work 4 days for it to be full time. Same with oncologists. Some work 7 weeks on and then 7 weeks off like hospitalist or critical care. I can’t think of a speciality that can’t be somewhat flexible.

This is accurate. But to add to the ROAD specialties, psychiatry, PMNR, pathology, pain, rheum, GI, are just a few of the many specialties you can make a great salary and not be overworked.

Disagree.
I am in one of those non-ROAD speciality that’s supposed to have a good lifestyle.
Maybe it was OK 10 years ago, but in 2023 nothing is easy.
We are terribly understaffed. I do a huge amount of admin/paperwork.
Most of us work 12 hours/day, and there is no sign of it letting up.
My colleagues are jumping ship right and left for industry/pharma, and the boomers are all retiring.
Medicine was already broken, and then Covid crushed us.
It’s been a miserable existence for the last 2-3 years, but I suppose at least we have job security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who's done both and made a late career switch, medicine is where I'm much happier. While there are many stressful fields in medicine, the are subspecialties that are lifestyle friendly, pay well, and in demand particularly in private practice.

What else, except the ROAD specialties ?
Another factor is those specialties are highly competitive.

Most specialities are flexible these days due to high demand for doctors.

Primary care doctors now only work 4 days for it to be full time. Same with oncologists. Some work 7 weeks on and then 7 weeks off like hospitalist or critical care. I can’t think of a speciality that can’t be somewhat flexible.

This is accurate. But to add to the ROAD specialties, psychiatry, PMNR, pathology, pain, rheum, GI, are just a few of the many specialties you can make a great salary and not be overworked.

Disagree.
I am in one of those non-ROAD speciality that’s supposed to have a good lifestyle.
Maybe it was OK 10 years ago, but in 2023 nothing is easy.
We are terribly understaffed. I do a huge amount of admin/paperwork.
Most of us work 12 hours/day, and there is no sign of it letting up.
My colleagues are jumping ship right and left for industry/pharma, and the boomers are all retiring.
Medicine was already broken, and then Covid crushed us.
It’s been a miserable existence for the last 2-3 years, but I suppose at least we have job security.

That's you being understaffed. What's your specialty?

[Anonymous]

In CS you can make a lot of money very quickly. You don’t have to study for extra 8 years. You can be a millionaire in that time.

[Anonymous]

The MD degree is very versatile. You don’t have to be a practicing doctor all your life. There are positions in big Pharma, government, research institutes, VC, telehealth companies, insurance, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who's done both and made a late career switch, medicine is where I'm much happier. While there are many stressful fields in medicine, the are subspecialties that are lifestyle friendly, pay well, and in demand particularly in private practice.

What else, except the ROAD specialties ?
Another factor is those specialties are highly competitive.

Most specialities are flexible these days due to high demand for doctors.

Primary care doctors now only work 4 days for it to be full time. Same with oncologists. Some work 7 weeks on and then 7 weeks off like hospitalist or critical care. I can’t think of a speciality that can’t be somewhat flexible.

This is accurate. But to add to the ROAD specialties, psychiatry, PMNR, pathology, pain, rheum, GI, are just a few of the many specialties you can make a great salary and not be overworked.

Disagree.
I am in one of those non-ROAD speciality that’s supposed to have a good lifestyle.
Maybe it was OK 10 years ago, but in 2023 nothing is easy.
We are terribly understaffed. I do a huge amount of admin/paperwork.
Most of us work 12 hours/day, and there is no sign of it letting up.
My colleagues are jumping ship right and left for industry/pharma, and the boomers are all retiring.
Medicine was already broken, and then Covid crushed us.
It’s been a miserable existence for the last 2-3 years, but I suppose at least we have job security.

My Internist spouse works 5 extra hours from home after full time office hours.
This work includes prescription refills, reviewing labs , dictating and more paper work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The MD degree is very versatile. You don’t have to be a practicing doctor all your life. There are positions in big Pharma, government, research institutes, VC, telehealth companies, insurance, and so on.

You can also do clinical informatics now which combines md and tech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In CS you can make a lot of money very quickly. You don’t have to study for extra 8 years. You can be a millionaire in that time.

Over the course of your 30 or 40 year work career, the average doctor will still make a lot more than the average CS person. Not to mention there's more job security and stability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In CS you can make a lot of money very quickly. You don’t have to study for extra 8 years. You can be a millionaire in that time.

Over the course of your 30 or 40 year work career, the average doctor will still make a lot more than the average CS person. Not to mention there's more job security and stability.

+1. I think it's silly to compare MD vs CS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In CS you can make a lot of money very quickly. You don’t have to study for extra 8 years. You can be a millionaire in that time.

Over the course of your 30 or 40 year work career, the average doctor will still make a lot more than the average CS person. Not to mention there's more job security and stability.

+1. I think it's silly to compare MD vs CS

I also think it’s silly and I have a CS degree.

It’s just not a comparable career path and, honestly, even within the scope of MD or CS there are variations in occupation that make even subsets not that similar. The career of a research doctor isn’t the same as that of emergency room doctor. A gaming developer isn’t the same as a government contractor.

They’re both solid paths to choose, so whatever degree is decided upon should be something the person can complete and feel successful. Neither of these paths will likely end up unemployed for long stretches or don’t offer higher and lower stress career options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In CS you can make a lot of money very quickly. You don’t have to study for extra 8 years. You can be a millionaire in that time.

Over the course of your 30 or 40 year work career, the average doctor will still make a lot more than the average CS person. Not to mention there's more job security and stability.

+1. I think it's silly to compare MD vs CS

I also think it’s silly and I have a CS degree.

It’s just not a comparable career path and, honestly, even within the scope of MD or CS there are variations in occupation that make even subsets not that similar. The career of a research doctor isn’t the same as that of emergency room doctor. A gaming developer isn’t the same as a government contractor.

They’re both solid paths to choose, so whatever degree is decided upon should be something the person can complete and feel successful. Neither of these paths will likely end up unemployed for long stretches or don’t offer higher and lower stress career options.

It is not silly for STEM focused college freshman or sophomore to think about.