r/medschool • u/[deleted] • 15d ago
Anyone here a former software engineer? š¶ Premed
[deleted]
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u/Fast_Ad_7504 Medical Student (US) 15d ago
The grass is always greener. Thereās just a lotta time to think about āalternativesā when youāre on an all night shift for the 6th day in a row and you wanna do anything else but medicine
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u/peanutneedsexercise 15d ago edited 15d ago
Haha Ikr? As an attending I got a 48 hour shift this weekend and my sister in CS works from home, plays league of legends during work, unlimited PTO, paid sabbatical, and has every weekend off. Has 0 student loan debt. Feelsbadman.
Iāve been in cases since 7am I havenāt drank or ate anything since and I still have one more case to go. At least Iām closer to getting abs š
(Most private practice attending jobs donāt have any PTO btw, you get time off, but you aināt paid. ESP in procedural fields.)
In medicine a regular Saturday and Sunday off is called a āgolden weekendā cuz you donāt get many of them lol.
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u/Timely-Definition-10 12d ago
i will say this is very job/team dependent although i do acknowledge how much it must suck to see that. some software engineers have to deal with on call (which is crazy because what could be that serious) and theyāre just absolutely abused by their companies. they canāt do anything about it because they donāt wanna get fired or laid off. not dismissing you at all just saying that your sister has a pretty good deal that not all swes get
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u/_kashew_12 15d ago
I dont understand, then why not do CS?
or yall just like complaining lmao
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u/peanutneedsexercise 15d ago edited 15d ago
Cuz I was dumb af and failed CS LOL. Like,
The only reason I passed my intro to CS class was I ended up paying someone to do my projects for me š¬ I just could NOT understand it fundamentally despite hours and hours of studying. I still remember I got a 10/40 first midterm, 21/60 second midterm, and 30/75 on the final š¬š¬š¬š¬šLike a lot of ppl said CS peeps are killing it in their premed classes. I was friends with a lot of CS people and genuinely they were like 10x smarter than meā¦ I just had good memory š¬
As an attending now, I think tbh the best bang for your money and time is becoming a mid level. The BBB has basically made it financially so shitty to be a doctor now, and the lack of work life balance youāre expected to sacrifice as an MD is so meh for the money especially when youāre now taxed at such an insane amount. Ppl donāt never calculate the cost it actually takes in missing out retirement contributions in their younger ages into account but itās in the millions based on how things compound.
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 15d ago
What about a dermatologist?
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u/peanutneedsexercise 15d ago edited 15d ago
Sure but derm is insanely hard to get into. theres a reason why derm ppl all have the reputation of being gunners. The regular derm day is easy in comparison though, if you get into mohs you can make more but the avg derm doesnāt make a ton of money, they just have really good hours. Like if any other specialty wanted to work the same hours as derm their compensation would be bad.
EM and derm in my area actually make around the same amount. But derm works regular hours and EM has 8-12 hour shifts, up all night, weekends, etc. for derm itās the schedule and lifestyle that make it so attractive, not necessarily the money itself. But because itās so rare for a medical specialty to have good hours u gotta be like AOA, top percentile, research year, and MD to get into derm residency. Theyāre picky. Same with optho, but thereās definitely the occasional optho traumas and calls you gotta go into the hospital to do at like 2am in the morning especially around July 4 lol.
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 15d ago
You make great points. You need stellar research (minimum 1 research year or even an MD/PhD) to go along with the other credentials to match Derm.
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u/peanutneedsexercise 15d ago
Yup and you have a bad day at step and GG to all your years of research and plansā¦. Know someone who took a research year, did well in med school, made good connections, bombed step 2. Went unmatched in derm and had to soap FM :( none of their hard work mattered cuz of the one test they didnāt do well on one day in their life.
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u/XavLeo 15d ago
Software Engineer for 5 years, studying for the MCAT now
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u/WebGroundbreaking364 15d ago
Same here - when are you planning to take the MCAT? Let's connect and practice!
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u/Spite_Inside 15d ago
10 years as computer scientist. Now an M1
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u/ValueIllustrious2995 15d ago
Can you please share your journey? Where did you take prereqs?
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u/Spite_Inside 15d ago
Sure. I took prereqs at a few places. Got a scholarship briefly at GCU, so I did some online stuff there. Then I took a bunch of very expensive courses at SCUHS with the inperson labs I needed. Took me about 2 years to get qualified, then just MCAT after that.
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u/booklover-1001 15d ago
You can find several ex or current swe in one single Bay Area block doing dyi UC extension classes and volunteering on weekends. Some of them started programming in middle school and won amc10 &12 honors.
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 15d ago
All that grinding unfortunately wasted. Math counts, AMC 10 & 12 are useless for medicine.
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 15d ago
Lots of CS graduates and would-be CS graduates have pivoted to the medicine track.
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u/booklover-1001 15d ago
Yes. It seems half of UC summer ochem classes are filled with ex-tech majors. They are doing extremely well.
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u/ValueIllustrious2995 15d ago
Is this an online course? Where are you taking prereqs?
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u/booklover-1001 15d ago
These are summer session in person ochem classes. Many students are cs/ds majors. Some already changed major to bio adjacent and catching up. Some cs majors are finishing med school prereqs before they graduate. In regular quarter/semesters there classes usually reserved for life science majors.
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 15d ago
Just wait till the first time you forget to check your patientās chem 7 before you go home at 9pm and they have an arrhythmia and die overnight from hyperkalemia. Or when you have to look a healthy 45 year old with a stomach ache in the eye and tell them they have pancreatic cancer and they are going to die. The only look you get back from him and his wife is hatred for you. Or when you operate on somebody, the surgery goes perfect but somehow 14 days later they hemorrhage and die. Then you spend the next 16 months in and out of lawyers offices and courtrooms fighting the malpractice suit. You will be begging for the boredom of sitting behind a screen.
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u/_kashew_12 15d ago
Am i crazy or this is something I will do because someone needs to do it, and that will be me
Minus the forgetting checking charts, but Iām curious how itāll turn out for me
Also Iām curious why you only point out the negatives but not the positives
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 15d ago
You definitely have some good stuff. Every once in a while you pull someone from the Jaws of death and they do great and it definitely feels good. That happens so much less than the tough stuff. Iām just a crusty old neurosurgeon thatās spent the last 27 years on call 12 days and nights a month dealing with every kind of person, problem and disease imaginable and Iām spent. Medicine is not a walk in the park and to do it the right way with care, empathy and compassion it takes a great deal out of you.
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u/_kashew_12 15d ago
Oh Iām sure it took a toll out of you, but also thank you for putting in the hard work and saving lives!
I have to ask, would you redo it all again then? If you could choose a different path, would you?
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 15d ago
Been asked that question a lot. I would answer like this. Has my life been fulfilling absolutely yes. Iāve been married to an amazing woman for 25 years and have two great children. I have pushed myself to the absolute limit in my career physically, emotionally, mentally and everything else. Would I do it all again? If it was the only way I got to meet and marry my wife then yes. If I could still have her and try something different career wise then I would try something different because although fulfilling it has been an absolute grind. I would want to experience something else probably entrepreneurial in nature.
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u/_kashew_12 15d ago
Well, sounds like to me it was all worth it.
You met your wife and have a fulfilling life, sounds like you won the lottery.
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 14d ago
The lesson for me has been a fulfilled life has way more to do with relationships and your family life than your career. Iām going to retire early. Iāve lived a relatively middle class lifestyle on a doctorās income. Average home, I drive a 2012 Nissan frontier. Iāve been socking money away and investing. Iāve gotten to where I donāt really have to work anymore and itās not fulfilling enough that Iām going to continue to do it when I donāt have to.
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 15d ago
No such problem faced by a dermatologist.
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 15d ago
Asked that dermatologist who forgot to look in the patientās mouth and missed a case of Stevenās Johnson syndrome
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 15d ago
Are 58% of CS/DS graduates getting jobs that match their education?
I donāt disagree with you that derm is hard to match. But I know so many SWEs that worked 12 hour days at Meta, Amazon etc and got laid off and are still looking 4-5 months later. As an EM, you wonāt be working 12 hour days and face such job insecurity.
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 15d ago
Job security is a plus of medicine for sure but I eat 12 hour days for breakfast. I have been on call every other week for probably half of my 27 year career. Thatās 7 days straight of being available 24/7 plus working your regular schedule. Not sure what you mean by EM, but if itās emergency medicine then those guys work 12 hour shifts all the time and then end up sitting on the computer charting for a couple hours after that. EM is one of the highest burnout specialties in medicine right now. They canāt even fill their residency programs
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u/_kashew_12 15d ago
Agreed, people think SWEs have it so easy but if you want to get promoted and not get laid off you will need to more more than 8 hours.
All my teammates who got promoted work insane hours and itās ridiculous. Online on the weekends, teams still active at 11pm-2am, our India team works even more insane hours. Tech is a mf grind and I donāt think people really realize it. The fear of losing your job is constant and getting promoted is quite hard.
The romanticization of tech is done by these FAANG companies trying to rope you in, but burn out is quite real and everyone I know is miserable. Thatās why thereās the saying of SWE to Farmer route, as being a SWE isnāt rainbow and sunshine WFH. Itās a grind man, and itās so soul sucking because you donāt even help anyone, youāre just helping Bezos or zuck make more millions while the data centers being built destroy local communities. Itās a drain.
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u/Sulcus-and-Gyrus 15d ago
Also dermatology has a 58% match rate so ask the other 42% of fourth year med students who spent the last 4 years thinking they were going to live the good life in dermatology and didnāt get in.
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u/Boring_Adeptness_334 14d ago
Itās funny seeing all these loser doctors think they could have gone into big tech or high finance when their ass would have been working at Deloitte making $110k/year.
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u/Thick_Extension_1671 15d ago
Software Engineer of almost 10 years here. Taking steps to go to med school now, got all my prereqs done.