Spartan07

Look at his number of posts. Multiply that by an average of maybe three minutes per post and that is how much time his significant other -thinks- he has "wasted" over the past year. Time that could have been spent rubbing her feet, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, unclogging the toilet, walking the dog, etc.

ToiletDuck

Their idea of "walking into it": had better be in their mid 30's at the earliest.

Pilotpip

Airport reserve takes away the sexy really fast...

Pilotpip

The dean of my school has published a number of books used by both the medical profession as well as aviation. Turns out CRM-style training is HUGE in the medical field due to the team situations where life and death choices can be made with the blink of an eye in a team setting where there is often one who is viewed as being in charge.

LeoSV

HA!! My ex was/is a pharmaceutical rep also in GA. She did the SAME freaking thing. just go in showing leg and cleavage with some heels, and the docs use your drugs. I wish I had nice legs, and breasts, and... nevermind.

the King

That is, if they get into medical school, and get hired and don't hate their life enough to try something different. We were all 18 once. We had no clue what our life would be like after school, the first job, whatever.

planecrazyjenn

As a professional in the medical field, I'll be the first to tell you that it's a total crock of crap. No doctor, human or veterinary, is going to make 250K right out of medical school, even in private practice. The ones who go on to make that much are specialists, which require additional training (residency/internship)...and some even go on further. Within 10 years of being in the field, it's possible...if you go into the right speciality, in the right area. But you wont make that first year, period. My areas of interest are emergency critical care/surgery...I spend more time in a hospital than I do at home and make the same as a first year pilot. My college years were spent with little debt accumulated. Most doctors, however, aren't so lucky. Keep in mind most professional programs are between 20-40K a year...four years your looking at 80-160K...not including all the other expenses AND undergraduate school. The average doctor graduates with 130K of debt - you can get a house for that! It is not easy making it as a first year doctor, trust me.

When you finally do make a decent salary, and your not drowning in college loan debt...you'll realize how expensive insurance is for your private practice. Every day your going to deal with patients who are sick, cranky, and often ****ed off at the world. In the veterinary world we get bit, yelled at by owners, and I've even had one women stab me with the dogs insulin shot. What the hell? Animals don't understand we are trying to help them, just as children don't. It gets rough to work with people when they aren't agreeable. You work long hours, see living things die...something very tragically. Then your job goes from doctor to counselor. You have to find a way to tell the family, and help comfort them.

If they are really serious, they will already be preparing academically and extra-curricular wise. There are a set number of academic classes required for admission to each medical program...and they require so many hours of hands on experience. For an MD program, that would include things like being an EMT, volunteering in hospitals, working in a dr's office, etc. It's not easy to get into med/vet school...and if they aren't willing to work for it, they wont get in.

A LOT of doctors get into the field for money...and I'll be 100% honest, you'll hate your job. You'll get sick and tired of the 24 hour shifts, that often turn into 48 hours or more...being away from your home more than a pilot and making the same pay. You have to learn to sense abuse, and when a person is addicted to pain killers. You'll see that way too much, as it's become a major problem now that dr's are way too pill happy. It gets old, but you have to find the reason you became a doctor in the first place. For me, it's when I can take a case of say a hit by car...that you really aren't sure is going to make it...then after a long struggle walk in and see that tail wagging knowing that you saved that puppys life and made a family happy.

It's not for everyone, and unfortunately many find that out way too late after they've invest all this time and money into the profession.

*Might I add that after having been around this field for a while now, even as a student...I've found that I just can't handle seeing animals die on a daily basis (emergency medicine) and that I'm seriously considering leaving and going into aviation full time. Yeah I'm waiting for the crap to start here...lol.

kalyx522

well, look it on on thevault.com or salary.com or whatever. they do list pretty high salaries for anesthesiologists, heart surgeons, OB-GYNs, etc. BUT,
1. these same websites also list high airline pilot salaries. in addition, those "top 10 highest paying careers" lists always include airline pilot near the top. but we know in reality that's kind of deceiving because while there ARE many older legacy pilots earning that much, many more of us are earning waaaaaaay less. so it's probably the same way with docs. maybe.
2. docs have to pay high malpractice premiums. I've read that many of them are swayed away from the career or away from certain higher paying specialties (like OBGYN) because of the higher premiums.

I have a friend who works at a dentist.. the head dentist there is an orthodontist maxillofacial whatever, you know the specialists who perform oral surgery? well apparently his annual income is into the 7 figures. I don't think that's common, but even if it were, I'm not sure I could endure looking into people's mouth diseases all day long every day. I can't even listen to the descriptions of the gross things she sees without puke traveling halfway up my esophagus.

Swass

Mid to high six figures for orthodontists is pretty common in my area, not sure about maxillofacial though