QOTW-April 7th - Medical training choices

[Auspicious]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?
Yes to med school. Easy decision on that one still.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?
Unghpf. As of today I give a very cautious yes. There were definitely times during the job search and again during the making-partner process that I would have said no. The tight job market and instability of it still kill me. He really enjoys the actual practice of pathology. A lot. But every grownup knows you can't live on love. If everything stayed like it is today I'd choose pathology again, but I reserve the right to change my answer in the future.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?
I don't know, some other ROAD specialty? I confess there's a lot I don't know about what other kinds of doctors actually do all day.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?
The PhD would be first up on the chopping block, for sure. Or at least first up for consideration. (Time travel paradox, yadda yadda yadda.)
I have asked myself MANY times what different choices we might have made during training to get a more perfect outcome. Being more of a prestige whore on the rank list (and thereby lying hardcore about wanting to do academics), doing fellowship at Michigan instead of Minnesota, and doing a second fellowship in molecular all lead that "what if" list. Basically everything I can think of, though, we know someone IRL who did that and still had similar struggles and outcomes to ours, though. And I think I'm happier with our outcome than I'm making it sound here. There's quite a lot of stuff I wouldn't want to change or jeopardize.

[migirl]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

Yes to med school, this whole process - as a whole - has been good for us.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

Yep, he likes it and - for a surgical subspecialty - it's a pretty good lifestyle.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

Not sure. Some ROAD specialty maybe?

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

Nope, wouldn't change a thing. We moved away from home for med school (pre-kids), which turned out to be a great learning and growth experience for us. We got our top choice for residency and got to move back home. I got to be a SAHM during residency/fellowship, which is what I wanted. Attending job had been great so far. I've got no regrets!

[PrincessFiona]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

I think dh is really happy with where he is at career-wise, so yes, I think I would choose it for him.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?
Same one. He loves the microbiology/pharmacology pieces and that's where his heart is. He would be a terrible surgeon, and an even worse psychiatrist or ob/gyn.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?
rheumatology or endocrinology. I think he really enjoys internal medicine and that he might enjoy one of the subspecialties.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?
I think I would have pushed to go through the match for residency instead of applying outside of the match at the time. We were coming from Europe though and it just seemed easier. I also would have chosen a different location for fellowship. Oh ... and maybe picked a warmer location for "the job". LOL

[Bittersweet]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

Absolutely. He had a career before medical school. Medicine is his calling (cliche, I know).

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

I think so. He can't imagine doing anything else. A shorter training path would have been nice.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

Derm. He'd be miserable but I bet I'd look better with some filler here and a little Botox there.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

This is a tough one. I question whether these two years of research were a wise choice. Apparently it will help him land a job in academics ... but nearly everyone in his fellowship program stays in academics if they so choose. I don't know.

[houseelf]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

Yes, he was born for what he does.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

Hell no. NO. The training was awful.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

In medicine, I would pick interventional radiology. The ones I've met seem happy, make bank roll, and it seems a marginally better training route/lifestyle than the Ironman DH endured. If outside of medicine, NHL coach or recruiter because he lurves him some hockey and this is all hypothetical so dream big, right?

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

We never really had control over a lot of things and we didn't know what we didn't know, so I'm not really able to wrap my mind around this question in a meaningful way. We wouldn't have listened if someone warned us anyway. Sad, but true.