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poet123

Dunroamin wrote: »

When i was training, we were asked to discuss the fall back career choice for those who didn't make it into medical school. We decided that it was probably physiotherapy, nursing or pharmacy but were surprised to find that it was actually accountancy.

It seems to still be the case. My youngest son is hoping to do Medicine, but strangely, Maths seems to be valued more highly than Physics at A2 level. He is doing 3 sciences and Maths but if he has to drop anything it will have to be Physics not Maths.

Person_one

poet123 wrote: »

It seems to still be the case. My youngest son is hoping to do Medicine, but strangely, Maths seems to be valued more highly than Physics at A2 level. He is doing 3 sciences and Maths but if he has to drop anything it will have to be Physics not Maths.

I'm not surprised that maths is considered more beneficial for medical school applicants. There's a lot of adding up involved! Maths will be much more helpful in understanding a lot of physiological processes/biochemistry I'd have thought.

Dunroamin

Person_one wrote: »

I think a fair number do go into pharmacy, but I agree, not the more 'vocational' lower paid lower status health professions as a rule.

The point of the exercise was to examine the reasons for people's career choices. Naively we'd considered that all those who went into medicine did so because they wanted to work in the medical field whereas it seems that many people were actually more motivated by high income and professional status.

mumps

Dunroamin wrote: »

The point of the exercise was to examine the reasons for people's career choices. Naively we'd considered that all those who went into medicine did so because they wanted to work in the medical field whereas it seems that many people were actually more motivated by high income and professional status.

When I think of some of the doctors I have come across I suppose that isn't as surprising as at first glance. I have certainly had dealings with doctors who made me wonder why they had chosen medicine when they no interest in patients. I have also come across some lovely doctors. When they talk about nursing student having to do a year as a HCA prior to training it makes me wonder if doctors should do the same.

poet123

mumps wrote: »

When I think of some of the doctors I have come across I suppose that isn't as surprising as at first glance. I have certainly had dealings with doctors who made me wonder why they had chosen medicine when they no interest in patients. I have also come across some lovely doctors. When they talk about nursing student having to do a year as a HCA prior to training it makes me wonder if doctors should do the same.

I still think that is true today, and that many of the brightest are actively pushed in the direction of Medicine, Dentistry, Law or Vet school by the colleges.

On a different tack, but still career related we had some training last week on how to handle difficult people!! The speaker, who was very good and had walked the walk herself, said that research showed that the top careers for Sociopaths were : HR, Nursing, Teaching and Medicine.:eek:

GoldenShadow

I think its quite rare for people to choice a degree which fits well with their end up career choice. My best friend has a human biology degree and is training to be a primary school teacher, one of my brothers has a masters in physics and is a consultant with Ernst and Young!

Funnily enough the medical degree route was how I was going to go, but at A Level I decided the X amount of years spent before you were ever really qualified was just too much. I didn't want to be so wrapped up in a career that I would have no time for a life early on ie. house, family, ponies! I had also considered dentistry, but decided I would get very bored (my Mum is a hygienist and I did work experience, I'm not a patient person and the sheer amount of time it would take to be top of the field would bore me).

So instead I do Business Management :rotfl: I'm currently on course for a first with one semester left and am gagging to go out and get a proper (read as Full Time!) job! This was always my back up plan if I failed as well to be honest, but it ended up being my choice just because I established it was likely to be a quicker way to attain the things in life that I love.

Each to their own, but I think its really important that your daughter makes decisions even if they are the wrong ones. I picked the wrong university in the lead up to my results, I dropped out after less than two months, lost loads of dosh and was very unhappy for quite a time but it did give me a lot of experience and I am pleased that I was able to make that mistake myself and fix things from then on myself.

Now is the time to ensure your daughter understands any mess ups she makes financially will stick (my brother took out several credit cards and a grad loan which realistically he should not have needed if he lived his life sensibly). Its an easier adjustment if you've encouraged her to be responsible and avoided bailing her out already in her life. My parents struggled for money a fair bit whilst I was growing up and I've always been desperate to be free of severe monetary related worries (although evidently my brother has a very different perception...).

I am pro getting to uni and getting out of uni ASAP and I don't think gap years benefit that many people. I only have one friend who took one who has gone to uni and is actually doing well/happy. All the others are dissatisfied with their courses because they did a year of real life and the course itself is rubbish even though their job wasn't etc. A degree doesn't have to be in what you want your career to be, and you can always change course part way through in a fair few cases or start again (only get one year false start though, ie. if you do two years, drop out, then reapply you would have to self fund one year whereas if you drop out after one year SFE will fund an entire three (I think, I forget where it stands on masters) year course for you. Saying that my friend who did a gap year and is doing well is thrilled that she did it, but she still took the path she thought she wanted.

Making the mistake I did and being a 'drop out' and effectively just unemployed for a period of three months was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Horrendously scarey at the time because my life was over what if no one ever wants to employ me or let me study at their university :eek: but it really was an invaluable experience.

My human bio friend is annoyed how un vocational her degree ended up, only two people on her entire course are going into careers in biology..! That is how it goes largely, and I think the university experience is as much about finding yourself and your own way in life as it is about what you actually might, for a while, at some point, or never do career wise in your entire lifetime.

Almo

I have quite a lot of experience with prospective medical students and yes, a lot of them are pushed towards medicine by parents/schools either because of the prestige of medicine as a career, the money doctors can earn or simply because the student is academically strong. Appropriate entrance testing screens out a number of those who don't want it for the right reasons, but some will always get through. A lot of effort is going into increasing the influence that communication skills have in recruitment and training but it's a difficult line to tread.

I had a memorable discussion with a very experienced doctor who taught on the medicine course at a prestigious university about the number of sociopaths in medicine. His estimate was frighteningly high. In the end we concluded that in some specialisms some (and I stress only some) sociopathic traits might not be an entirely bad thing!

poet123

Almo wrote: »

I have quite a lot of experience with prospective medical students and yes, a lot of them are pushed towards medicine by parents/schools either because of the prestige of medicine as a career, the money doctors can earn or simply because the student is academically strong. Appropriate entrance testing screens out a number of those who don't want it for the right reasons, but some will always get through. A lot of effort is going into increasing the influence that communication skills have in recruitment and training but it's a difficult line to tread.

I had a memorable discussion with a very experienced doctor who taught on the medicine course at a prestigious university about the number of sociopaths in medicine. His estimate was frighteningly high. In the end we concluded that in some specialisms some (and I stress only some) sociopathic traits might not be an entirely bad thing!

Yes, apparently they are less likely to panic because they lack the OMG what if they die on my operating table empathy, and just get on with the job,so you can see where that trait may be useful in medicine.;)

Almo

Yep, that's exactly it!

claire16c

poet123 wrote: »

Yes, apparently they are less likely to panic because they lack the OMG what if they die on my operating table empathy, and just get on with the job,so you can see where that trait may be useful in medicine.;)

That sounds about right. I had an operation last year & before it the anaesthetist & the surgeon came round to talk to me. The anaesthetist was a lovely guy really caring & reassuring, he was really calming and put me at ease & I felt able to ask him all my 'stupid questions'.

The surgeon however terrified me & I was too scared to ask what I wanted to ask & her answers to what I did ask were very black & white.

I remember taking to my mum about it later on & we both agreed she was probably a good surgeon as she was very unemotional & would just get on with the task at hand with no panic.