Do I Regret Leaving Medicine? (1 Year After) | EP 14

The road to becoming a doctor is a long, tiring but rewarding process; in fact, it's a career that some strive for but fail to even make it through the first cut.
So leaving the medical career is an unconventional story that many find risky, bizarre, and difficult to grasp.
In today's episode, we asked Justin about what his life has been like since he quit his job as a doctor - 1 year ago.
Link to Justin's first "Quitting Medicine" video: • Why I Quit Medicine | ...
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Justin is a former junior-doctor, now social-entrepreneur in Auckland. He spends most of his time working with youth in career decision-making, skills-development, and medical education.
Niel is a medical student in Auckland with a keen interest in both aerospace medicine and laughing with concerning enthusiasm.
Emma is a physiotherapy student that wants to change her degree. You will often find her overthinking or giggling (or both at the same time) and she is passionate about stationery!
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[@meronlawisso]

I agree sooo much with the whole personality alignment concept. I started med school in 2015 & by the time I was in 2nd year I already started to notice that this just wasn't for me. I decided to just brush it off cause pressures of life/family etc & like just up & leaving med school is not an easy decision. So I stuck around & got into my clinical years in 2018 hoping that would clear things up for me. That's when shit really started to hit the fan because I was really just forcing myself to carry on with this thing that wasn't for me & my mental health went 6 feet under. I still managed to finish 5th year though I did fall behind by a month or so due to mental health deterioration. My final year was supposed to be last year but realising that I had already fallen behind and the thought of sticking it through beyond the 6 years for something I didn't want just didn't sit right. So at the beginning of that year I transferred my credits & opted to finish with a BSc in Medicine rather than becoming a doctor...just after I made that decision the pandemic hit & we were all sent home with the year becoming super chaotic & 6th year students still being sent back to the clinical platform in the midst of it all. The timing just felt right to me & when you know you just know. Anyway sorry for the rant, it's just really validating to see that I'm not alone in recognising the incompatibility of medicine with my personality. Great podcast by the way!

[@subcutpodcast4373]

Thanks for sharing! It's definitely a scary kind of situation to be in and I'm glad our episode helped you feel less alone in it. I can tell you for a fact that it's extremely common. Best wishes moving forward :) - Justin

[@ShivanS]

Nice discussion guys.
Niel I guess systems are not updated because the UX is not as important as opposed to your smartphone device, where the UX is one of the reason people make purchases. As long as it works, it works.
Justin, you say that some of you colleagues feel the same away about leaving the profession of medicine, what career switches have they made?

[@JustinSung]

Chef, pilot, teacher, a few in social enterprise, consultancy, finance and trading, politics, research.

[@runegaming3122]

i shouldn't be watching this 2 days before my MRCP exam....stupid youtube algorithm

[@subcutpodcast4373]

Haha hope it went well!

[@cev9790]

Nice and helpful video. I'm thinking about leaving medicine but I’m in the middle of my 4th year with the rotations in Argentina. In my country doctors are bad paid with less than 1000 U$D per month. Despite money I think that its going to be harder to be happy and feeling fulfilled while being a doctor with the great workload plus the bad salaries. I'm really interested in coding and programming so that would be the path that i would follow if i quit. I have invested 7 years in this career wich its free in my country you dont end it with a bill or something like that, i'm 25 years old now, quiting is not an easy desition. What would you recommend me?

[@Brodragon2225]

dont leave medicine can have private prac if you become surgeon or cardiologist or radiologist if you can get these branches dont leave you will earn more than engineers also you are late for corporate career you will lag behind your peers in company also coding jobs will go away in near 10 years with ai already doing code.Dont be fooled in usa all doctors earn same so they quit

[@Pdmc-vu5gj]

Think too much, talk too much