Professional Prestige & Fulfillment | Asian American Poll

PROFESSIONAL PRESTIGE & FULFILLMENT
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:10:01 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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If you are a doctor...

In your most eloquent words, why did you want to be a doctor?

r0b0rebel Saturday, January 05, 2002 at 08:04:35 (PST)

Valley Chinese Dude,
I think you're more or less correct as far as your assesment of Techies. We do have a good quality of life. However, I think how much you make can GREATLY depend on where you work. I think for some time now, engineers in the Silicon Valley have banked quite a bit more than their counterparts in Seattle or the Tri-state area. I think it's more demand than anything else since even know, with the downturn, there's still VC money coming into the valley. All in all, though I think you're absolutely right about engineers NOT having the prestige of doctors/lawyers, I think your assessment of compensation is a little off the mark. Of course, I'm a hardware engineer who does circuit design so it might be a bit different. But whatever the case, I know many of my engineer friends who make just as much as a doc/lawyer. Of course, it's NOT in salary, but other types of compensation such as bonuses and stock (though some of it's worthless now). It's NOT unusual here in the valley for an engineer to make more than 150K+ in salary alone. Well, as long as he retains his job. The ONLY bad part about our career paths is that layoffs can come any time!
Thanks,
Kevin Yang Friday, January 04, 2002 at 10:24:42 (PST)

jjk,

Not to say that doctors do not make good money in the USA. My parents still make a good living from the profession. The point is that the amount of money made is getting less and less. So making 1 mil a year is not that easy anymore.

When insurance company have switch over to HMO or PPO. They basically, began to manage the payment to doctors a lot more strictly. Not that doctors were abusing the insurance system. But now the insurance company would dictate what the payout was for each procedure. Or try use economic pressure to dictate what kind for treatment would be used.

So a lot of freedoms were lost in the medical practice.

Hospital are like large corporations. There is some politic envolved. Most asian will opt for private practice, once they are done with whatever rotation that need for their speciality, than deal with hospital politics.

Like any start-up there is no guarantee you will suceed if you hang out your shingles. Many privite practices are on the side. The doctor will have a job in the hospital and will reserve a few days for their own clinic.

There are pros and cons in any profession. This board has post some cons to the MD profession, because they just want to inform people that market it not what it was 20 years ago. In the USA the MD field has been evolving rather quickly.
AC Dropout Friday, January 04, 2002 at 10:14:24 (PST)

med/law,

Of your friends who said if they had to do it over, they wouldn't choose medical school, what other careers did they want to have then?

Lawyer? Engineer?

You guys are scaring me w/ your "doctor bashing" posts. :p If hospitals make you work so hard, why can't you start your own private business like CG's dad did?

And also, would biomedical engineering be an "easier" and more lucridous job compared to law/med?

Cheers,
jjk Thursday, January 03, 2002 at 20:25:03 (PST)

Valley Chinese Dude,

As long as you love what you do. It's all good.
So is Bill Gate a geek? I like to see someone say that to him in his face. ^_^

AA Renaissance,

Thanks for the kudo's. But in all honesty when I look back at what I did at such a young age. I would not recommend it for the faint of heart. There were many instances where I just plain "Lucked out." I could just have easily been a failure instead of a success.

There is misguided bravery in youth.

I also know of a few other asian entrepreur in my peer group that failed and are still paying the price.

So that is why I recommend to people to take the risk while young. If you fail you have time to make up for the mistakes.

There is wisdom in Asian parent's desire for children becoming MD and JD. They are both very expensive exclusive business licenses for a service. You might not be able to buy a brand new Porche in your 20's. But you won't be the first on the welfare line either.
AC dropout Thursday, January 03, 2002 at 12:52:11 (PST)

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