To not understand the obsession with doing medicine

Not easy to transfer you need to do local quals

Professional Services – Big Pay if You Reach the Top or Get Equity

• Law – Equity partner route (hard slog but huge upside)
• Accountancy (Big 4) – Partner level
• Recruitment – Senior headhunting, own firm, or move to Dubai for tax perks
• Specialist Consulting – Build a niche practice (regulatory, cyber, ESG) then sell
• Move from Law/Accountancy into In-House (ideally PE-backed) – Big payday on exit

Ownership / Entrepreneurship via Scale

• Dentistry – Own multiple practices rather than work chairside
• Medicine – Only if you can tap private market
• Engineering – Invent something, get investment, grow, sell
• Franchising – Acquire and scale profitable franchises
• High-End Construction Trades – Premium design/build businesses that can be sold
• Luxury / Specialist Services – Serve UHNW clients in niche industries (aviation, yachts, concierge)

Finance & Investment

• Investment Banking / Private Equity / Hedge Funds – Progress to MD or start own fund
• M&A Entrepreneurship (Search Fund) – Buy a profitable business, run, grow, exit
• Property Development – Development, conversions, or portfolio assembly for funds

Scalable, Asset-Based Plays

• Tech (Product / SaaS) – Especially niche B2B with strong recurring revenue
• Media / Content Licensing – Create evergreen IP and license it (courses, books, brand)

Yes but it’s a career that you could very, very easily transfer over to any country. Not every profession is like that.

I think this is very true. Both DDs did science degrees. DD2 did a physics degree and was the only woman on her specific course and one of very few women in the school as a whole. Plus almost no female teaching staff.

Guiding towards becoming a doctor is at least a step up on my careers guidance from school (early 80s) where girls were guided towards becoming nursery staff whether they were interested/had an aptitude or not. Becoming a nursery nurse was 'respectable'. A few decades earlier we would have been pushed towards becoming governesses.

My dc is an academic high achiever and similar pressure was put on him to consider medicine. It’s a solid career and prestigious and I wonder sometimes if he just should have gritted his teeth and done it. There were plenty of kids who were less academic that did do it. He would have gone into a research role likely. However, his heart wasn’t in it although he had good experience. He’s doing a single science (maths heavy) degree so not sure of his prospects now.

A family member is struggling to find a job after completing his junior doctor training. He and his partner can’t settle as they’re not sure where he’ll end up. It’s very frustrating for them and a kick in the teeth after studying for 5 years and then foundation training for another 2 years.

Its because people can't imagine girls doing any other form of science. They can't imagine them as engineers or palaeontologist or astrophysicists

There are a fair few excellent south Asian comedians getting a lot of mileage out of the perceived family pressures to become doctors, lawyers and engineers.

Agree, as it would be silly to claim that ALL Asians have identical career aspirations for their children, wouldn't it?

Rishi Sunak's parents didn't do bad on a gp and pharmacist (another popular south Asian profession) income they sent three sons to Winchester school.
One of my DC's is a doctor and despite other DC's having equally valuable jobs - teaching, national security etc it is always the doctor who is mentioned particularly by my African and Asian colleagues

That’s my exact point and I agree fully. It used to be prestigious because of both what you were doing and the salary you could command. My parents neighbour had a huge house, three kids at private school and a SAHM wife on a GP salary in Sussex in the 80s. That house recently sold for 2million, no GP is affording that with private school fees as well.

I still do think it’s prestigious but it’s a mid to high income job now, not a very high earning job.

It’s still a great job though, to save lives is amazing.

They’re well off compared to the average but they’re not rich rich - they’re not like hedge fund or private equity types or even bankers. For the time it takes and the level of intelligence and hard work, the pay isn’t THAT good, given what the opportunity cost is for a student who is smart enough to do medicine.

The obsession with medicine comes from doctors’ ability to preserve lives and save lives. It’s a tough job and an honourable thing to do.

I don’t think a medical degree is solely an aspiration for Asian parents, although they might be more ruthless pushing their kids.

A friend from West Africa said to me: I want my daughter to become a doctor, like a good African mother!

I think it’s safe to say that medicine is a career choice that makes parents of all cultures proud.

We are minority ethnic groups that push for medical careers. Probably why we are both doctors in our 40s. I was steered into it by a gently pushy mother and an encouraging head of year at my all girls private school who believed I was able.

I was going to do a science degree. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do so went with the flow aged 16 filling out Ucas applications. DHs mum is a doctor, he's very bright and was always going to be a doctor. His brother is also a doctor.

DC definitely does not want to be a doctor and we won't be encouraging it.

Being a Doctor still has prestige. DS did medicine and is now a Doctor in Melbourne. The reality is different. At least in the early stages it is a huge amount of responsibility for maximum stress with very modest rewards. If DS had his time again he would not have done it.

I think it's because it's so hard to get in to that you're seen as the most academic, so it's aspirational.

My dd also has one Asian parent (my DH) who hasn't ever been remotely pushy about what career path dd might choose.

As it happens, dd is doing medicine but she often feels the need to tell people that it "isn't for Asian reasons".

We do find it funny to see the approving reactions from DH's friends and family in his home country when we explain what dd is doing. It's like we've finally made it as parents because we have produced a soon-to-be doctor.

I went to an academic girls’ school 20 odd years ago and if you were good at science, you were told to do medicine, if you were good at humanities, you were told to do law. A lot of it is social pressure to do a “respectable” career. Many followed those prescribed paths for an easy life, especially if they didn’t know what they wanted to do; quite a few dropped out of medicine or no longer practice.

There tend to be reasons behind stereotypes… I agree that young women should feel free to choose the career path that best suits them, but in my experience south Asian families tend to push their daughters into medicine to an extent not seen in people from other cultures. I’m not saying that’s right, and it’s certainly not everyone, but that’s tendency (at least it was when I was at school).

But I know a lot of Drs (kids at private school) and they aren’t particularly well off

Well no they might not be these days after a couple of sets of private school fees. Whereas in the past doctor salaries were relatively higher and private fees lower, it was very affordable for doctors. FIL was a doctor and comfortably afforded 3 through private from age 3 during the 90s, plus a huge house in Surrey, with a stay at home wife.

But still anyone affording private fees is among the wealthiest in the country.

Oh and in some communities what your parents want you to study is a stronger influence than your own preferences. There's a huge leaning in these sorts of communities towards careers that are considered both prestigious, academic and lucrative - often medicine, law, accountancy/actuarial, and engineering. It can be considered you bring honour and pride to your family by becoming a doctor or lawyer, even if you hate it.

The roles you quote in medicine aren't equivalent to Speech Pathology though.Audiology is a separate profession and ENT is definitely medical.
And having the academic ability to study medicine in no way means someone will be a good doctor or happy in medicine.

This was me 40 years ago, I was academically able studying 3 sciences at my selective girls school and I had the same questions and pressure as to why I wasn't aiming for medicine!
Of all the decisions I question that one I still am completely ok with. Academically I could have done it but I would never have coped with the rest of it or with the pressure of working as a doctor, I knew that even at 17.
No point in maximising your earning potential if you are unhappy and then having a nervous breakdown...

Aren't particularly well off? 🤣🤣🤣 Remember that doctors' salary bands are in the public domain, you cant get away with posting that bollox.

Asian parents often give only a few choices to their kids regarding the future path career. All of them are seen as financially safe - high salary, etc. So medicine, finance, banking, anything related. Most of Asian kids are pushed into Grammars/private schools and tutored heavily since early years. Choosing your own career that is different to your parents' wishes is discouraged. I suspect most of these girls have been told from nappies to aim for medicine. They do it to please their parents. I am married to an Asian whose father was a doctor and DH is an engineer. Son has been heavily tutored in maths and is taking his 11+ now. I can see the same pattern in all Asian families around me. They worry a lot about their kids' financial futures. Letting their kids choose some arts, humanities or simply being a barber in a shop or nail technician , or going to next-door comprehensive is seen as crazy and irresponsible parenting. A cultural difference, I guess.

We are Asian and Dd wants to be a dr. I’m not sure if she ever will, but she’s been saying she wants to be a dr since she was 3.
I’ve never mentioned it. There are no drs in my family. I couldn’t care less what my dc do as long as they have a work ethic and it’s something that will help them to have a good future.
I always get the impression that people think I’ve pushed Dd into it and always feel like I need to say something when Dd says she wants to be a dr if people ask her what she wants to do.
For her, it’s just something she decided herself from young and has never wavered from it.

While junior doctors aren't especially well paid, consultants are. In areas outside London, few jobs will pay as highly as an NHS consultants salary, particularly when you take into account the excellent pension scheme on top. The fact remains that because in many areas they are the highest earners, a lot of doctors send their children to private schools, so you get a disproportionately high number of doctors children in those schools. Its a career lots of the kids are familiar with so an obvious choice.