Engineering or Medicine

[dynamicequilibrium]

Thoughts on studying medicine or engineering? I have interests on both of the above two subjects and any advice please?

Both great choices!

The thing I would say is that medicine tends to lead you down one particular path, whereas an engineering degree can be used in different careers. I have an engineering degree but have never worked as an engineer, and many of my uni friends work in different fields, whereas everyone I know with a degree in medicine is a doctor.

I think the person should study whichever interests them most.

Medicine is probably harder and ends up in a job with longer hours. I Would think no one should do medicine unless they are really keen. So if someone can't decide they should go for engineering (what type?).

I am not sure i agree with amber. There is a huge range of careers in medicine.

The biggest single difference seems to be people. Medics deal with people all the time, and not just patients but families. All at their most vulnerable. There will be less people orientated medical jobs. One friend hated his rotation at Gt Ormond Street but now has a very research orientated radiologists job. DD, who is studying medicine but tempted by engineering thinks that if she finds the patient side difficult she might try to steer towards a more academic bio medical engineering role. (Many medical degrees allow you to take a year out to complete a BSc or similar) Actually she is really enjoying the patient contact. Not so for some of her peers, one of whom made a late decision to switch to engineering when she discovered she did not enjoy her hospital volunteering role.

The manager of the care home where DD volunteered said doing something like that tended to demonstrate quickly who was cut out to be a medic. Not everyone is. No harm in that!

I was interested in both, and so originally studied Medical Physics with an intention to go down the clinical engineering path (though I eventually realised it was radiotherapy that I wanted to make my career in). I love the combination of clinical and technical/scientific that it gives me

I'm an engineer but squeamish so medicine wasn't an option for me. I suspect medicine is more of a vocation than engineering. Salary about the same but hours and training much longer for medicine.
Do some work experience of both to help decide?

Thank you very much for your response. I will try to do some work experience to help me decide.

Medicine is so competitive you have to be passionate about it and demonstrate a lot of work experience to get a place. So stuff like working in a nursing home or as a hcsw. You need great communication skills and a genuine interest in people.

The training is hard and the undergraduate degree is quite possibly the easy bit. You continue to be a trainee when qualified and the hours are very long.

I would advise that you do a lot of research to make sure you know what a career in medicine entails

Engineering is so wide which field interests you? My sister is a construction/destruction engineer nice regular hours, good pay, but not stellar. My DP is a technical engineer working in motor racing for irregular long hours, lots of weekends and often short notice working. He is very senior and his pay is compensation for the hours he works.

Salary’s are not the same. I’m a chartered structural engineer with over 15 years experience and I earn less than half that of my gp sister. Didn’t notice if it was a boy or girls but the pay gap in engineering is a joke and I don’t think the same is true in medicine.

The pay in engineering can be astronomically high though. It very much depends what type of an engineer you are and what sector you go into.

So if the financial aspect will affect your decision then you need to consider what kind of engineering you want to study as it will affect your earning potential.

Two other things to consider:-

1. how do they like to learn. Engineers tend to lean towards working things out but doctors do have to be able to just outright remember a lot of information.
2. How good are they at falling asleep. If you are on call are you going to be able to fall asleep when you only have 30mins to rest and how quickly can you wake up and function well. I appreciate that after your training this may not be so important but when you are on call in hospital it is really useful

Yes there will always be some people in engineering earning huge amounts of money but these are probably the exception rather than the rule. It is not a badly paid profession but on the whole I thing medicine is better.

don't do medicine. really don't. Google Hadiza Bawu-Garba for an example of how a doctor has been completely scapegoated for a failing system. like most medics, I'd rather my kids do something else.

I agree with soupforbrains - pay for an engineer depends on the discipline and what you do with it. There's plenty of information on salaries for the different types of engineering. I earn more than a GP as an engineer.

Engineering - but really follow your heart