Many of us spend our entire lives dreaming of becoming doctors. But that wasn’t me. For a long time it felt like the right choice, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it. Maybe I wouldn’t get into medical school. Or maybe I just didn’t want to.
Of course, I did become a doctor. But I still wonder if that was the right decision, even now. I’ve seen friends feel more fulfilled in their careers. Others who have been more successful. And I think that maybe being a doctor wasn’t the only option.
The good news is that becoming a doctor isn’t the only way to be successful. In fact, just being able to get in to medical school means you’re an intelligent, capable person able to succeed in a number of other areas outside of medicine. In this post, I’ll give you five alternatives that I wish I’d considered before going to medical school.
Five Alternatives to Becoming a Doctor
1: Software Engineer
2018 Median Pay: $105,590
Software engineers are computer experts who spend their days building apps, programs, and websites. Essentially designing the future!
I initially avoided software engineering because I thought it meant constantly doing a lot of higher level math and sitting in front of a computer all day. But now, after having programmed a few things myself, I realize it’s much more fascinating, and something I wish I knew more about.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for software engineers is around $105,590. But actual pay depends immensely on where you live, who you work for, and what level of engineer you are.
I personally know folks making far more than that median salary. And making it much earlier in life and with much less risk compared to doctors.
2: Physician Assistant (PA)
2018 Median Pay: $108,610
If you decide not to be a doctor but you still want to be involved in the medical field, you might consider going to PA school instead. Rather than spending 7 years in training between medical school and residency, Physician Assistants graduate in ~27 months (actual length depends on the individual program). As a bonus, spending less time in school means significantly less student loan debt than doctors.
Physician assistant practices are incredibly flexible, too. Without the same strict requirement of specialty board certification as physicians, you’d be able to switch between different areas of medicine with much greater ease.
For example, even if you started working in orthopedic surgery, you might decide you prefer dermatology. As a physician, you would have to go back to residency for dermatology before you could switch. As a physician assistant, you just need to find a job opening.
3: Financial Advisor
2018 Median Pay: $88,890
As it turns out, one of my favorite things is to help friends and family achieve their financial goals by teaching them the things that I’ve learned. That’s one reason I started this blog! Instead of being a doctor, I could have been a financial advisor and started doing this much sooner.
Financial advisors can start working right out of undergraduate school making ~$90,000/year (or $120k like this guy) and don’t have to accrue anywhere near the amount of student loan debt as doctors do.
It’s incredible how easy personal finance becomes once you get a grasp of it. As a financial advisor, you could have an immense impact on the financial health of your clients. But please, for me, look into becoming a fiduciary.
4: Wedding Photographer
2018 Median Pay: $34,000
2019 Average Salary (Ziprecruiter): >$100,000
No, you didn’t read that wrong. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that photographers make ~$34,000/year. But they don’t specify the difference between types of photographers. Wedding photographers, for example, make significantly more.
Those numbers should come as no surprise, either. If you’ve ever planned a wedding, you know that putting the word “wedding” in front of anything makes it way more expensive.
Cake, $50. Wedding Cake, $500.
Dinner, $30 total. Wedding Dinner, $50+ per plate.
You get the idea. The same thing works for wedding photographers, too.
Don’t believe me? One of my friends is a wedding photographer. He makes $90k/year doing what he loves. His only training? A year spent assisting a more established photographer before creating a business of his own.
But why be a wedding photographer?
Instead of spending 7 years of your 20s in medical school and residency, you could spend your 20s traveling the world getting paid to photograph people’s weddings. Choose your own hours, run your own business, and face significantly less liability than physicians.
The extra good news? You could start doing this even before you would graduate college, giving yourself even more of a head start financially compared to physicians.
Plus, as social media keeps growing, demand for good photographers is continuing to increase. That means lots of work out there outside of just weddings for skilled photographers.
5: Businessman/Dog Walker
2018 Median Pay: $23,950
Did I just say dog walker? Hear me out.
According to the statistics, animal service workers only make $23,950. That’s nowhere near the $90k I want, right? But I’m not talking simply about being a dog walker. I’m talking about living a childhood dream.
Yep, when I was way younger, I had the world’s greatest business idea. I wanted to create an entire complex designed for people and their pets. I’m talking vet clinic, animal shelter, dog walker, grooming, boarding, etc. Instead, I grew up and became a doctor.
But now, those businesses exist! Private boarding/grooming, dog bar/park combinations, private client dog walking. These businesses can easily make over $100k/year if you grow them correctly. I’ve seen it.
This one would be tough, and it would require a little luck and a lot of business sense, but imagine how happy I would be taking care of animals every day instead of people. So, younger me, it might be worth a shot.
The Dream Job
What if I told you that with a camera and a computer, you could be a travel vlogger making >$500k/year in your early 20s? You’d get paid to travel the world, become instagram famous, strike brand deals, and write everything off on your taxes. Sounds incredible, right?
This is the dream job. Something I think everyone wants to do (I know I did), so I think we should discuss it.
It isn’t impossible. And there’s a lot of highly successful influencers showing you just how easy their path to get there was. How you can, too! But I’m going to level with you.
Influencers don’t tell you about survivorship bias. How just because they became successful influencers doesn’t mean you can, too. They’re just “the ones who made it”. The reality is, it can be a crapshoot, a roll of the dice. It’s possible, but it’s not likely.
I wouldn’t tell younger me not to pick up a camera and make YouTube videos, but he shouldn’t expect to become a millionaire from it. Maybe, but there are plenty of other options outside of becoming a doctor that aren’t quite as risky.
Being successful without being a doctor
I want younger me to be successful. He should work in a good career and be financially healthy. That means having enough money to fund his version of a happy life without worrying.
Looking back at the spreadsheet simulation from last week, this is entirely possible without being a doctor. In fact, the engineer became a millionaire at 41 while the doctor was just getting started. How did they do it with a lower salary?
By saving $27k/year every year and making average annual market interest (8%). Not by any complex investing methods or any other secret sauce. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. Plug in those numbers here.
If you only need to invest $27k/year to get the same result, you could do that two ways. Either find a job making as much or more than the engineer ($110k/yr) or find a way to save and invest more money by spending less. The point is, it doesn’t matter if you make the most money. Instead, financial health comes from savings and investing enough to reach your goals.
What about happiness?
Then there’s the question of happiness. Wouldn’t you be happier if you made more money and didn’t have to cut your spending? Actually, you would, but more money only increases happiness up to a point. Where that point is depends on who you’re asking.
Personally, I spend about $60,000/year as an attending physician, but I was just as happy making $40,000/year as a resident.
Since I’ve gotten older and learned that happiness matters more than money, I’d tell younger me to find any job that pays $90,000/year and makes him happy if he decided not to be a doctor and still wanted financial success.
To some that may seem like a stretch, especially because college graduates today only make an average of $60,000/year. But I’ve found plenty of jobs out there that meet this criteria and that I would be happy doing if I wasn’t a doctor.
Here’s just a few.
Is it better to not go to medical school?
As you can see, there are plenty of alternatives to being a doctor. These are just five options that I would choose if I could go back, but there are plenty more possibilities depending on your interests. If you want some more ideas, here you go.
I hope after reading this, you can see that deciding not to be a doctor isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it might end up being the best decision you make in your life!
I’ve said it before, but being a doctor isn’t for everyone. And if it’s not for you, there are still plenty of other ways to be successful.
Are you thinking about a career outside of medicine? For doctors, did you always want to be a doctor or did you ever consider doing something else? Let me know in the comments below.
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