SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:17 am
30-37k straight out of uni. 50k+ after 2 years. In the top 10% of earners within 7 years of leaving uni. Generous pension contributions.
Needs some very nimble maths to get to 35%. It's a drop in take home pay (they want more money to pay the higher taxes we all pay to fund NHS salaries) and taken from the one year their maths work.
My sister has been a doctor for around 5 years now and I would strongly warn anyone who wants to be a doctor about what they are getting themselves in for.
Horrendous hours, constantly changing shifts, little control over where you live and your commute until you are a consultant so almost 40. She moved to Manchester to be with her doctor husband and after 4 months had to move 100 miles away because of the rota for the deanery she was given, so has spent the last year living in the not so pleasant barrow in a shitty 1 bed flat.
It’s not just about pay though and this is what is missed, it’s how difficult everything in your life becomes. She often hasn’t been able to plan her life more than 3 months in advance, whether that’s holidays or going to friends weddings etc. I’m also pretty sure they aren’t on £50k after two year of uni, whilst when you break it down by hours worked, even £50k isn’t much. Then factor in all the membership fees and costs for exams which aren’t covered and it’s a pittance for what they do and the stress they are under.
Let’s be realistic, after all the training and studying required, along with all of the above, to be in the top 10% of (declared) earnings after 7 years is the least most of them deserve. I’ve got mates who spent 3 years learning to be a plumber or electrician or carpet fitter who take home more than junior doctors.
I wouldn’t say it to her, but my sister would have been far happier and had a far easier life, earning 2-4x as much money as she does now if she’d just gone to work in finance up the city.
Unfortunately for her she always dreamed of being a doctor, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Many of her colleagues are leaving the nhs, some even to do lip fillers and beauty treatments, as they can earn just as much and have far more control over their lives with about 2% of the stress.
I would absolutely hate to be a doctor, from what I’ve seen it’s an horrendous slog up until you’re late 30s at best.
(I exclude GPs from all of the above).