I am a qualified engineer with over 12 years Industry experience. Now I want to explore options to study Medicine and switch career. Any suggestions on how this can be achieved?
I am a qualified Engineer with over 12 years Industry experience. What Are My Options to Study Medicine Now?
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I'm not 100% sure but my understanding is:
(1) You'll have to sit GAMSAT (https://gamsat.acer.edu.au/about-gamsat/eligibility).
(2) You'll need to meet the Medical School's requirements (generally including a GPA and interview ranking)Since it's been a while since graduating (>10 years) you may need to undergo postgraduate study before applying, which is a requirement of Sydney Uni, for example (http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/study/md/admission/selection-c…).
For other medical schools requirements, check out the general admission procedure and school list (http://www.gemsas.edu.au/medical-schools/) on GEMSAS (Graduate Entry Medical School Admissions System - http://www.gemsas.edu.au/graduate-entry-medical-schools-admi…). You may want to ring up several universities of interest before investing time and money in extra courses.
I have also completed Masters in engineering back in 2005-06
You can usually skip the gamsat if you have an indigenous background.
Hi mate!
In a similarish situation to you right now. Have you done any research into it yet?
I hope you're considering doing it for love, because there is no way it makes sense to switch at this point in your career for money.
The real pay-off for medicine arrives when you've accrued around the same experience in medicine as you already have for Engineering. Add in 1 year of preparation, 4-5 years of study and you're looking at really only making decent money ~15 years from now. By which time you're probably already around ~50.
However, if it's always been your passion to get into medicine, then go for it.
- Register for Gamsat
- Study for Gamsat
- Take Gamsat. Score average 55%+
- Make applications to all the universities offering graduate medicine. Put as your first preference, a university you realistically have a chance of getting into. (i.e. if you'r Gamsat average is 53%, don't bother putting UniMelb as your first preference). If your first preference rejects you, you are NOT going to be considered on an equal footing by your second preference university , as other candidates who put that university as their first preference.
USyd has a separate application process to everyone else, so feel free to go for broke making a separate application for USyd. I think you need a cut off point in excess of 65% to make it to the interview stage there though.
- do well in the interview, receive offer
- start in February the next year!
Yes, definitely not for money.I am doing reasonably well in my R&D role at the moment.
The short answer would be don't do it. It's a waste of time. I can't imagine why you would want to.
What sort of engineering do you do? Perhaps I can help.
I'm an engineer with a medical degree and let me tell you my medical degree was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I hated it and I only did it, because I didn't know what to do after high school. I hate memorizing expensive textbooks, listening to people whine about their problems and how unfair life is.
If you don't have a passion for taking care of people, don't do it. If you doing it for the money, then don't. Engineers who apply themselves and are inventive will make more money than any doctor could dream of.USyd has a separate application process to everyone else, so feel free to go for broke making a separate application for USyd. I think you need a cut off point in excess of 65% to make it to the interview stage there though.
Last time I checked it was a 68 gamsat. THe percentage is not necessary. If someone asked you what Gamsat you got, it would be very odd to say '68 percent'.
How long after the medical degree did you start the engineering degree?
I'm amazed that anyone could finish an arduous 5 or 6 year degree that they hated: I sure couldn't. I admire your diligence.
Straight away. I usually only sleep 6 hours every night, so I could work in a hospital and do my engineering degree at the same time. I also had friends who did the same engineering degree while I Was doing my medical degree, so they gave me some tip. I already knew how to code in C, MATLAB and R, and did the highest maths on offer in high school, so the engineering degree was made that much easier.
I still have accreditation from the AMA, so I can switch professions anytime. I did end up 'wasting' 10 years of my life, so I don't recommend it.
If you like helping people, can't you just do some volunteering/charity work in your spare time? Changing careers and studying medicine at your age, man, you must really feel passionate about the profession to do it.
Think long and hard about it. I did a track change from research (public health) into a postgrad vet degree and it's going to be several years before I make money again (and not much of it), medicine's even longer. If it's something you truly wanna do, start GAMSAT study early, scope out med schools, and join some FB groups.
Here is a forum/website to find out everything you want to read about…. http://pagingdr.net/forum/index.php
i did it the other way around, medicine first then civ eng.
there is a reason that medics have a very high suicide rate…….
High five bro. I'm the same except I did electrical eng
"medics have a very high suicide rate" very interesting to know!!
Thank you all for taking time to respond. I am an Electronics Engineer NOT considering this switch for any extra money. Studying medicine has always been my passion, moreover I recently had a major surgery and spent over a couple of weeks in the hospital. I guess my hospital experience is what driving me to explore options to study medicine now. Hope I have clarified your questions as to why I am considering a switch at this stage.
good luck
hope you find it rewarding…it can be
I have an MBBS from Singapore (from back in the eighties) and there was a student in my class who was an engineer. I think he was in his early thirties when he started med school. Like you, he was inspired to study medicine after undergoing surgery on his arm for a traumatic injury. He was a very motivated, disciplined and conscientious student who did quite well.
Personally, I found med school gruelling and I hated every minute of it but if you have the passion for it, then go for it and good luck!
The biggest hurdle will probably be that many universities require study within the last 10 years.
Most handy thing will be the GEMSAS admissions guide (GEMSAS is the consortium which include the Graduate Medical Schools except for USyd):
http://www.gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Medicine…It summarises the requirements required by each uni.
Good luck with it all!
You can definitely still do medicine if it's your passion. Also have a think about what specialty (GP quite doable because roughly 7-8 years and you're done overall, whereas for some specialities total time can be ridiculous e.g. 15 years including years trying to enter program)
I did something similar (law to medicine).
There are two avenues you can go through, post-graduate entry or undergraduate entry. Why you might like to consider undergraduate entry even though you have both bachelors and a masters is that GAMSAT requirements are getting ridiculously competitive, and even with a high score you are still not guaranteed entry (I know some people that have tried in excess of 5 years and failing even though they have GPAs and gamsat scores high enough to get interviews). Non-standard entry into undergraduate courses is somewhat easier given that you only have to do the UMAT which isn't as difficult as GAMSAT. However, the drawback is that most undergraduate courses are 1 - 3 years longer than their postgraduate counterparts (with Bond University as an exception) and you could argue that many of your peers will not have as high a level of academic maturity.
Also, as everyone's mentioned, medicine is pretty rough. Even medical school is a lot more demanding than other courses, with clinical years requiring 30 hours + a week of on-site time as well as whatever time you need for personal study (obviously this is not mandatory, but if you want to do well you will most likely find yourself in this situation). I'm not sure how your personal situation is, however supporting a family for 4-5 years without much in the way of an income can be quite challenging. Then comes the real difficulty, (but at least you do get an income) which is working in a hospital, your first two years will be spent rotating through numerous specialties as a glorified office clerk. If you want to then go on to pursue a specific specialty (I'll assume surgery since you mentioned that) you will have to train for at least 5 years. However, the figure 5 years is a pipe dream that is getting less and less likely, realistically it ranges from 6-8+ years for something like general surgery and even more for others i.e. plastics training currently requires a PHD. On top of all of this, you will most likely have to do research, masters and numerous courses (that cost tens of thousands) in order to remain competitive for SET training.
However, when I was contemplating the switch, my friends told me the same thing but I told them I really wanted to do medicine and ignored all of their advice. To this day I'm still not regretting my choice, overall I find a lot of joy from both my study and the work I'm able to do (even though are some pretty shitty times). Some points I think you should really consider are:
- Why medicine? I think it's really important to be honest with yourself and truly understand what aspects of Medicine make you want to be a doctor to the exclusion of other careers, if you don't you might one day stumble upon this inner-truth one day and regret your decision to change disciplines. (Also good for interview prep).
- What your end-goal is in the field of medicine and can you realistically achieve it and if you can't, would you be satisfied with being involved in primary care.
- Do you have the necessary support from family (essential, in my opinion).
- Can you financially handle such a shift.
- Appreciate the negatives of medicine (of which there are many, some examples include: patients often don't listen to your advice, patients can be openly hostile, you can easily become jaded, you can easily find yourself underappreciated and overworked, it is quite literally lifelong learning with exams even once you become a consultant, say goodbye to your social life if you want to pursue a specialty).
- Regardless of what path you choose, just make sure your're choosing it because of your own opinions. I think that's the only way to mitigate remorse at a later stage.
Best of luck with all of it.
Great to read a well-balanced piece from someone who clearly knows what they are talking about.
Musn't forget about those lawsuit-prone patients - it's something that's at the back of your mind at all times when you're dealing with patients. Of course, if you're not a people person, don't bother going into clinical practice because the stress is just not worth it.
The one thing that struck me about most doctors was the "jaded" part. 100% of doctors I know are detached (which is recommended for one's sanity in a field focused on ill health). Most doctors I know became jaded by a young age (some during med school, most within a few years after starting work and 100% of experienced doctors I've dealt with personally). But then I realised that in the end it's just a job and most workers in any field become jaded eventually. I think year 12 burns out a lot of academic perfectionists even earlier.
Although it's very brave of the OP to change careers I wish more engineering-inclined people with experience would pursue post-grad medicine. Or at least scientific research. I know a lot of people who did post-grad med at Sydney Uni and I wouldn't describe any of them as great problem solvers or persistent. The "problem-solving nerds" from my high school mostly went into Commerce or Engineering. The life science/med science students at Uni were a mixed bag. You still had your over-achievers that just missed out on Undergrad Med but most were the stereotypes who would say they "couldn't handle 4 Unit maths" or "couldn't stand physics" in high school. This of course is irrelevant in most medical jobs later on but I think medicine and science in general needs more people with a problem-solving inclination. We have too many PhDs and MDs in Australia whose only selling-point is being able to follow established protocols (which of course isn't bad in its own right). We need more "disruptors" in Australia.
Very informative! Thank you
You'll definitely have to sit the gamsat. However I'm not sure how it will work for mature entry students. They may take your last degree's GPA or else you have to do another bachelors.