Hey everyone, so I'm currently doing optometry and had the choice of pharmacy and I'm gunning for medicine (if I make it). Getting straight to the point, I just want a career path that will pay well (between optometry chemist and radiographer) and will have a good family life (coming back home at good hours e.g 6pm but mostly the biggest factor for me is the grad pay and pay in the future. This can pertain to opening up my own pharmacy/optometry but just wondering if anyone in the field can comment on their experiences and the pay etc.
Advice on Future Career: Optometry; Chemist: Diagnostic Radiographer or Good Old Doctor?
Comments
Hmmm, isn't Optometry spelt wrong in the title - is that an eye test?
I have a mate who is a radiographer, he said if he had his time over again, he would choose dentistry. Personally I would choose optometry, looks like a pretty cruisy job.
"Good old doctor" seems to be the best choice because it opens up a lot of options afterwards.
When you get sick of being a GP that has regular hours, there's lots of different specialisations you can go into that requires an MD degree as a pre-req, including opthalmology (to do eye surgery etc).The other options you've got listed are all single-path options that will require you to start all over again if you want to change jobs.
GP is a specialisation. (I'm not a GP)
Other specialties require their own commitment and to change specialties will be akin to starting all over again ie another 5-10 years of training (training fees and exams).
If you're gunning for Ophthal, you better start your additional phD now.
You're right! - my bad!
LOL its not like you can instantly get on to a training program straight away except for psych, GP. Many require ATLEAST PGY2 and people often wait until PGY3+
Go for good old doctor. It seems you can't spell so bad hand writing will cover that up.
You might want to look at this article before deciding on your profession.
http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/01/06/top-11-professions-w…
I know that my desire is to be in the medicinal field, only problem is it requires a lot of effort to get into medicine so choosing my area of study (medicinal) isn't the hard part, it's finding the most rewarding industry after years of studying.
good article
do you even need a education to work in health?
http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/bogus-nsw-doct…i have a brother who is a md specialist. He has no life, divorced with children and lives to work. Pay is good but no life. Pharmacists dont make the same coin they used to before the flood of graduates and discount pharmacies.
Dentistry is probably the quickest for big bucks and regular business hours.
You shouldn't generalize a whole career from the perspective of one's life experiences. That said, dentistry does have good hours if you are lucky enough to get in.
right. Majority have no life which leaves a minority with something to live for.
Regardless of which the hours (long hours) will take a toll on your life.
Lots of jobs in medical imaging at the moment (at least in WA). Hours are good.
My wife is a doctor, and that is what you make of it. As above, if you want to be a specialist, raking in the cash, don't expect to sleep or see your family. There are more 9-5 friendly options, but you still need to go through internship and residency where you can get crap jobs and rotations.If your aim is to make money and have good hours, please don't aim for doctor. It's naive and offensive.
I work at a chemist and have always been happy to help people when it comes to their health, my question is pertaining tot the best paying job that can help medicinally speaking.
I'm up to put in the hard yards for a good future, whilst this may be ignorant of me too say even though I'm not even married but I just want a nice, comfortable family life.
Professional spell checker?
I wouldn't choose pharmacy and optometry. I am working in a pharmacy and see what long hours the pharmacists need to do just to get by. Safe to say chemist warehouse has screwed the industry up. For optometry…well there's spesaver. Plenty of friends in both fields regretted their decisions. Do dentistry if you can get in.
Thanks really helps, I used payscale a indicator but I know it cant be trusted, dentistry was an option just was unsure about it and how I feel about being in people's mouths all day, Iv heard ppl have bad backs from dentistry tho I'm not sure if it's true.
But the regular 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri working hour trumphs the other fields I think. The pharmacists I know often work 20 days straight with no breaks. This one particular person has been in the industry for 5 years+, can't get into the property market still, didn't have enough cash to buy a second hand car outright. It's hard to compete with Chemist Warehouse due to their buying power, so I guess the idea of opening up your own pharmacy is out the window now.
I'll just leave this here. http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/work-in-progre…
Rather than chase the money. Find out which one makes you happy. You spend about a third of your life working. Do something that makes you feel good.
The options I put out are all things I would like to do, now all that's left is to choose the most well paying of them all.
Fair enough. They are all in healthcare. Take into account the aging population, because within the next 10-20 years I expect all of those professions to look very different to what they are today. Especially if disruptive technology comes along (e.g. dispensing robots)
A lot of people don't find that out until way too late.
Tell me about it! I took a job for the money… I didn't last past 3 months. It was soul destroying. What you don't realise is that once you compromise, you start to compromise in other areas of life. The job took over my life.
They still wanted me and loved the work I did for them. But I couldn't live with myself.
I would consider risk of being outsourced or replaced by technology.
Medical imaging diagnosis (as opposed to acquisition) is already subject to outsourcing.
Pharmacies depend on the grace of a government regulation that blocks Coles and Woolies cutting their grass, and with both the productivity commission here gunning for its relaxation, and the UK having done the same in the last decade or so, I wouldn't gamble my future on an industry held together by old fashioned regulations.
Optometry seems vulnerable to competition both from specsavers style cut price local and overseas optical like Zenni optical. Opthamology would be a safer direction.
Bear in mind that the highest paid occupations are the ones being targeted for cost saving the most, so I would lean toward general medicine, or a specilisation if possible, of the areas you mentioned.Thanks this helps a lot, my ambition is too get into medicine and do a specialty however my plan B's were the aforementioned options.
Dentistry > Medicine for pay and lifestyle.
nothing is safe nowadays. When a large dental school opened in my town quite a few dentists went broke.
Become a plumber. Emergency call out or after hours means you can charge a motza call out fee plus money during normal hours is great too.
Become a Psychiatrist. The whole world is going nuts.
I'm a GP, so I can give you some insight into my field. The GP lifestyle is pretty good, but it depends on what setting you work in.
I chose to be a GP because of the flexibility, the 9-5 working hours, and to be away from the hospital setting which I found very toxic.The big challenge is getting through your junior doctor years/training (medical school, internship, junior house officer years, specialist training, etc). Being a new doctor can be sole destroying in some hospitals. I don't think I could have survived anymore night shifts, on calls, etc. The grass if greener if you can power through that though. I'm not sure about those who are gunning for more competitive specialities though.
As a GP the income isn't as good as most other specialities, but you can live comfortably enough. There is a business side to it though, being fee for service, so it really depends on how many patients you see, what sort of procedures you do, how you bill medicare. There's also the flexibility to develop a special interest in different fields (hence you see all these GP-run skin clinics and cosmetic clinics around).
If you want more insight, feel free to PM me.
What's psychiatry like in terms of lifestyle? I know that its one of the lowest paid specialities but it seems less demanding than ED/ICU and more on a par with radiology/GP. There is also less risk involved than obs or surgery and potential to practice privately due to lower capital requirement to start up.
I have noticed GP salaries range from 200k to 400k which is a wide variation. What would the average metro GP working a 40 hour week bring in?
I don't have quite as much insight into psychiatry, but some of the senior psychiatrists in the public hospital I worked at made about 12k per fortnight (so about 288k per year). That's in an entirely public hospital role with on-call work/after hours etc. I'm not sure how much a private psychiatrist would make, but I imagine a fair bit more than that. Most people do a mix of both public and private however. I know lifestyle can be very flexible, but mainly in the private sector. We actually had a psychiatrist that does mostly telehealth (skype) consulting for rural areas, so he works from home.
One of the reasons GP incomes have a wide variation is because the variation in working hours and clinical settings. GPs that work part time in the city will earn on the lower end of the spectrum. GPs that work full time + after hours in a rural area will earn on the top end of the spectrum. How much you earn will also depend on whether you own (of have a partnership in) the clinic. If not, it depends on what percentage of billings the clinic takes as a service fee'.
I would say an average metro GP would probably earn from 250k - 300k per year, but again depends on how busy you are. There's more competition in metro areas as well, esp with bulk billing clinics around.
Thank you. Hopefully I will be able to get my Gamsat score up by a lot. If I do make it I am looking at non-procedural non-hospitalist speciality. Pathology is out and radiology is very competitive. I think that GP would make a good career especially in rural areas where you can dip your toes in obs/gyn and minor surgery and even psych but the downside is the on-call aspect. From what I read entry in getting competitive. Training is only 3 years after PGY1 and other specialities are super-competitive.
Quite interested in psychiatry. As a keen Redditor the prevalence of mental illness is frightening. However not sure if I can listen to other peoples problems without getting mad at them but I am comfortable with ambiguity. Are there very many psychiatrists in the private sector at all (as opposed to public)?
Yeah I like psychiatry too. You get a fair bit in GP as well. If I did't do GP, my second choice would be psychiatry.
You're right about GP becoming more competitive. Strangely, I have about 3 friends that couldn't get onto the GP training program and ended up going into psych, which they're loving. I think most specialists (psychiatrists included) do a mixture of public and private.
Good luck on your Gamsats.
LOL @ Gamsat(s)
Thank you. I think I will have to sit another 3 at least to get the score I need though.
Psych is a tough but rewarding gig:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/leaving-the-couch-b…
I do some volunteering which brings me into limited contact with the homeless and a lot of their problems originate from mental illness so you can potentially change their lives radically.
Info gathered from close group of mates, take this with a grain of salt.
Pharmacists - most end up in retail and hate it. Pay's garbage (in comparison to all the study you get put through), and usually get asked to push for sales by management. Clinical ones fare much better and generally find their job a lot more satisfying. A few decided to pursue med after a few years working as a pharmacist.
Dentists - not sure about current job market but grads from a few years ago couldn't find work in Vic, had to settle for job offers interstate (eg. Perth). Pay is very enticing and hours are very much static (9-5).
Doctors - crazy amount of study. A couple graduated last year and have started their first year of FT work at hospitals, also doing crazy hours ie. 12 hour overnight shifts, weekends, etc). Pay scale not disclosed.
Rads - good pay, but shiftwork also varies a lot. Most opt to get extra $$ through evening/overnight shifts and being on call, hence sacrificing social life. Some have PT contracts through 1-3 different private clinics ie. a lot of travelling back and forth.
'but mostly the pucks he biggest factor for me'
glad you're not a journo