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gadders | on: UK's hardware talent is being wasted
Fundholding GPs don't do badly. A lot get 6 figures if they are partners in a surgery.

I think most Doctors etc need to wait until they're consultants until they make decent money.

But I'm like you - fell into banking due to being a Lotus Notes developer when it was flavour of the month and have never left. I reckon I'm on over double what I would be if I'd ended up working for IBM or Cap Gemini or similar.

[And I should say I ended up in project/programme/change management. I'm not still a Notes Developer]

lordnacho | parent | next
I don't know, the doctor route seems like a lot of work for the money. My FIL told his kids not to do it, and he was a surgeon who ran a department. They messed around with the doctors' pensions, and it made a lot of them quit. Conditions are also awful, he started the department in a temporary building and retired with it still there.

A doctor is also a kid who got full A grades as a high school graduate. They'd have the pick of what university course to do, and then they end up doing this thing that takes until you're 30, with insane nighttime hours. It just makes no sense to me that there are still kids who think this is worthwhile. It's not even as if you are guaranteed to be allowed to specialize in what you want either, that's a battle with all the other top students.

gadders | root | parent
>>A doctor is also a kid who got full A grades as a high school graduate.

Yes, because the number of med school places in the UK is limited by the government (because they have to fund the extra cost of the course over what students pay in tuition fees). You don't really need to be that smart to be a doctor.

sgt101 | parent | next
>I think most Doctors etc need to wait until they're consultants until they make decent money.

A consultant gets £100k -> £140K ish from the NHS. However, many supplement that with private work and therefore make significantly more.

gadders | root | parent | next
To be fair though, they work for it. A consultant I saw recently did a full day with the NHS and they 3 - 4 hours of appointments in the evenings privately at a different hospital.
Marazan | root | parent
Yeah, 100k is starting pay band for Consultants, 140k is after 14 years of service _as a consultant_.

To get to the starting line of Consultant they have to go through the Residency gauntlet which start you off at 36k and hideous hours.

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CalRobert | parent
Is 6 figures a lot?
varjag | root | parent | next
The pound is slightly heavier than the dollar and overall UK wages are lower. But truth is in most of the world being a doctor is a good career but not something you can build outstanding wealth on. Hence Europeans are often puzzled with "I want my kid become a doctor" cliche from American media.
zipy124 | root | parent
That's just not true. Being a doctor still ranks among the top professions by wage in the UK at least, especially since the wage is largely the same regardless of area, and making six figures in an area where you can buy a house for under six figures allows you to live a very very nice life.
blitzar | root | parent
top 5% nationally is £81k