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The Dream Job That Wasn’t

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Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#31

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #28

My dream job was to be an MD. I went to a grade deflationary undergrad, UChicago, and was too interested in music, social life, and sleeping to achieve a high GPA. I scored 90th percentile on the MCAT and had choruses, piano, humanities, and research in my background, but merely having a 3.35 GPA meant I got 0 interviews after 11 applications to medical school. How devastating is that: you dream to be an MD for a dec…

Is applying to 11 medical schools considered a lot? Where they all like A tier med schools or were you willing to settle for something less prestigious?

I’m just asking because I’d imagine you’d be able to get into _a_ med school with your academic credentials but maybe not the best one? I’ve also never applied to a med school so I could be talking out my ass.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#32

Post by WhompingWindows »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #31
WhompingWindows wrote: post #28

My dream job was to be an MD. I went to a grade deflationary undergrad, UChicago, and was too interested in music, social life, and sleeping to achieve a high GPA. I scored 90th percentile on the MCAT and had choruses, piano, humanities, and research in my background, but merely having a 3.35 GPA meant I got 0 interviews after 11 applications to medical school. How devastating is that: you dream to be an MD for a dec…

Is applying to 11 medical schools considered a lot? Where they all like A tier med schools or were you willing to settle for something less prestigious? I’m just asking because I’d imagine you’d be able to get into _a_ med school with your academic credentials but maybe not the best one? I’ve also never applied to a med school so I could be talking out my ass.

It's not a lot, it's pretty standard. The chances of getting into any of them are very low these days, some schools get thousands of apps for 100-200 spots, leaving an acceptance rate of 5-10%. I'd wager they WANT this to improve their "Newsweek" Ratings, shake my head, think of all the shortages of doctors are bright-eyed 23 year olds who get rejected and have to repeat the process, all to maintain exclusivity (and due to limits on how many residents/interns we can train at once).

I didn't apply to the top-tier schools. I knew my GPA would be an algorithmic non-starter, a human wouldn't even look at a GPA under 3.5 in many schools. Also, I'm a white male biological sciences major, not exactly a rare type for medical schools applicants.

Keep in mind, UChicago Bio Sciences had courses I was required to take, that had graduate students and actual medical students in them, that had the median student with an 80 average. How sadistic is that? A classroom full of brilliant students, and half of them will get C's and D's? You can guess which half I was in...

In the end, it may have been a blessing, because MD school is VERY expensive and time-consuming, and I would've been a poor doctor like family medicine or pediatrician, so I'd be financially way worse off and probably a lot more stressed if I had succeeded down that path.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#33

Post by Emma_Goldman »

skadamat wrote: post #13

Cal Newport became famous for his books "Deep Work" and "Digital Minimalism", but my favorite / most underrated book by him is actually "So Good They Can't Ignore You": https://www.calnewport.com/books/so-good/ In SGTCIU, he really goes deep on the idea that pre-existing passion is unlikely to lead you to a happy career and presents an alternate, more-compelling framework for job satisfaction. 1. Acquire rare & valua…

>'There are happy & fulfilled people in every career and, of course, unhappy people in every career / walk of life. But pretty much everyone wants the same thing in their career: mission, autonomy, impact, and creativity.

These traits ^ are mostly independent of a specific job / field'

I think this is untrue. It depends on how one understands mission, autonomy, impact and creativity whether they can be achieved independent what specific job one works. If by creativity you mean self-expression, few jobs give you the space for true self-expression, rather than expression within the confines of instrumental problem-solving. If by autonomy you mean the ability to choose one's own tasks then, again, few jobs allow that. If by impact you mean the probable consequences one's work will have for the good of humankind, then clearly one can - and people do - try and rank more and less impactful work, among which there is wide variance. There are a small number of jobs which are extremely high-impact, e.g., working on nuclear proliferation, public health in the global south, climate change. Most jobs have a real but comparatively mundane impact. 'Mission' is entirely relative to the person, not the job.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#34

Post by bumby »

flurdy wrote: post #14
bumby wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re in the US, I believe most military services now allow LASIK and PRK

I am surprised by that, but I guess most pilots are not exposed as much as I thinĸ to open cockpits or windows that can blow your cornea flap open...

I think the original ban was due to worry that the corneal flap couldn’t withstand the g-forces. As more data came in, it seems like it’s a pretty low risk. Same with the pressures exerted while diving underwater

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#35

Post by killtimeatwork »

voicedYoda wrote: post #22
bsenftner wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading his "How to win at College" when finishing graduate school; his first book made me feel smug because I was already doing all his recommendations. I feel extremely blessed, as I have held a series of "dream jobs": 1) video game studio owner at age 17; 2) graphics researcher working for Mandelbrot on his research in '83; 3) Beta Tester for the original Macintosh; 4) 3D graphics researcher back when h…

This is a fantastic representation of how developers should present themselves and work to get their dream jobs. It's hard work up front, but the dividends yield. Kudos

This guy is an elite researcher, so this approach works for him. Try doing that as a regular backend guy and you'll get a puzzled look from management, followed by a boot to the posterior.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#36

Post by killtimeatwork »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #28

My dream job was to be an MD. I went to a grade deflationary undergrad, UChicago, and was too interested in music, social life, and sleeping to achieve a high GPA. I scored 90th percentile on the MCAT and had choruses, piano, humanities, and research in my background, but merely having a 3.35 GPA meant I got 0 interviews after 11 applications to medical school. How devastating is that: you dream to be an MD for a dec…

> I fell into programming for healthcare. I'm not good at it. I struggle to understand basic SQL joins, intermediate R, and intermediate statistics.

Maybe you're just overwhelmed and don't allocate enough time to learn each of those concepted? Joins in particular are a very simple concept that could be understood in a weekend of reading tutorials and playing with them. Honestly, the worst thing about them is probably the naming/syntax confusion across database engines.

BTW regarding studying medicine: here in Poland, in every city with a medical school, I see US students who are getting their M.D. here (they're easy to notice as they congregate in Starbuckses and study there). Many look like they're in their late twenties or in their thirties. Maybe it's a route for you as well?

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#37

Post by roberthahn »

I saw a video recently where Adam Savage was talking about his experience working at ILM. His friends observed at the time he always spoke in terms of what he “gets to do”. Not has to do, _gets_ to do.

That looks like a pretty great metric for measuring how close to ideal your job is.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#38

Post by Mauricebranagh »

mStreamTeam wrote: post #24
ta988 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not call these last ones dream jobs. More like dream-crushing jobs...

That post sound sounds like it was written by someone who dreams of getting power and status. If power us your dream, working for a 3 letter is one way of getting it.

But you don't normally blurt it out like that :-)

I suspect that jobs in a TLA are closer to the Laundry files than James Bond.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#39

Post by analog31 »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #32
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is applying to 11 medical schools considered a lot? Where they all like A tier med schools or were you willing to settle for something less prestigious? I’m just asking because I’d imagine you’d be able to get into _a_ med school with your academic credentials but maybe not the best one? I’ve also never applied to a med school so I could be talking out my ass.

It's not a lot, it's pretty standard. The chances of getting into any of them are very low these days, some schools get thousands of apps for 100-200 spots, leaving an acceptance rate of 5-10%. I'd wager they WANT this to improve their "Newsweek" Ratings, shake my head, think of all the shortages of doctors are bright-eyed 23 year olds who get rejected and have to repeat the process, all to maintain exclusivity (and…

Acceptance rates are a meaningless figure. The reason is that if there are 100 applicants, and 100 spots, and every applicant sends out 100 applications, the acceptance rate will be 1%, but they will all get spots. Dating myself, I once commented that acceptance rates have gone down because of the laser printer.

The qualities that you mention in your above post might have made you unhappy as a doctor, even if you had gotten in. I live in a town where you can't swing a cat without hitting a doctor. Most of them strike me as people who would have gotten 4.0 GPA's for the pure enjoyment of it, i.e., competing for a 4.0 was in fact a dream job for them while it lasted. Their kids all have 4.0 GPA's as well. Those who have social lives tend to be older. Many end up switching to part-time status or retiring early. The rich ones all had family money to invest and are not solely dependent on salary income.

Re: The Dream Job That Wasn’t

#40

Post by volkk »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #28

My dream job was to be an MD. I went to a grade deflationary undergrad, UChicago, and was too interested in music, social life, and sleeping to achieve a high GPA. I scored 90th percentile on the MCAT and had choruses, piano, humanities, and research in my background, but merely having a 3.35 GPA meant I got 0 interviews after 11 applications to medical school. How devastating is that: you dream to be an MD for a dec…

You sound exactly like one of my best friends. He couldn't get into med school due to very average MCAT scores and so he started working in research making pennies. After some odd years of that and racking up a ton of credit card debt, he had a go at a coding bootcamp and found a job as a senior engineer making over 130K almost quadrupling his salary. Not sure whether that speaks more to his intelligence or to our industry. I'm happy for him that he doesn't need to worry about next months rent anymore, though
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