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A doctor in the US is someone who has gone through 4 years of undergraduate college, 4 years of medical school, and 3 years of residency. In addition, getting
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
A doctor in the US is someone who has gone through 4 years of undergraduate college, 4 years of medical school, and 3 years of residency.
In addition, getting into medical school is pretty difficult, so they have to be among the best students in undergrad.
Now let’s compare an somewhat analogous software engineer. Someone who has gotten a bachelors degree from a good college graduating near the top of the class. They now have 7 years of experience in their job. A possible equivalent of the competition for getting into medical school might be landing a job with FAANG.
Looking at levels.fyi, it seems that such a person would be making from 250-350K, which is comparable if not greater than an internal medicine or family practice doctor with a lot less stress and much fewer work hours.
- crygin 7y agoThree years of residency will make you a GP, on the very low end of the MD salary range. Specialists typically have a 4-5 year residency with 1-2 years of fellowship following.
- mountainofdeath 7y agoNot all specialists are created equal. The well-known plastic surgeon in Los Angeles will earn a magnitude more than the same in the midwest who in turn earns more than general surgeon in the midwest. The work hours and culture are hugely variant between specialities too.
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago> Looking at levels.fyi, it seems that such a person would be making from 250-350K, which is comparable if not greater than an internal medicine or family practice doctor with a lot less stress and much fewer work hours. Is that $250k-$350k exclusively in hyperinflated areas of the country? What would a FAANG developer be making in Miami, or Iowa?
- mountainofdeath 7y agoI've heard near-FANG companies pay roughly 75% of what the expected value in Silicon Valley would be in places like Denver or Austin. A deep discount for sure but with the added benefit of far lower cost-of-living and tax burden. Facebook and Google are unique in that the majority of their engineers are in high cost-of-living areas, so they pay the same amount for the relatively small numbers of engineers working outside of the major offices.
- arcticbull 7y ago7 years into your career you could easily be making $500-600K in total compensation at a FAANG while a doctor has yet to graduate.
- someguydave 7y agoIf that were the case, then those numbers would appear in various compensation tables shown in various websites.
- arcticbull 7y agoThey are on levels.fyi, take a look around the 6 level. Many of these articles compare base pay of a doctor with base pay of an engineer at a FAANG, but at a FAANG, your salary is often 30-50% of your total compensation with annual refresh grants stacking up over your tenure.
- i_am_proteus 7y agoBut this is only true in SV, where housing prices have inflated to meet, if not exceed, what FAANG pay can support. The economics of a software engineer starting today are very different from one who started five or ten years ago.
- someguydave 7y agoOn the flip side, the Facebook/Apple/Google engineer would be exposed to intense competition from overseas engineers and/or immigrants, while the doctor has a government-enforced monopoly on his degree.