How is life as a doctor in Singapore?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

to be honest, 2- 3 years of reapplication is not a long waiting time

Why don’t you try for usmle if you are willing to wait 2-3 years. Higher chance of getting into residency in USA

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why don’t you try for usmle if you are willing to wait 2-3 years. Higher chance of getting into residency in USA

any surgical specialty is insanely hard and local grads are bonded as well so must finish bond then apply. 30-31 years old start residency a bit hard

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why don’t you try for usmle if you are willing to wait 2-3 years. Higher chance of getting into residency in USA

But then let's say you get into general surgery in the US - yes you are now a surgeon but as a non-US MD likely you getting training at some random institution like Larkin, Montefiore Medical, Maimonides Medical Center, etc.
Not sure if you can even come back to SG and work as a C/SC at GRH then go private...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

But then let's say you get into general surgery in the US - yes you are now a surgeon but as a non-US MD likely you getting training at some random institution like Larkin, Montefiore Medical, Maimonides Medical Center, etc.
Not sure if you can even come back to SG and work as a C/SC at GRH then go private...

This isnt an issue at all actually. So long as u are board certified that is more than sufficient. Similar to how CCT is used for job application for AC

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hard truths but I think top bankers are justified to have their egos, because it takes a certain personality to sit down and deal with CEOs and other high level clients when you are pushing a deal through.

Unfortunately, no one cares about your level of education or value of work in this world. You can be doing good work as a caring GP, but no one will bother coming to you unless they are sick (and they can also find other GPs easily as well).

On the other hand, look at bankers or even actors/singers/ stars.. they might have no education but they have a cult following which makes them richer 100X more than normal GP.

Just look the recent craze in SG over ishowspeed. Is he really doing any value work? No.. but people are still following him like crazy.

Look at Malaysia’s Nigel ng (uncle Roger).. he’s not a chef but yet his restaurant queues are longer than traditional chefs who devoted their lives to cooking since day1.

Point is this world is unfair and you have to deal with it.

Hmm not really bro. I have spent like 8 years in this industry. Hating it everyday and seeing lots of clowns (both bankers and clients).

Contrary to popular beliefs, clients are mostly three types - 1) first gen entrepreneurs, 2) old money and their heirs and 3) professional managers. (2) usually hires (3) to run the business or gatekeep - so mostly you are dealing with (1) and (3).

(3) are particularly difficult to deal with. Some are ex-bankers and some are just long service corporate executives. Many of them make less than bankers and like to bully bankers because "why do you guys make more than me" and "how do you guys deserve USD4m fees for just doing a few books on data mining"?

Most of the bankers survive by being toxic bootlickers / yes man and good at politicking. Gone are the days bankers were bro-type of people who just go KTV with clients, play pokers and call a few TV stars sit together. Nowadays most bankers are just people who arrange meetings, do market updates, send invites and spam clients with desktop analysis and then hoping business will far from the sky (and indeed it will if you are at a bulge bracket bank).

I guess doctors also count on pedigree but bankers are so pedigree / lineage dependent which I did not know before I join. In Singapore office, if you went to a top US/UK schools as a Vietnamese / Indonesian, you are golden because they are where most of the fee coming from in Southeast Asia. If you are a Singaporean, better you are a girl because HR targets 50/50 gender mix in the office and we had always been male heavy with only 30% applicants being female (guess this is similar to med?).

What's more is people will judge which school you went and you school matters even decades down the road especially if you are Singkie. Your university is your entry ticket. Your secondary school and JC matters more than what people may imagine. Most of my colleagues weren't aware of this but when we try tallying schools, RI ACS are probably most represented with a few from Hwa Chong as well. Then you have other schools but they are way less represented. It is just something embedded to us subtly. People still list their JC on resume for grad position, alum favours their alum. People move to Grab, Singtel, Tiktok, Jardines, etc. and real relationship comes from casual chats "oh we went to same school, did you go to the alum dinner last month"? You have a few bros in uni / jc, this is how people fish for information and survive. As a junior, you churn ppts but as a senior, you basically become a yes man and messenger, and then it is how you deliver value by sharing market intel and bullying your juniors to make books.

If you don't go to a top school, you may have ok chance as a female as people treat girls nicer. Or you better be a nice person and be extremely sociable (or alternatively political, fake and toxic) at the same time to deliver value.

Usually clients don't respect bankers. Lay people think bankers are god tier but when bankers are fired, they have very limited options. Clients see through bankers' limited value add. Banks are only hired because a big transaction should have third party validation (like "Morgan Stanley advised us") and no one wants to do bitch work like VDR (basically organizing a dropbox with thousands of files) or SPA SHA negotiations (lawyers review docs, bankers summarize and rephrase to human language for client). Only those who pimped hard as MDs can get decent exits (SGD1-1.5m as an MD probably gets 500k a year at a client except for the extremely lucky ones). People think bankers advise the client but the reality is your client knows the industry and the company well, you are just helping them to do the bitch work which is known as "execution".

My co-worker was fired as an associate, he was making 25k a month at 30yo, now working at a GLC with 9-10k a month and the career trajectory is going to be similar to average bba grad from there onwards.

I guess many of you would be surprised knowing bankers is just like an admin guy. The best banker I know is way better. He knows his **** well, owns a yacht and call some girls play together, knows many good doctors to introduce to clients' aged parents, well connected to international schools, sits on Oxbridge/Ivy alum advisory board with power in making admission recs. But this is a rare breed and hard to come by in this industry.

Going back to money, I worked on some deals before and managed to see the revenue for some SG and HK specialist clinics. HK is way higher than SG but surprisingly some top specialist (colorectal surgeons and oncologists) grossed 4-5m SGD a year (the HK one was doing 10-12m SGD lol wtf). One time in the investor call, an HK clinic chain mentioned that they paid aesthetic GPs 400-600k on average a month (70-100k SGD). You can't believe the reaction of all those PRC fund managers, they unmuted and shouted how the **** these 30yo doctors make more than me managing a billion dollar book with decades of experience. Lol just lol. So I guess if you are top notch, you can still make crazy money as a doctor but it depends on specialties, luck and geographies.

Apologies as my typing is a bit messy to read. Still planning to pursue a doc path. Saw the data first hand as a banker and being able to train in HK with gf being hongkie may chance the calculus for me. But then for us in sg, docs seem a lot more like an oversupply commodity than hk. Overworked and paid peanuts. Only the top 1% is being awarded.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

any surgical specialty is insanely hard and local grads are bonded as well so must finish bond then apply. 30-31 years old start residency a bit hard

Why are 30/31 tough to start residency
You do know people start residency at 50/51?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why are 30/31 tough to start residency
You do know people start residency at 50/51?

That’s crazy. I am 34 and I am already feeling the burn. ST4 psych trainee in uk. I constantly take sick leave off and skip teaching days to go back to SG once a month. Been skipping work since graduation

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This isnt an issue at all actually. So long as u are board certified that is more than sufficient. Similar to how CCT is used for job application for AC

I actually can't remember where I saw but I remember an SG doctor did IM in some big name uni then with another MGH IM subspeciality fellowship and was HoD or sth similar before going private.

A few quick googling shows most SG docs who went US through HMDP went MGH, Texas Southwestern, Hopkins and the likes.

Can't have them thinking you are same breed if you went to some no name site even you are board certified ba?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That’s crazy. I am 34 and I am already feeling the burn. ST4 psych trainee in uk. I constantly take sick leave off and skip teaching days to go back to SG once a month. Been skipping work since graduation

How do you get enough leave to make it back home monthly? Flight time already takes up 1.5 days.

Don't ask me how they do it at 50. But it is impressive. When I reach 50, I wish I can be that energetic too.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How do you get enough leave to make it back home monthly? Flight time already takes up 1.5 days.

Don't ask me how they do it at 50. But it is impressive. When I reach 50, I wish I can be that energetic too.

I have 32 days of annual leave and around 14 days of teaching/study leave. With public holidays added it’s around 55 days a year. Throw in some sick days and that equals to around 4 days free a month. Enough time to go back to SG but not enough time to really enjoy. But it’s ok I just spend time with my girlfriend and family