Is medicine for me? Alternative job suggestions
I'm losing my mind on knowing what the right thing to do is. I'm in my second year of a humanities PhD and considering GEM when I would be 31. I am female, and plan to have a child within the next 18 months and am thinking of starting GEM 2028. I'm in the UK
I'm obviously uphauling a lot of my life to do GEM, it would be 4 years no funding, I'd have to work alongside it to qualify for free childcare and its a lot to consider, especially how busy I will be with a young family. I do have a very supporting partner and family nearby who can help and we have enough in savings to cover us, but obviously its a big cut compared to working full time in a salaried job.
My dream job would be an old age psychiatrist specialising in dementia & delirium. I really enjoy working with patients, learning, researching, leading, I also like to push myself and believe I would make a really great doctor, its just the journey to the job which puts me off.
I'm looking for any insight or wisdom into whether medicine journey is worth it when already in your 30s with a young family, or potential alternative careers. I've considered being a clincial scientist, nurse, clinical psychologist but I always just get back to psychiatry as my dream.
But the 'easy' thing to do would be get an office job after my PhD and have more free time in my life, get a dog, have a more relaxed work-life balance
Posted Feb 26, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC