Career options: medicine or different STEM job?

This year, I'm doing my GCSEs, and I expect to score 9s in every subject (apart from Further Maths, which will probably receive 8). My decision to take Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics for A-Levels has been made. I would say that I have a strong academic background in science, but maths requires more work for me because I'm not naturally gifted at it. Essentially, I'm attempting to decide which professions would be ideal for me. I've always wanted to pursue a career in medicine, but I've lately been informed that it isn't as financially rewarding as other STEM fields. If I were to follow medicine, I'd be eager to learn of any particular countries I should relocate to to acquire high earnings (I study in the UK). Germany/Switzerland, the UAE, or Singapore are on my mind right now. I'm aiming to become fluent in German and Japanese soon, although learning a new language isn't very difficult for me. Or should I consider biomedical engineering or a different STEM field?

Hi! I wasn’t sure on what STEM career I wanted to take but now I’m set on Medicine. I take Biology Chemistry Maths and Further Maths A Levels - this is my view of the situation.

With Medicine only do it if you really want to help people, love biology/chemistry and know you’ll be able to cope with the workload. If you’re going into it just for money you’ll be miserable. Medicine still does pay well but there is a lot of demand for engineers and STEM careers in general so basically wherever you go into stem you should be payed well.

What other stem careers would you consider? Biomedical engineering would be good if you didn’t want as much of the high workload that comes with medicine but I don’t know how it is in terms of pay.

In terms of going abroad I have no clue sorry, good luck with your GCSEs though!

Hi, thanks for your reply. I do enjoy biology and chemistry and I think I would be able to manage the workload, it's more about whether being a doctor will give me satisfaction later in life (wealth, being able to have decent amount of time off work throughout the year for things like travel). My parents are doctors and they really want me to pursue medicine.

In terms of other STEM careers perhaps some kind of engineering, however I'm not sure if I can do this as recently my school told me to choose maths as an AS level instead of A-Level. So now I am doing triple sci and Maths AS. I don't know if I could pursue engineering due to this.

Hi again. It’s good that you have an interest in bio and chem. Funnily enough my parents are doctors and they’re trying to persuade me not to do medicine. I get it though you have to consider it being a huge commitment. Thankfully there is a lot of flexibility in medicine so you can specialise in less stressful environments but overall it will be fairly challenging.

For engineering you most definitely need Maths. If they’re making you take it as an AS level does that mean you’re doing AS over two years or dropping it after year 12? If it’s the latter I’d probably think at the end of year 12 look am I going into med or engineering and then decide whether to drop maths or not. Keep it for now just in case (and it ties in well with the other subjects).

Is there any way to convince your school to let you take the 4? It’s quite a common combination that you’re taking and if you perform very well in your GCSEs they may reconsider 🤷*♀️

Try doing some extra engineering comps on the side if you want a taste of what it’s like (like Big Bang, TDI etc).