Mbbs is a huge investment in terms of money, labour, hard work and time. Almost one’s entire youth and prime years get invested into it. The returns start late.
Post graduation is a must to earn a decent income as with ever increasing mbbs seats, MBBS has become a new B. tech. Gone are the days when MBBS was considered enough to earn a decent satisfactory income.
Preparation for Pg again requires at least 1 year of dedicated preparation with no job or 2 years of preparation with a job, as per my opinion due to increasing competition more so for few top branches that have good returns after 3 years.
Pg course is for 3 years and most states have a rural bond. So, up to now the total becomes 9 to 10 years of study counting the preparation stage also. By this time one is more close to 30’s than 20’s. Pressure to settle or marry starts. Delhi has also introduced one year bond of 20 lacs penalty, instead u.p and m.p have removed both seat leaving and rural bond.
Then for some branches, super speciality has also become a norm which again is a course of 3 years which again needs 1 to 2 years of preparation.
Stipend or salary during internship can range from zero in private colleges to about 30k in Delhi colleges. In pg again, it can range from zero in private colleges to more than 1 lakh in Delhi colleges. Fees in private colleges is very hefty and sometimes can run into crores.
MBBS is tough. The hours that needed to be put into it are much more compared to other courses just to even pass with humongous portions and difficulty level.
Significant earnings start only after completing pg course. Although with mbbs one can land the job of jr, mo or cms but again the job profile will soon bore you and there is not much scope of growth.
Though, everything is not lost, MBBS does have its own rewards. Job market is still not so bad thought not very good as well. Respectable profession. Opportunities to learn something new each day and interact with a wide variety of people and pursue research.
Establishing one’s own practice is not easy as it needs lots of investment and marketing especially for a 1st generation doctor belonging to a Middle class family.
I am neither happy nor sad because I don’t think any other profession would have suited me. But not really happy with the amount of returns on the investment.