I don't know how things work in Japan, but in the US, I feel like the times have changed.

Your degree doesn't really mean that you'll work in a certain field (unless it's a specialty, like dermatology). In fact, getting a degree, graduating, then finding a job is already hard enough as it is. I know a lot of people in Graphic Design that don't do anything related to Graphic Design, and some people that don't do... anything.

I have an Aerospace Engineering degree and I work with air pollution.

Finding a job is really dependent on your network and what you do in school. No one in the US will look at a degree and say, "Oh, we'll interview him," but they look at the skills and experience first. Now you want to do that in Japan? That's a huge disadvantage because now the take a risk on dealing with someone who doesn't know the culture as well.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but that there is more to getting a job than just choosing a major.

Dermatology seems the most ambitious and rewarding option to me.
Go for it!

Yeah but for dermatology I need to focus on a bachelor's first, right? Like it'll be extremely difficult if I want to study in Japan now because my Japanese isn't up to par. Not even close. So what... I get a bachelor's here and then go there? Or I go to a language school before I even start?

I'd go with those who recommended studying in the States while continuing with your Japanese study. Visit Japan on exchange or holiday. After graduating, either spend 1 year in Japan (get it out of your system?), or get some relevant work experience in the States for a few years before moving to Japan for a long term career there.

I'm afraid I don't see the Japanese and dermatology link. Dermatology, as a medical specialization, takes about 10 years. ~4 yr undergraduate, ~4 yr med school, 2+ yr dermatology residency, fellowship?

If you want to practice in Japan as a US physician, you'd have to satisfy Japan's transfer requirements. Research those in advance. Depending on the country, it can range from numerous qualification exams to effectively redoing med school.

A medical education in Japan? Yeah, you'd have to get your language to a high level first. Is financial assistance available to foreign med students? Are residencies paid? How difficultis it to return to practise in the US? (you might find yourself stuck there.)

I'm not trying to discourage you, but I felt like people were treating dermatology on par with the other options when it involves considerably more investment and potential constraints. It can be done, there are foreign doctors practising in Japan, but you'd need to look into it in far greater detail.

If you're serious about dermatology, stay in the States and focus 100% on getting top grades and getting the extracurricula stuff on your resume that med schools look for. Japanese would be very low priority. You might also research other types of jobs and businesses related to dermatology, if that's where your interests lie. You're at an exciting time of your life, good luck! (edit: sorry about the length)

Thora Wrote:I'd go with those who recommended studying in the States while continuing with your Japanese study. Visit Japan on exchange or holiday. After graduating, either spend 1 year in Japan (get it out of your system?), or get some relevant work experience in the States for a few years before moving to Japan for a long term career there.

I'm afraid I don't see the Japanese and dermatology link. Dermatology, as a medical specialization, takes about 10 years. ~4 yr undergraduate, ~4 yr med school, 2+ yr dermatology residency, fellowship?

If you want to practice in Japan as a US physician, you'd have to satisfy Japan's transfer requirements. Research those in advance. Depending on the country, it can range from numerous qualification exams to effectively redoing med school.

A medical education in Japan? Yeah, you'd have to get your language to a high level first. Is financial assistance available to foreign med students? Are residencies paid? How difficultis it to return to practise in the US? (you might find yourself stuck there.)

I'm not trying to discourage you, but I felt like people were treating dermatology on par with the other options when it involves considerably more investment and potential constraints. It can be done, there are foreign doctors practising in Japan, but you'd need to look into it in far greater detail.

If you're serious about dermatology, stay in the States and focus 100% on getting top grades and getting the extracurricula stuff on your resume that med schools look for. Japanese would be very low priority. You might also research other types of jobs and businesses related to dermatology, if that's where your interests lie. You're at an exciting time of your life, good luck! (edit: sorry about the length)

Derm residency is at least 3 years, probably four or five. And again. Dermatology is THE hardest residency to get into in the US. It takes the cream of the crop. Top-notch board scores, LORs, rotation scores, tons of research, everything. It's not just as simple as going "Oh, I want to be a dermatologist."

Please, if you're going to say you want to do dermatology (this is to the OP), RESEARCH it first.

Was just throwing that out there. Probably not going to happen, just giving you an idea of what I was looking at.

nohika Wrote:Derm residency is at least 3 years, probably four or five. And again. Dermatology is THE hardest residency to get into in the US. It takes the cream of the crop. Top-notch board scores, LORs, rotation scores, tons of research, everything. It's not just as simple as going "Oh, I want to be a dermatologist."

I just don't understand how would that be possible. We're talking about the skin right? It's not even inside the body, so you wouldn't have to open it up wit a scalpel or something...
sorry but until you back your claims up with some statistics, or something, I can't believe what you're saying. For instance brain surgery, internal organs yes. But Dermatology? how?

Raschaverak Wrote:

nohika Wrote:Derm residency is at least 3 years, probably four or five. And again. Dermatology is THE hardest residency to get into in the US. It takes the cream of the crop. Top-notch board scores, LORs, rotation scores, tons of research, everything. It's not just as simple as going "Oh, I want to be a dermatologist."

I just don't understand how would that be possible. We're talking about the skin right? It's not even inside the body, so you wouldn't have to open it up wit a scalpel or something...
sorry but until you back your claims up with some statistics, or something, I can't believe what you're saying. For instance brain surgery, internal organs yes. But Dermatology? how?

I think Nohika is saying that the competition to get into a residency is the stiffest, (there are considerably more people trying to become derms than there are residencies available) not that it requires the most expertise.

theVinster, I like your approach of trying to identify your interests/values, then see what type of jobs exist in that area. So if you think health industry or helping people are areas you'd enjoy, then check out the range of options in those areas. Try to sort out what you might want to do first, then see if there's some way Japanese might work, rather than the other way around.

That's hard to know when we're 20, though. Try discussing different ideas with some people who know you well. (Sometimes other people have a better sense of our personalities and strengths.) :-) Then when you narrow it down, ask for introductions to people in those jobs (cold call if you have to) and ask to meet with them. Maybe you can even hang out for a bit or volunteer in order to get a feel for it.

There are also books that help people with these decisions. One famous old one is "What Colour is Your Parachute?". A more recent one has interviews with interesting people who have switched careers and give advice on finding that good fit. (I'll see if I can find out the title.) Your college's placement or career counselling office probably has or can recommend similar books or sites.

[Not sure why I feel compelled to try to offer help ... must be your sweet innocence ... or my procrastination today haha. Perhaps you could work as a JAL flight attendant and be surrounded by beautiful Japanese women? ]

Thora Wrote:Perhaps you could work as a JAL flight attendant and be surrounded by beautiful Japanese women? ]

The flight attendants weren't particularly cute any of the times I've ridden JAL. The ground crew is much nicer

Jarvik7 Wrote:

Thora Wrote:Perhaps you could work as a JAL flight attendant and be surrounded by beautiful Japanese women? ]

The flight attendants weren't particularly cute any of the times I've ridden JAL. The ground crew is much nicer

This is so strange, I'm watching "Attention Please" right now. Uhh, how do I become a JAL flight attendant? "Attention Please" is teaching me I need to not dress properly, have a smart attitude, and often be indecisive in crucial situations. I'm picking up my Japanese friend at the airport today so I might wander around asking how to get a job at the airport. Lol... but it's not specifically JAL.

I'll get to some other posts later. I have to eat this Trix, it's starting to get soggy. Then I have to go to Math class. =.=

thistime Wrote:

Raschaverak Wrote:

nohika Wrote:Derm residency is at least 3 years, probably four or five. And again. Dermatology is THE hardest residency to get into in the US. It takes the cream of the crop. Top-notch board scores, LORs, rotation scores, tons of research, everything. It's not just as simple as going "Oh, I want to be a dermatologist."

I just don't understand how would that be possible. We're talking about the skin right? It's not even inside the body, so you wouldn't have to open it up wit a scalpel or something...
sorry but until you back your claims up with some statistics, or something, I can't believe what you're saying. For instance brain surgery, internal organs yes. But Dermatology? how?

I think Nohika is saying that the competition to get into a residency is the stiffest, (there are considerably more people trying to become derms than there are residencies available) not that it requires the most expertise.

It's because it pays ridiculously good for fairly little effort. (And also to comment, gen-surg isn't really competitive anymore...so no, you don't have to be super-smart to cut open bodies.)

Give me a sec and I'll find the doc with the USMLE match rates.

http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf

Play around in this PDF for a while. For a PGY-1 (first year of residency), there are 31 slots. That's it. For 35,000+ medical students.

"The higher percentages of unmatched U.S. senior applicants in such specialties as Dermatology (DM), Neurological
Surgery (NS), Orthopaedic Surgery (OS), Otolaryngology (OT), Plastic Surgery (PS), Radiation Oncology (RO) and
Surgery-General (SG) (Figure 6, top) reflect the fact that there are significantly more applicants interested in those
specialties than there are available positions. That disparity also is reflected in the high fill rates (Table 1) for those
specialties."

Just suuuuucks that I can't find the prettyone with all the boards cores and everything to exactly how competitive it is. ;; Basically in the paragraph I showed you, those are the most competitive specialties out there.

Found iiiiiit. http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2009v3.pdf Page 36 of the pdf and on for a while. A top board score is 240ish, 250+ is Godly (it's out of 270). Annndd look! Tons of research.

To all the people saying do graphics on the side. That's fine if it's a hobby, but if you actually want to get employed you need a portfolio of reasonably professional standard work. This takes a lot of time and serious study. There's more to graphics than just learning photoshop, illustrator, maya etc. Everyone and their dog can use photoshop these days. You also need to specialize, do you want to do 3d animation or graphic design, web design? These are different fields.

With this horrible economy, I would stick to the vocational-style degrees, like engineering/medicine/nursing/business/teaching.

If you really want to do something artsy, teach yourself. If you are awesome you won't even need a degree. The fact that you aren't already doing 3d modeling/animation in your spare time is a red flag to me.

igomadness Wrote:With this horrible economy,

This. Since the crisis in 2008 every post on the internet even vaugely related to
jobs, ect. mentions this, regardless of the country. Hmm.. As if there was no god damned unemploymency before that crysis, or as if everything was made out of shiny gold, and now with a fingersnap it turned to stinky stone. Yuck. I'm sorry but I can't imagine any of that. Or rather could you elaborate on what you mean by "horrible economy" and please give an example (with a possbile timeline) when it was the opposite (like "splendid economy") And what was it like. I'm really curious. As if millions were dying of starvation per year in the US, for instance, because of the "horrible economy". Is really that the case?

He probably won't starve to death with a liberal arts degree. But he might be saddled with debt and have no higher-paying job to make up for his time and money invested in the degree.

And yes, high unemployment and hiring freezes do matter. When I got out of school during the dot com boom I had multiple job offers right out of school. Then a few years later, the bubble burst, my company went out of business, and I was unemployed for a year.

I have friends who were near retirement age who lost nearly all their money when their tech companies went out of business. I have friends who have gotten laid off and have little chance of getting a similarly paying job because of ageism. If a headhunter sends some applicant over the age of 50, odds are that is the last applicant they will ever get to send to that particular company.

I also have some personal experience with my mother, who tried for many years to make a money with art. She was actually very good at portraits and did get a few commissions here and there, but never enough to scrape by.

Maybe all of this has colored my perceptions negatively, so maybe my advice is somewhat conservative. It seems you at least have not been affected by the 'bad economy' and I am happy for you.

igomadness Wrote:With this horrible economy, I would stick to the vocational-style degrees, like engineering/medicine/nursing/business/teaching.

If you're just starting a degree, chances are good the economy will have picked up by the time you get to the end of it in three years time. So while you should certainly think about what job prospects are like with whatever degree you're thinking of, I'm not sure the economic situation at the time you start ought to have much effect on how important that is.

pm215 Wrote:If you're just starting a degree, chances are good the economy will have picked up by the time you get to the end of it in three years time.

This might be true, but maybe you guys are right. Sorry about so much doom and gloom and economy.

Another thing to consider would be your hunting and gathering skills. The zombie apocalypse is coming, they are hungry, and they feel no pain. They don't understand any language, even japanese. The canned food stores will only hold out so long. Being able to live off the land will be key.

igomadness Wrote:Another thing to consider would be your hunting and gathering skills. The zombie apocalypse is coming, they are hungry, and they feel no pain. They don't understand any language, even japanese. The canned food stores will only hold out so long. Being able to live off the land will be key.

You should just develop your body in a direction where it can survive solely on sunlight. With that, most of your problems will be solved
P.S.: Reading this last post of yours, I'm beginning to understand why you have this nickname