Why your child should be a doctor.

After having seen many different professions, some closely and some from a little distance, I have come to the overwhelmingly decisive conclusion that being a doctor is a better profession than any other.
Let me enlist some reasons behind why I say this :
Doctors are possibly the only professionals who can easily choose to be their own bosses without too much risk. Compare that to setting up shop as a lawyer, an interior designer or an engineer (that is if at all you've ever heard of a self employed engineer.).
Being one's own boss is in itself a huge advantage. Not having to apply for leaves, not having to kow-tow to your superiors, not worrying about performance evaluations, not worrying about reaching office on time etc etc etc.
There is indeed a little risk involved in terms of the possibly disastrous consequences of goof-ups (read damage to the health of patients), but compare that to the risk of a business not kicking off or the uncertainties that are a part of business and this risk would become much more acceptable.
The risk of the practice not kicking off is also a part of the equation but again if being a doctor is compared to a running a business then it is also possibly the most risk free business of all.
Second, social recognition. As compared to any other professional, doctors are also possibly the most socially visible of all.

As my friend put it nicely, anyone would immediately know if a doctor lives in their next apartment. No one would know so easily that a software engineer who is the chief architect of their most favorite piece of software lives next to them.

Third, the doctors profession is the least alienated of all.
An engineer works in an environment that is much bigger than himself, and in which he / she features as only a small cog.
A technological innovation by a researcher sitting in an obscure lab somewhere or a new technological innovation or software upgrade by a software vendor, or changing economic trends can all have fundamental effects on a software engineers profession.

To add to that he / she works on a piece of software made by some faceless entity and might take instructions from a telephonic voice sitting in some other part of the world.

The doctor's profession deals with a subject that is right in front of him / her. The human body. He can directly see the consequences of his actions in his / her patient.
If the patient does not get treated he gets to hear the whining from him, if he does, he gets to receive his blessings.

Alienation is a big killer and major de-motivating factor in professional lives.
The absence of alienation is a huge huge plus.

The only scientific / engineering profession which offers respectability is being a professor in a good university.
Having seen many doctorates with stellar academic records around me, I can say that getting good faculty positions is a really really tough ask. I have seen these brilliant people really struggle about finding good jobs in the academia, mainly because there are not many on offer. The supply is much lesser than the demand.

Fourth, getting to study in an institute with a healthy sex ratio.
The impression that I get generally that in a country like India, girls prefer the medical profession much more than engineering.
Importantly, girls who become doctors are more likely to more responsible as people. They have to be their profession demands it from them.
It is not uncommon to see a lot of doctors getting girl friends during their college days, as compared to engineers for whom girls are like dew drops in a desert.
Well I did not include arts and science graduates in this because as it is making a decent career through these disciplines is a really uphill battle, so they sort of deserve the perk of having cute girls around them before they are thrown out into the big bad professional world , where they don't stand too much of a chance as compared to the others.
Fifth, and this is a slightly sick (literally ) reason to choose to be a doctor.
The fact that one gets to see so many sick people day in and day out makes one feel, oh alright I am not really doing that bad myself. (Thats more of a joke than a genuine reason :)).

Lastly, one is directly in control of one's health and other members of one's family.
If anyone falls sick in the family the doctor is right there with them, 24 / 7, notionally if not physically.

Given this litany of reasons which go in favor of choosing the medical sciences as a profession, I have decided, that whether through inspiration or by force, my children are going to be doctors. What they do with their passions is a different matter altogether, and I shall make sure that if my son / daughter loves physics or math or fashion designing , he / she get ample opportunities to do physics or math or fashion designing as a serious hobby. But as a profession I shall make sure that he / she does not choose to be a scientist or an engineer or a designer or a musician, or any other thing than being a doctor.

Looking back I feel it is mainly because my parents were doctors that they could derive the patience and strength to endure the tantrums and the sheer stubbornness maintained by me in not succumbing to the education system and refusing to take studies seriously. As compared to me, my parents seem to have an unending ocean of patience with people and with situations.

Ironically it seems that the profession that revolves around sickness is the healthiest of them after all :).