Rant to put into perspective how hard becoming a surgeon is. I am a fan of Zellis but he made a really dumb statement. Also pardon my grammar, my english is bad. i mean no disrespect as I can tell he is just really ignorant about this which is not his fault but I hope he can grow from this and have a greater appreciation for health services in general. Literally getting into a majority of any of the health service jobs is harder and its not close. This includes nurses as well btw, becoming a nurse is harder as well. Finally before i start my rant, I agree they should be paid a lot and I am not discounting a pros struggle but he needs to get a better understanding of this topic. Not just him, but most people do not have the slightest clue how hard it is and I will give you a rough idea of how hard it is. My explanation leaves out a lot of information as well but I will just simplify it all.
TDLR: hard to get into med school, hard when you are finally in med school cause everyone's dummy smart, getting into surgeon residency is hard, being in surgeon residency is hard, nothing is a guarantee as you can fail out of your program + you leave with debt. Being a pro is less stressful and easier. If he said "Maintaining a job as a doctor is easier than maintaining a pro job cause the pro scene is more volatile", I would probably agree there BUT becoming a surgeon is sooooooooo much harder than becoming a pro its not relatively close. becoming a doctor is hard, if half these pros could they would but they cant (its true dont be mad). barrier to entry into the pro scene is not as high as in the medical scene. You have more opportunity to become a pro than to become a doctor cause you need such elevated credentials + requirements to get into med school + get into a hyper-competitive surgeon residency program. Also disrespectful to tell a doctor/surgeon that their path was essentially "guaranteed". maintaining a pro job is probably harder however this is debatable in some aspects.
Actual facts I will present
bro his comparison to a surgeon was actually really bad. I understand the point he is making BUT he is talking about the requirements for a profession he has 0 knowledge about. Let me put into perspective how hard becoming a surgeon is. In general to even get into a good med school you need to be in the top percentile of applications which is already fucking hard cause its not just grades that matter. You need 100s of hours of experience which includes clinical, volunteering, shadowing, extracurriculars + a crazy good gpa, good references, a great MCAT (which is hard cause the mcat is fucking hard test). Again this is a general requirements as some med schools can be different and getting in with a lower GPA or lower hours is possible but you need to make it by having a great foundation in the other application parts which I mentioned.
getting into med school is really fucking hard, and i simplified the requirements. When you enter med school, you enter a pool of hyper-intelligent people who are already smart, hyper motivated, and hyper active in this field of study. The barrier to get into med school is crazy but then to become a surgeon which is a specialization requires you to fight for a preferred slot against the smartest bunch of people you will interacted with up until med school. Like i need you to think about, imagine if you were competing against 100 of your schools valedictorians or someone who works harder than that in order to get into your program + get into your preferred residency. Then you need to maintain a certain level of marks against those said smart people which is hard again cause med school is not a guaranteed success + work you have to put in to be at the top of a class filled with crazy intelligent people who eat, sleep and breathe med school.
So you do countless hours in your undergrad (yes your 4 years of med school is considered an undergrad, at least thats what i was told). And getting into a surgeon program is not a guarantee because only the smartest people in your class get into their preferred choice + actually doing your specialization/residency for becoming a surgeon is fucking hard. YOU are not guaranteed a surgeon job just cause you get into med school. Becoming a pro in valorant is significantly easier, and there is no argument to be made in this aspect. LIKE YOU ARE NOT GUARANTEED ANYTHING IF YOU GET INTO MED SCHOOL, THE DROP OUT RATE IS BETWEEN 15-20%. THEN THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN ARE THE HYPERMOTIVATED AND HYPER SMART PEOPLE WHO WORK THEIR ASS OFF FOR THEIR PROGRAM. The difficulty in becoming a surgeon can not be described unless you actually lived through it, I am an aspiring doctor and I can only give you a rough idea. Every doctor i have talked to has told me that their time in med school was fucking hard and that residency is not a pre-determined outcome + all this information in this post.
Also someones gonna make the arguement "well at least you get paid in residency".... bro you literally get paid below minimum wage based on the hours you work. Like the amount you make obvs differs but in general you work more hours and get paid less if you did the math. A pro can practice like 8hrs a day and still have time to another job, you do not have the same luxury when you are doing your residency. Also the amount of debt you have after med school literally can take decades to pay even with a super high salary. Imagine your debt from undergrad then debt from med school. being a pro is less stressful and less risky. You have less to worry about imo. If you fail med school you literally get 100s of thousands of dollars in debt without a degree + years of wasted time. If you fail to become a pro at least you have other options without the large debt. Failing med school means a large debt to pay off unless you're rich. If you market yourself well, stream + youtube + other side gigs, which is hard, but all this is still a pretty easy alternative to med school.
Now i would agree that remaining a pro is harder than maintaining your job as a doctor cause when youre a doctor you're pretty much smooth sailing unless some crazy shit happens. Staying a pro is harder than staying a doctor but becoming a pro vs becoming a doctor is not comparable at all. Like at all. So pro val/pros in any video game should be paid a lot because they also generate that much revenue for the esport they are in. becoming a pro is hard, being a pro is hard, staying as a pro is hard so I hope they get their bread. I think they should be paid a shit ton and I do not really care about them making more than some doctors. Yes a lot of people assume you go into med because you make a lot but 90% of people do not stay/do med school for that purpose. TBH you could do a trade school and be really well off without the med school debt, you do med cause you genuinely want to help people NOT just cause of the money. I would say doctors and nurses should be paid more but them making less than pro valorant players is not a problem in my opinion. These matters are just separate issues. If you want to compare incomes then compare incomes between pros in different pro scenes, unfair to compare pros to doctors IMO.
Thank you for reading my ted talk, love you zellsis. No hate cause being a pro seems hard but I would talk to a doctor and get their perspective to understand why its hard and how disrespectful your comments are to the people who became doctors. Telling them that becoming a surgeon was basically a "guarantee" is really disrespectful to them and how hard they worked to serve the community. YES doctors serve the community, its not just money-hungry dick head. You will meet some people like that but in general they want to help people, you just become desensitized cause dealing with death/sickness/injuries all day is mentally hard so being emotionally detached from patients helps keep you sane (in some cases).
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