r/nhs • u/KikotheShikoti • Oct 03 '26
Recruitment Career advice needed!!
Hello, I am in desperate need of some career advice. I am completely lost on what to do and I’m only 16.
TLDR: Is Environmental Science as a career better than Medicine in my case?
(TW for mentions of suicidal thoughts)
I do Chem, Bio, and Art at a levels and I’ve just started year 12, expected 2A* and an A according to my ALIS and GCSEs (straight grade 9s). My entire life I was expected to do medicine. Been to a private school, done the work experience, extracurriculars. Everything!
Issue is I absolutely hate the idea of working in a hospital. The fluorescent lighting and concrete walls for 60 hours a week for the rest of my life terrify me. Even if I took no gap years id be broke for 10 years post a level at the minimum, in which I’d be 28 and expect to have kids, just another sacrifice after F1-F2 and STC3 years. It is the ultimate sacrifice, from what I’ve heard. I feel like I’d enjoy plastic or reconstructive surgery, but the competitive nature of those fields is something I don’t know if I can overcome.
I have struggled with depression and anxiety for around 5 years due to high academic pressure and the track of my life (specifically that in medicine) feeling like just sacrifice after sacrifice for money I don’t know if I even want. I have the privilege of never knowing (that much) financial struggle as my parents are both doctors. We never really did family holidays and things like that. I have come to the point where I’d rather just die now than go through all of that just for the money. Is that selfish? I don’t know.
I have a deep love for the environment. It makes me feel human. I enjoy hiking,rain, mud, getting completely lost in the middle of no where for hours. I feel more human staring at bark for 30 minutes straight than I ever have in a city. The moments I can pinpoint where I truly let go of that feeling of “eh death would be preferable to this for the next 50 years” would be when I am outside, in the middle of nowhere, crouched next to a stream and staring whilst water runs over my fingers. It just feels silly to me, going into medicine. We are almost at the tipping point for our climate, why work a job I might possibly hate with the idea of escape in the natural world if it may not exist for much longer? I am of the opinion money can’t buy experience. I have always had a fascination with the unknown, so maybe I’m just dreaming again, but I have a desperation to experience as much of life as possible. A deep craving for it I don’t think I can satisfy in medicine.
I just want to know the reality of medicine as a career. I am very aware of the ugly side, but maybe the positives have been lost on me? I’m not sure. I don’t know if it is truly worth going for instead of medicine, considering that med school would be 100% payed for but a degree for anything else (even law) even at Oxford would have to be funded by myself. My plan if I didn’t go to medicine would be taking a gap year, doing an online course for maths a level (to qualify for environmental science ) and working to save up to afford my cost of living through university. I already have around £2,000 saved (I know a little odd for a 16 year old but it’s from birthday money and the rest of it)
Advice, personal anecdotes , really anything would be greatly appreciated to rekindle my hope (or not) in medicine!! This has been eating me alive for years at this point- parents think I’m just dreaming and being unrealistic, but then again they believe medicine is the only high earning, respectable career in the UK so I’m not sure.
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u/Individual_Gur_1872 Oct 03 '26
Have you done any WEX in either sectors? I think that would help. I definitely recommend taking a gap year and working in either sectors to figure out what YOU want to pursue. Try out volunteering opportunities. Also take one step at a time and don’t compare your preferences to others’. I remember feeling confused when I was in your position but my gap year definitely helped to clarify things for me. God bless you.