Three of top four most overrated jobs are in healthcare
Three of the top four most overrated jobs in 2011 are in healthcare, according to a ranking by national job search portal CareerCast.com. Surgeons, physicians and psychiatrists are ranked number two, three and four, respectively. Senior corporate executives, which, arguably, could include those in the healthcare industry, snagged the number one position.
Carolyn Robinowitz, MD, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association, can see why the general public would think being a psychiatrist is an easy job. “People think all you do is you sit and you talk to people. Anybody can do that.”
“Perception versus reality: that’s what this overrated report really focuses on,” said Tony Lee, CareerCast.com publisher. “We pull out those statistical areas that people think this makes it a great job, like salary. But then you look at some of the other factors like level of stress, level of responsibility, physical demands and things like that and suddenly it becomes clear that while these jobs are perceived as being great, in reality they’re a lot of work. There are a lot of negatives that go along with them too.”
The most overrated rankings are based on CareerCast’s 2011 Jobs Rated report, which analyzes five core aspects of 200 jobs. Those core features are work environment, income, stress, physical demands and outlook (employment and income growth opportunities or lack thereof).
People may think that doctors get their medical degree and then they’re golden, Lee said, without taking into account that doctors work a lot of hours, are responsible for lives, face possible litigation, are overburdened with paper work and struggle with many regulations.
While the Jobs Rated report looks at criteria like a job’s degree of competitiveness, hazards faced on the job and the physical demands of a job, it doesn’t take into account personal satisfaction, and personal satisfaction is a very important part, physicians say, of their careers.
“Generally, family physicians have a pretty high satisfaction with their medical careers,” said Glen Stream, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “Studies have shown that people who become family physicians tend to find their greatest career satisfaction in the long-term patient-physician relationships they develop, in serving their communities and in the breadth of knowledge and medical expertise they offer to their patients. So society's image of a physician as someone who has money, power and prestige is not necessarily what motivates a young person to become a family physician.”
“Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder,” said Robinowitz. “I think we’re very fortunate if we can do what we like, if we can do what we love. I would be very unhappy to be an airplane pilot.”
“Yeah, there’s late nights and working holidays and weekends and leaving your family sometimes to take care of sick people, etcetera, etcetera, the downsides, the demands,” she added, “but there is such a pleasure in being able to help people, seeing people get better.”
Go to the next page to see CareerCast.com’s full ranking list.
1. Corporate Executive (Senior)
2. Surgeon
3. Physician
4. Psychiatrist
5. Airplane pilot
6. Attorney
7. Architect
8. Stockbrocker
9. Real estate agent
10. Photojournalist
11. Flight attendant
12. Advertising account executive
Follow HFN associate editor Stephanie Bouchard on Twitter @SBouchardHFN.
