According to the BLS, medical doctors which include both medical doctors (MDs) and doctors of osteopathic medicine (DOs) earned an annual median salary of $208,000 per year in 2016. Lawyers, according to the BLS, had an annual median salary of $118,160 in 2016, a significant difference between them of $89,840.
When you look at the highest and lowest earners, though, different comparisons emerge. The lowest paid physicians typically practice family medicine and in 2015 they earned a median salary of $230,456, according to the Medical Group Management Association.
The more prestigious a law firm is, the more they pay their lawyers. In 2016, New-York-City-based law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore made headlines by raising its first-year lawyers' salaries by $20,000 to $180,000. That's comparable to, or more than what many family practice physicians and pediatricians earn in various parts of the U.S.
At the same time that Cravath, Swaine and Moore announced the new first-year salary, they announced salary bumps throughout the firm. An eight-year associate received a base salary of $315,000 plus a year-end bonus which is on a par with many physicians.
A lawyer’s responsibility is to take on other people’s problems and find solutions. It’s a challenging and intellectual pursuit, but it’s also a stressful one. Some clients are difficult to deal with on a personal basis. Some clients have (grossly) unrealistic expectations of what can be done within the law.
1. The work. Most attorneys work about six days a week, generally fifty plus hours per week, and the norm now is to be available anywhere at any time. It is not uncommon during extreme times (trial, an important deal closing, etc.) for those hours to increase substantially and days off to become elusive. I’ve had stretches in my career ...
Many lawyers live lives of constant conflict, since their opponents are just as interested in winning their cases as they are. Some people (like me) love this, but others find this life to be incredibly stressful.
Most legal work is reading, researching, drafting documents, reviewing other documents, and occasional communication with one’s opponent. For some lawyers, that’s all the work they do, but in any event, the ratio of work to “action” is very high. 5. For many lawyers, the money isn’t great.
The nature of the attorney-client relationship. A lawyer’s responsibility is to take on other people’s problems and find solutions. It’s a challenging and intellectual pursuit, but it’s also a stressful one. Some clients are difficult to deal with on a personal basis.
Surviving the student life of medical science is much tougher than that of engineering. The former practically demands you to forget your personal life and study, study and study a little more. Whereas, for aspiring engineers getting into a good college is the toughest part, after that the journey is relatively smoother.
In this respect, doctors are clear winners. Doctors are saviours of lives; they are often given the status of semi-god by patients and the society in general. On the other hand, engineering is just another profession.
Doctors have to struggle a lot more to establish themselves than engineers. Again, thanks to the advent of IT, B.Tech degree holders are much in demand. And if you manage to get an MBA done after B.Tech, you do not have to look back. However, a doctor needs time to flourish. Quick money is something that a doctor cannot have.
The work environment of doctors is much flexible as compared to engineers. This is because doctors can work at hospitals, which have state-of-the-art facilities as well as in General Hospitals. Besides, doctors can also practice in their private clinics.