Unmatched- not doing well

[lollollol]

Went unmatched to an extremely competitive surgical speciality this year. Have been feeling really in the dumps. Will be applying again next year, but with a back up of family medicine. Is there anybody here who backed up with FM and is happy they didn't match to their original selection?

[anonymouspls]

Hang in there!

I've heard of a 3rd year plastics resident that switched to family, a 4th year Rads resident (yes - 4th year) that switched to family. Many example of FM's who backed up into family and are more than happy. If I didn't get my primary specialty my plan would have been to do family over any other specialty.

We are among the last cohort of people that will take advantage of an extremely attractive 2 year path to attending level salary before it's changed to 3 years soon. There are worse things in life! 

[sci100]

I wish I could say that I am happy I didn’t match into my original desired specialty but I wish every day that I was there. However I have made my peace that I will be staff in just another year and will be able to take as much time off as I want. That I can point my finger anywhere on a map in Canada and easily find a job there. That I’ll have enough money to travel/pay off debts/support my family. 
 

So no, I am not passionate about FM but I am grateful that I’ll have a job that’ll allow me to have flexibility in my life. 

[cardio_enjoyer]

Hey, if you haven't done this yet today, please do something nice for yourself - a shower, order takeout, play a video game/watch a movie, reach out to a friend/family member/SO

You are strong and smart enough to get through all of this, whether your final destination is your dream specialty or family medicine.  You will be a doctor who makes people's lives better and days brighter.

I don't know many surgeons but I know residents who switched out of IM and peds.  They couldn't be happier with their choices.  

[GH0ST]

1 hour ago, sci100 said:

I wish I could say that I am happy I didn’t match into my original desired specialty but I wish every day that I was there. However I have made my peace that I will be staff in just another year and will be able to take as much time off as I want. That I can point my finger anywhere on a map in Canada and easily find a job there. That I’ll have enough money to travel/pay off debts/support my family. 
 

So no, I am not passionate about FM but I am grateful that I’ll have a job that’ll allow me to have flexibility in my life. 

An honest take but still maintaining a modicum of respect for the profession. 

To be fair, as long as you're practicing responsible medicine that's what counts in my opinion. 

Keep up your hard work you got this. 

- G 

[unmatched2022]

Hey! Let's chat. I've been in your shoes (unmatched) and am now in FM as well.

[Andrew]

On 4/4/2023 at 2:08 PM, lollollol said:

Went unmatched to an extremely competitive surgical speciality this year. Have been feeling really in the dumps. Will be applying again next year, but with a back up of family medicine. Is there anybody here who backed up with FM and is happy they didn't match to their original selection?

 I went unmatched all the way back in 2012 (after 2nd iteration, including applying for FM 2nd iteration), and I was extremely angry at the time. So angry that I wanted to go to the newspaper and tell them about this shit that Canada is funding medical school spots but doesn't provide residency spots. My dad told me to not burn any bridges this way. During my off year, I did a few "token" rotations, but truthfully, I spent most of the time at home sleeping or playing video games because I actually couldn't bring myself to do anything else. I don't think I ever reached the point of suicide like this case https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/06/17/tragic-case-of-robert-chu-shows-plight-of-canadian-medical-school-grads.html, but I would say that I definitely had some depressive symptoms.

Long story short, I ended up finishing family medicine later on. During residency and for probably about 2 years after, I was still angry.

One piece of advice my FM residency preceptor gave me was that "everything in life happens for a reason", and this really helped me cope with this, kind of accepting a deterministic fate and making the best of it. I've posted similar sentiment in other threads before, even if you match to FM, so many things will come into and out of your life over the next 40 or 50 years that you can't even imagine. I've had relationships, friendships and I have a daughter now. My kid actually takes up most of my time. You can have hobbies or goals outside of medicine, you can travel.

FM is great for enabling all your other non-medical interests. Too many times people focus on Medicine as the be all end all of your life (and for a surgeon, I suppose it is, being chained to the hospital and going there every day). When I think of what my life trajectory would have been like as a surgeon, I think I'm actually much happier with FM, but that's because I don't place Medicine on a pedestal as the #1 thing in my life (as most people do in Medical school), I just treat it as "any other career".

Unmatched2022 has generously offered to chat with you, so if you need, take them up on it, but if you need anything more I'm also willing to accept DM for phone conversation.

[Edict]

Here to say that the grass is not always greener on the other side. A lot of surgery residency is a grind, many residents I know have no idea where they will live in the next 10 years, can't settle down and find a partner and are working brutal hours. Some of us literally document our non-work social interactions with pictures because they are all rare events. 

Med students get a black and white view of specialties, fuelled by stereotypes. The reality is that things are a lot more grey, and I wonder how many people would still be interested if they knew this fact. Sometimes I wonder how many students would have been interested if they truly knew.