Anesthesiologists need 8 years of post-graduate study - 4 years of medical school, 1 year of internship and 3 additional years of residency (most programs combine the internship and the rest of residency into a single coherent curriculum these days)

Compared to entering a career in software straight out of undergrad, being a doctor takes a while to pay off. It takes even longer to pay off if you consider dollars per hour worked rather than dollars per year elapsed. For example, at the particular residency my wife is at, she works 1.5 to 2x as many hours as I do as a software engineer, while receiving less than half the pay. I should add that there's nothing exceptional about the number of hours either of us work or our pay.

I am also a software developer and my wife is becoming an Anesthesiologist. Would you mind connecting so we can learn what you may have picked up through the whole process?

My wife is actually in a Family Practice residency. I can't figure out how to send you a private message with my email, so here it is a little bit obfuscated:

#include <stdio.h> int main(void){puts("\x6d\x69\x6b\x65\x40\x6c\x61\x69\x6f\x73\x61\x2e\x6f\x72\x67");return 0;}

A lot of these high-paying jobs seem a lot less interesting to someone who has the hacker mindset. To me, they certainly do.

Also, you're guaranteed a nicely paying job, but there's no opportunity for massive wealth like there is in the riskier world of startups. Here, I may make 20k next year, or I may make 2 million. Anything's possible. More risk == more reward. This holds true.

There are jobs that pay 500+k / year for 30 years with little risk. The number of start up founders that make 15+ million in their lifetime is vary small. So, going into startup's to maximize lifetime earnings is probably not a great piece of advice.

That's a good point. Aside from continuing education requirements (a class every year or two, or whatever, I don't know specifics), an anesthesiologist has learned all they're going to use in their job when they pass their board exams.

Plus, I heard/read/apocryphalized once that anesthesiologists have the highest incidence of drug addiction of any profession. Apparently it's an occupational hazard to dip into the stash.

Do consider though that some of these positions may include options and other non-salary compensation. Sometimes the 'perks' are really the cake and the salary is just the icing.