Spotlight: Lim Soo Fon
Particulars
Name: Soo Fon Lim
Class of: 1998
Occupation: Specialist Registrar in Public Health Medicine
Discipline of Study: Medicine
Tertiary Institution:
Current Location: United Kingdom
Q: How did you come to decide upon pursuing your current occupation? Was it something you always knew you wanted to do, or something you stumbled upon along the way?
There is a tendency for Malaysian parents to 'encourage' their children to pursue certain professions, including medicine. In the world of 'parent-talk' (where parents come together over a meal or drinks) having children studying one of the 'elite professions' entitles one to some bragging rights.
My father is a doctor (general practitioner) in Kuching. I was brought up infused with the virtues of medicine. It's a highly respected profession. You work for yourself. Income is good. Don’t need to 'politic'. Some true, some false, as I was to learn.
Thus, in such an environment it was almost inevitable that I would end up studying medicine. To be fair, what 16/ 17 year old at the end of pre-university studies REALLY knows what they want to do with their life?
Would I do medicine if I had the chance to turn back time. No.
BUT neither do I regret the decision I made. You cannot change the past so it’s better to reconcile the decisions you made and optimize your choices for the future. I went into the profession for the wrong reasons but I have discovered dimensions to medicine that excite me.
Q: What have been the highlights (favourite projects/s or experiences) of your career so far? And what is it that drives you to continue on in this industry?
Highlight thus far has been realizing that there is more to medicine than the grind of clinical work.
What drives me?
- the need to buy fuel for my small car as crude oil prices continue to rise
- Financing the negative equity on my house after the recent housing market bust
Q: Are there any common misconceptions about your profession you could dispel for us? Perhaps there are certain negative aspects within the industry that the students interested in this profession may be unaware of?
Medicine is a HIGHLY RESPECTED profession. Everything in this world is relative. Relative to a slimy politician (not all are slimy), doctors do enjoy a better street reputation. But in today's materialistic world, money talks and sadly it's more your money than your occupation that commands the respect of the masses.
Income from medicine is GREAT. I would agree with the stability of the income stream in almost every field of medicine and the decreased susceptibility to fluctuations in the economy. Income from a career in medicine should ensure you are well off but it is certainly not the profession to go into if your pure motivations are financial. If you are gifted, and want to drive that Ferrari before you turn 30 (purchased with your own money), the thing for you is investment banking. Financial stability in medicine for the average doc will not come before 30. In fact, any course that allows you to come out and make your way in the workforce as early as possible should be your goal if you are money driven. In this respect, medicine is crap. The course itself is 5 to 6 years, after which you slog it out for peanuts as a junior doctor and have to endure at least 4 years of postgraduate training before you become a qualified consultant. 4 is the most optimistic scenario: depending on where you train (USA the shortest) and your specialty of interest, post graduate training can take over 10 years.
You need to be SMART and it is INTELLECTUALLY REWARDING. Rubbish. Most people have the capacity to study medicine if they put their mind to it. The intellectual stimulation of the course is also over rated. One is just memorizing signs and symptoms of a billion diagnoses so you can spot it when you see it.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
In no particular order
- get involved with commissioning healthcare services, and taking bribes in the process :P
- explore possibilities to work with UN/WHO
Q: Words of advice for current Lodgians considering a career in your field?
Medicine has been over-hyped over the years.
If you are good, you will succeed in whatever career you choose. The thing with medicine is that the length of training means that success takes a lot longer. So if you are a born genius, save yourself the hassle and go do something else with your time.
That said, medicine has now diversified and become so sub-specialized that there is something in it to suit all types and personalities. This is a real beauty of the profession. If you can’t stand following patients up, you can do accident and emergency. If you want to spend most of your days cutting up unconscious patients, surgery is for you. If you like to talk and want to spend all day talking to nutcases, you will have a field day in psychiatry. If you like policy, management and think the wider determinants of health are a priority, you can do public health medicine like me.
My advice is- as much as it is possible, your career choice should be guided by yourself. Talk to people in all walks of life and in all professions. Try to arrange 'shadowing' opportunities where you can tag along and find out what it is like for yourself. Talk to people preaching both ends of the spectrum. If it is medicine you are interested in, talk to both the disillusioned junior doctor who has been working for 40 hours straight and the smug consultant who makes RM100 000 a month from his private practice (who could finally afford a Ferrari at 50).
In fact, let the ALUMNI help you. Contact alumni (who are willing to be contacted) in various specialties and ask their opinions. They may even let you shadow them.
So in conclusion, with regards to medicine,
DON'T go into it for the money, you will just be disillusioned.
DON'T go into it for the prestige. Your motivations are wrong.
DON’T go into it because you 'can't think of what else to do.' You lazy sod, go do some more research.
DO go into it if:
- You want to find out if the rumours about wild parties with nurses are true
- You want easy access to a personal morphine supply
- You want to give up 10 years of your life when you are at your height of virility and fertility
- You have an abnormal fetish for sitting exams
- Your goal in life is to perform the most number of TUBEs (Totally Unnecessary Breast Examinations)
Jokes aside, choose medicine only after you have given it good consideration, have experienced bits of it, are excited by the possibilities on offer in medicine, and are driven by a need to help others. Medicine needs people like you.
