Climbing the ladder

One of my surgery attendings likened a career in surgery to going through junior high school all over again, every few years. You graduate medical school thinking that, finally, you're climbing your way up the ladder, only to realize that you're just an intern. Interns are dirt: they take care of all the jobs that residents and attendings don't want to deal with and that medical students aren't allowed to do.

You progress through residency and think you're hot stuff by the time you're a chief resident, then you do a fellowship and realize that fellows are dirt, too, low suregon on the totem pole in that given sub-specialty.

Then you finish fellowship and get a job in the real world thinking that finally you've made it, except you realize that you're the most junior member of the practice. Everyone else is looking at you like, "So you think you're a surgeon now, huh? We'll see about that."

It's a recurring process of having to prove yourself to those with more surgical experience. Every few years, you'll be the new kid on the block who everyone picks on. Until you're old and gray, there will always be someone more senior who will serve it to you.

What I found most amusing about his analogy is that medical students aren't even on the proverbial ladder. This correlates strongly with what I've observed so far, that surgeons in general tend to avoid recognizing the presence of medical students except in the function of teaching.