Name: Career Battle 💥 Doctor vs Surgeon | Training, Lifestyle, & Pay
Uploaded: 2025-10-09T18:56:17.000Z
Duration: 14 min 7 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Welcome to our brand new Career Battle series where we'll compare two different medical career options to help you decide which is the best path for you.

We'll break down compensation, lifestyle, length of training, and the pros and cons of pursuing each career path.

Dr. Jubbal medschoolinsiders.com first up in our career battle arena is Doctor versus Surgeon.

Let's clear something up before we get started.

All surgeons are doctors, but not every doctor is a surgeon.

Surgical fields include plastic surgery, vascular surgery and orthopedic surgery, whereas non surgical fields include family medicine, psychiatry and pediatrics.

Of course, the terminology around doctors is already confusing as the term doctor can have different meanings in society.

For example, if you earn a PhD in any subject from literature to paleontology, you are also called a doctor.

Some medical school admissions consultants mislead unsuspecting pre meds by calling themselves doctors.

While this is technically true because they have a PhD in clinical psychology, they have no medical training, are not physicians, and

never went through the process of getting into medical school themselves.

For this video when we speak about a doctor, we mean a physician, as in someone who has an MD or a do.

In the US you can become a physician by completing four years of medical school.

This typically involves two years of pre clinical training which is primarily but not exclusively spent in the classroom, followed by two years of clinical training which is primarily spent on rotations in the hospital or clinic.

While you'll become a doctor with an MD or do the day you graduate from medical school, you're not a fully trained and board certified physician until you complete residency and pass your board exams.

Residency lasts three to seven years after medical school.

During residency, physicians train for a specific medical specialty.

It's this fork in the road decision about your specialty that distinguishes a doctor from a surgeon.

Non surgical specialties include internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, OB, GYN, radiology, neurology, emergency medicine, dermatology, anesthesiology, PM&R, and

Surgical specialties include general surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, urology, orthopedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology or ENT and vascular surgery.

You may be wondering, what about cardiology or gastroenterology?

These are two of the many subspecializations of internal medicine, meaning before you can become a cardiologist or gastroenterologist, you must first complete three years of internal medicine residency followed by a cardiology or gastroenterology fellowship.

This is also true of many surgical subspecializations before you can become a colorectal surgeon, you must complete five years of general surgery residency followed by a colorectal surgery fellowship.

Other surgical subspecializations after general surgery residency include minimally invasive surgery, thoracic surgery, pediatric surgery, and surgical oncology.

Internal medicine is to non surgical specialties as general surgery is to surgical specialties.

Both are broad and allow for the widest breadth of specializations after your initial residency training.

For a detailed breakdown of each individual physician path, check out our so youo Want to Be playlist which takes a deep dive into over 50 medical specialties.

So how is training different between surgical and non surgical specialties?

Residency length varies depending on the specialty you choose.

In general, surgical specialties require more years of training.

The fastest way to become a doctor is to go straight from college to medical school without taking any breaks.

Spend four years in medical school without taking a gap year, and

then match directly into a short three year residency like family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics.

If you want to become a doctor in the shortest amount of time, check out our video outlining the fastest path to becoming a doctor linked in the description.

To become a surgeon, you must initially follow the same steps as someone who wants to pursue a non surgical specialty by completing four years of medical school.

However, when it comes time to apply for residency, you will apply to a surgical specialty.

Some surgical specialties have their own dedicated residency following medical school, whereas others require a five year general surgery residency first before further subspecialization.

After general surgery, there are many surgical paths to further subspecialize depending on your interests such as surgical oncology, colorectal surgery, trauma surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and

We cover all surgical specialties and subspecialties in another video linked in the description.

Fellowships last anywhere from one to three years depending on the subspecialization you are pursuing.

For example, let's consider plastic surgery.

You can either match directly into a six year plastic surgery residency, which is known as the integrated path, or you may take the independent path, which requires five years of general surgery residency before applying for an additional three years of independent plastic surgery training.

If you like the idea of matching directly into plastic surgery residency, keep in mind that plastic surgery consistently ranks in the top three most competitive specialties to match into.

Download our complete specialty Competitiveness Index linked in the description so is it easier to become a doctor or a surgeon?

That all depends on your interests and whether or not you're dexterous and enjoy working with your hands.

While surgical specialties tend to require more training.

Radiology, for example, is a five year residency.

If you're interested in interventional radiology, residency can last six to seven years.

This means training to become an interventional radiologist takes longer than becoming a general surgeon.

But keep in mind surgical residencies tend to require more grueling hours and compromises to one's lifestyle compared to non surgical residencies.

Plus, some specialties are easier to enter than others.

Generally speaking, surgical specialties are more competitive, with four surgical specialties in the top five most competitive, the exception being dermatology.

All five least competitive specialties are non surgical.

Next, how does the compensation compare between surgical and non surgical career paths?

Since the title of doctor is so broad, there's actually quite a range in compensation.

The lowest paid non surgical specialty is pediatric endocrinology at $218,000.

In fact, most pediatric subspecialties make considerably less than adult specialties because children are more resilient than adults and require fewer procedures.

The lowest paid non pediatric specialty is medical genetic genetics and Genomics at $245,000.

The highest paid non surgical specialty is radiation oncology at $569,000.

Comparatively, the lowest paid surgical specialty is colorectal surgery at $455,000 and the highest paid surgical specialty is neurosurgery at $764,000.

The difference between the lowest paid non surgical specialty and the highest paid surgical specialty is nearly 550,000 do, while the difference between the lowest paid surgical specialty and the highest is just over $300,000.

As you can see, surgeons tend to make more money than non surgical physicians.

In fact, the five highest paying medical specialties are all surgical specialties.

Oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, thoracic surgery and neurosurgery.

Because there are so many different surgical and non surgical paths, we'll need to make some generalizations here.

Typically, non surgical medic medical careers are less demanding and offer a better work life balance.

Non surgical specialists usually work fewer hours and are less likely to be on call.

Dermatologists, for example, work about 40 to 50 hours a week, whereas neurosurgeons can work upwards of 70 hours per week.

Surgical physicians tend to work longer, more stressful hours and are more commonly on call.

This means they can be called in to perform emergency surgery at a moment's notice, including nights and weekends.

If a doctor has Christmas off, that time is still protected.

Surgical Procedures are also mentally and physically taxing, with some complex surgeries lasting over 10 hours.

Next, what are the pros and cons of becoming a doctor?

As a pro, non surgical specialties tend to have more reasonable work life balance.

Again, this is in general and there are exceptions.

Nearly all non surgical specialties require fewer years of training and are often less competitive for residency programs.

For example, out of the 22 specialties listed in our competitiveness index, the bottom half are all non surgical.

Fewer years of residency also means you'll be able to start earning a six figure salary sooner, which means you can begin to pay off any medical school debt which currently averages over $250 $50,000 by the end of medical school.

The trade off of better work life balance and fewer years of training is that most non surgical physicians make less money than surgeons.

The exceptions are radiation, oncology, cardiology and radiology, which are the only non surgical specialties that rank in the top 10 highest paid doctors.

Another con is that the work may not be fast paced enough, especially for those who want to work with their hands.

For those who enj procedures, non surgical specialties won't be nearly as technically stimulating or challenging as a surgical career.

However, many non surgical specialties tend to be more intellectually engaging.

For example neurology, psychiatry and allergy immunology, where diagnoses and treatments are not always clear cut and it's up to the physician to solve the puzzle.

While exaggerated and dramatized, Dr. House is an internal medicine hospitalist who solves unique and complex cases.

Now let's consider the pros and cons of becoming a surgeon.

A notable pro is the higher pay with the lowest paid surgical specialty, colorectal surgery, still making over $455,000 a year depending on your specialty and whether or not you further specialize as a surgeon.

You can make over $700,000 as a thoracic surgeon or neurosurgeon.

But beyond the money, it comes down to your personal preference and interest in medicine.

If you're meticulous, dexterous, thrive under pressure and enjoy working with your hands, surgery is an ideal fit.

You'll be stimulated from a technical perspective, while other less procedure focused specialties may leave you wanting more.

The most notable drawback of becoming a surgeon is the longer training that's required.

The shortest residency, such as general surgery, still requires five years of training after four years of medical school.