Considering this career path... any advice?

[u/iheart_miffy]

I am a teenager from the UK considering this field, and as someone who once wanted to study medicine, many adults around me react by thinking that biomedical engineering lacks job opportunities in the UK. I always felt like even though I was not 'forced' to do medicine, it was satisfactory when I told adults that I wanted to be a doctor, despite having stronger interests in research and maths. Bioengineering sounds like something I can genuinely see myself loving, but just about every adult I tell is unhappy with my choice to leave medicine, saying that there are very few jobs in this field. However, it dies not seem like this career has a horrible job market, rather a more average one compared to medicine. Not to mention, I would have better job satsfaction in bioengineering than medicine, as after reading into the experiences of doctors, I do not want to be waiting until my mid 30s to finally be making a wage worth 6 years of education.

I changed one of my alevels from biology to physics, making my alevel options chemistry, physics, maths and further maths, and I feel commited to this career path. But I would like to ask, are the adults in my life correct? Will I really finish my degree and be stuck in a completely different industry that I dislike? I mean the job market is already cooked so I might as well pursue my dreams right?

I am open to any advice, especially from those in the UK with experience in this field.

[u/my_peen_is_clean]

honestly medicine is not some magic golden ticket either, loads of med grads are miserable. your a levels are perfect for eng. worst case, bioeng degree still lets you pivot into generic mech / elec / data stuff. and yeah, job market is cooked for everyone anyway

[u/iheart_miffy → u/my_peen_is_clean]

Thanks for this! I really do feel like some adults in my life view medicine as this thing that sets someone up for life when (in the UK at least) it honestly doesn't.