If you hate kids, then you might want to take your career planning or job search in a different direction. After all, as a pediatrician, you are working, pretty much all day, with children, teenagers and their parents (who are sure that their kid is the next Mozart or Einstein). 

 

Your job as a pediatrician (should you decide to tackle this career) is to make sure that your tiny patients survive the stupidity of their parents long enough that they can fend for themselves. This is a more difficult job than it might sound. As a pediatrician your job isn’t simply to assess the health of the children and teens that make their way into your office. A pediatrician has to be on the look out for all sorts of medical conditions that if not treated early could lead to lifelong problems.

One fact about being a pediatrician, which is easy to forget, is that no one likes to go to the doctor. Consider for a moment how much you hate the doctor, now multiply that fact times ten. Now you are starting to get the idea about how children feel about going to the doctor. 

 

Pediatricians can expect to see healthy growth in the coming years. The number of physicians and surgeons is expected to grow by fourteen percent by 2016. By 2016, the number of physicians and surgeons in the United States will top 723,000 up from the 2006 number of 633,000.

The pediatrician sees infants, children and angry teens (going through their I’m too cool for this phase) for most of the day. Increasingly, both the children and their mothers have become overweight and out of shape. This has resulted in pediatrician becoming de facto nutrition advocate and counselor for the entire family. The “Little Johnny is fat because he doesn’t exercise” speech is pretty boring after its been repeated for the 1200^th time in one year.

 

Overall, pediatricians have the opportunity to help children get on the right health path and that makes for this a job whose rewards can potentially transcend the paycheck. While the little patients of the pediatrician may not be ecstatic to see the doctor, a good pediatrician takes their oath seriously and does some good.

Pediatricians earn about $132,000 to start, with more experienced pediatricians earning about $160,000.

Those interested in being told, “I hate you” all day by screaming children should expect to spend many years in medical school for the pleasure. That stated, however, the pediatrician provides a valuable service to society.