Students gathered in the faculty dining room during lunch today to hear three doctors talk about their experiences at the Doctor Career Panel.

In the first career panel of the school year, the panelists were Dr. Stacey Law, an orthodontist working in private practice at the Adjunct Clinical Faculty – Craniofacial Anomalies Clinic at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital; Dr. Surendra Gudapati, an interventional cardiologist in private practice with the El Camino Hospital; and Dr. John Siegel, a general and trauma surgeon working at the Valley Medical Center. Students were invited to eat their lunch as the doctors spoke about their lives and also responded to questions.

The panel started off with introductions from each of the three doctors, who gave background information on their medical studies and professions. The doctors later answered students’ questions on a variety of topics, including those about the best and worst parts of being a doctor, choosing a field and medical school, and balancing family with work. They also elaborated on their training and work experience, providing perspective from three different fields of medicine.

Many attendees were students who had interests in pursuing a career in medicine and wanted to learn more about studying and working as a doctor.

“I’ve always wanted to go into medicine, but I never fully understood the commitment level until today, when they talked about how in some really specialized fields it takes 16 years,” Shivani Chandrashekaran (11) said.

When asked to give one piece of advice to students, Dr. Gudapati told them to be sure of their decision, as becoming a doctor is a long process, but one that pays off in the end. Dr. Siegel noted some challenges in his job, such as the busy schedule and time required for training, while Dr. Law told the female audience to be aware of possible sacrifices in having children and a family.

Most students enjoyed having a chance to talk to real doctors about their medical work experience and felt they gained valuable knowledge from the panel.

“You could know more about the actual situation instead of just making guesses about what you could possibly do to be a doctor. It was a lot more realistic,” Karen Qi (9) said.

The format of the career panel also interested some of the audience, who liked meeting with working doctors in person.

“It’s good to see what professionals have to say about their own professions and what they like about it and what the downsides of their jobs are,” Patrick Lin (10) said.

There are more career panels similar to the Doctor Career Panel planned for the future, with focuses on different professions.