Just sharing the perspective of a student who did some research before deciding to go into anesthesia with plans to do CCM (for honesty i'm actually doing the combined program IM/Anesth but I have no plans to do a med subspecialty), to say why i chose anesth even in these uncertain times.
I hear a lot about doing med -> sub specialty for the "average" medical student. But in terms of career outlook - only GI seems to be a good deal, and the "average" medical student can have a very hard time landing a GI spot as it has very little spots and is the most competitive of the subspec, and if you don't land a spot it means you are stuck in IM.
For students who really fell in love with anesthesia or anesthesia/CCM (myself), even after researching other specialties I still think
besides GI, there aren't very much other "great" options. Medicine sub specialties aren't that great anymore. I tried to like derm - absolutely hated it in terms of acuity/clinic/feel its all pattern recognition. Surgical sub specialties - I would rather do 3 years as a med intern then 1 as a surg intern... and even then I would have been miserable in residency and miserable as an attending.
Cardiology? They are even more fearful of their future then people on this board:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/future-of-cardiology.1059691/
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/save-cardiology-sos-call.1056774/
Heme Onc: want to break 300k? "Yes. Not pleasant but do-able."..."you're going to be seeing 30+ patients a day to pull down that cash"
"I am a third year heme/onc fellow who lives in a major city in the US. It definitely has become more difficult to find a job in hematology/oncology. A lot of practices are not hiring because of the uncertainity of Obama care. Everyone is panicking a little and groups are being bought left and right."
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/hem-onc-lifestyle-salary-satisfaction.800145/
Neph, ID, Rheum, Endo... i don't think i need to explain these.
EM? This was my prior career - used to be an ER nurse then did some mid level management for a couple of years at a 45+ bed ED. They have as bad or worst danger of mid levels and with the enlargment of class size I predict in about 10 years their job market will be saturated. The only reason they have a good job market now is because of the relatively new board cert. There was an article from awhile ago about an EM department that kicked out their physicians and had just NP's running it the department.... and as stated before i don't really love clinic, and EM is ... well 80% urgent care clinic.
Neurology? Nope
Peds? definitely not same for FM.
Rads? I tried to like this specialty as well as I think I would enjoy IR, but the job market for rads is horrible with reimbursement declining. I also found that after reading 2-3 studies i started feeling sleepy in the reading room...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/job-market.924768/
So that brought me back to Anesth which is what i actually fell in love with in the first place. I understand these are uncertain times, but it seems the same for all the specialties I would truly consider. Edit: I'm not going to lie, I
REALLY wish I had a surgical mindset or at least could tolerate it better- then I would have went into ortho or uro.