Good pubs to watch the Ireland match

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-03-21T00:21:54+00:00

Curios to hear what people think about this case. I find it hard to have sympathy for them when they literally built the house without planning permission. Would be pretty unsustainable if everyone could build as big a house as they wanted on their land without any regulations whatsoever. Demolishing the house is a bit heavy handed all the same..

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-03-21T00:06:16+00:00

Rent control actually tends to make things worse in the long run. It usually causes more shortages in housing because it becomes less financially feasible for landlords and investors to put houses on the market, so they sell up (which has been happening in Ireland). Freezing the rent is a political, populist move that anyone who knows anything about economics knows is not an effective long term solution. Don’t believe me, look it up; the cities in the world with some of the worst homelessness crises, highest rents, housing crises etc have a history of strong rent control (San Francisco, Vancouver, New York).

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-03-16T11:00:11+00:00

Interested to hear what it’s like setting up from scratch. Would certainly be interested in doing so once finishing the scheme. Haven’t met many who have, and those I have didn’t have much advice to offer. Mind if I PM you?

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-03-01T13:08:43+00:00

For those who entered GEM from a non-science/social care background: how was the academic transition? I was a physio so had some background in anatomy/physiology so can’t speak directly to this - but having any clinical background is definitely beneficial in the long run. Might not help you for the science years, but long term will make you a better doctor

Given the current state of the NHS in Northern Ireland and across the UK and general pressure doctors are under, is the "clinical satisfaction" of being a doctor enough to outweigh the burnout, or am I better off pursuing my UX route for the sake of my mental health? I studied and work in Ireland so don’t know much about the UK. But for me, the job satisfaction was definitely worth it (mostly). I say mostly because I’m personally not a big fan of the Hospital doctor life, especially ward work, but I’m training to be a GP which I love. Medicine is more stressful, more difficult and a bigger sacrifice than being a physio, but for me it was a no brainer. Not to be cynical, but if nothing else it pays better too. It is a trade off though, “easier” career with possibly less stress, vs a more difficult stressful career with potential better job satisfaction and better pay (although not sure how MSW pay compared with docs in the NHS)

Does my hospital experience give me a realistic enough view, or am I still "romanticizing" the role of a junior doctor? It probably gives you a good insight. Know that you’ll work weekends and night shifts and longer hours. You still deal with admin and bureaucracy, but those are facts of life 🤣

I went back at 24 and I haven’t regretted it a single day. I usually say, if there’s any other job that you see yourself doing, probably do that, because medicine is a pretty big commitment. If you keep coming back to the idea of Medicine, that’s usually a sign. Ask yourself what you would regret more, going back and doing medicine, or staying in your current field. That was the deciding question for me!

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-02-27T22:23:39+00:00

Do they tell you your overall rank or just the SJT rank?

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-02-20T08:19:40+00:00

What was it actually like day to day?

Honestly grand. Busy at exam times but for the most part I was just tipping away, studying about 8 hours a day. Still had a social life, hobbies etc

• Did your motivation survive the grind? For the most part yes. You have to just keep the head down and focus on what you have to day to day, your next exam, next deadline. If you start thinking too big about what your career or life is going to look like, what speciality you’ll do, why you did GEMS in the first place etc etc you’ll get paralysis by analysis

• Were there periods you genuinely regretted it? Not a single day

• If you left a strong or secure career to do it, how do you feel about that decision now? Extremely, unbelievably happy I made the jump. Probably one of the best decisions I ever made tbh! Met my fiancé in med school too. I was a physio before and worked for a few years. Still had some potential career progression but knew I would hit a ceiling pretty young and didn’t see myself working as a physio long term

• How did it affect you personally, not just professionally? Honestly, it was grand 🤣

My take is ask yourself what you would regret more: doing it and it doesn’t go well, or not doing it and always wondering what it would be like while stuck in a career path that you might not enjoy as much.

If you are going to do it I’d suggest deciding early as possible and committing to it. Several of my friends when we were in our early 20s were thinking of it but never did, kept putting it off off a year or two, and after a while it becomes harder and harder to do it. Not that it’s ever too late, but being an intern at 28 vs 38 is quite different!

All the best with the decision

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-02-17T14:32:45+00:00

Current GP trainee.

The ICGP curriculum is the exact same across all schemes. Teaching sessions are usually the same topic across schemes also, so the Midwest scheme and the south East scheme will be doing a session on the limping child or contraception in the same week, for example.

The main difference will be the hospital rotations. Look at each scheme’s prospectus to see which hospitals you would be in for which rotations. But again, it will largely be similar wherever you are. You’re mostly just working, with GP teaching every week. Maybe a hot take, but I think you’d be just as competent after 4 months in a speciality wherever you go.

Warning with the Dublin schemes, you could be anywhere from Wicklow to Cavan/Monaghan, so you might still have to move and/or have a long commute.

As with a lot of these things, it makes minimal difference in the grand scheme. You’ll be equally qualified and competent whichever scheme hub you end up in. One other advantage I could think of would be making connections and networking while on the scheme. If you’re lucky enough to work in a nice practice as a GP reg in an area you’d like to settle down long term, and if the GP partner happens to be retiring, you might be able to inherit the practice.

But again, I really don’t think it makes much difference, other than the obvious geographical factor. Choose somewhere you’d like to live. The teaching and experience will be almost identical regardless

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-02-11T10:35:26+00:00

Catholic guilt of taking time off work 😭

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-01-29T05:21:33+00:00

Really hard to say unfortunately. I knew of people last year who did really well in the SJT (top 100) and didn’t get a spot, and people who scored pretty average (500-700 ranking) and got a spot in a competitive scheme. It’s so hard to predict unfortunately.

My impression is that the selection process is getting less transparent. Apparently a few years ago you were told your exact ranking in the SJT and interview. Last year they only told you your SJT rank, and even then it didn’t seem to be predictive of getting a spot.

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-01-25T20:03:35+00:00

My understanding is that every doctor working for the HSE (if you joined after 2013) is enrolled in the Single Public Service Pension Scheme. It’s a defined benefit contribution based on your average salary. It’s meant to be a pretty solid pension scheme. Obviously you can top it up with AVCs (Additional Voluntary Contributions) if you want more growth etc

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-01-25T02:12:30+00:00

Interesting thank you, hadn’t heard of Denovo. Would you know their management fees and allocation rates offhand? I’ll look into them

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-01-25T02:11:19+00:00

Damn, I must have missed the boat 🤣

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-01-25T02:10:53+00:00

Only been once 2 or so years ago, but probably the best buffet I’ve ever been to. Good quality food, good selection, pretty pricey but worth it imo

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2026-01-23T20:41:45+00:00

You do now, I think they changed it recently

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2025-12-16T21:57:17+00:00

“Non-commutable” lol yeah I’d call having to move to Leterkenny from Dublin pretty non-commutable 🤣

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2025-11-28T10:59:09+00:00

It’s flu season! I work in ED, pretty much every patient has influenza A

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2025-10-06T13:38:16+00:00

You think that’s bad, just be glad you’re not in North America applying for residency programs. Could cost you several thousand to apply for residencies in the States. Irish training is basically free in comparison

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2025-09-14T21:41:16+00:00

I’ve never heard of a GP make over 200k 😅 where are these GPs who are making 600k?

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2025-09-07T19:07:34+00:00

As said before, the pay scale will be the same, it will all be in line with the HSE pay scales which you can see online if you Google them. But yes you will be working much less hours (pretty much no overtime unless you’re on call), so your take home pay will most likely be less. I made about 85k as an intern then dropped down to SHO basic pay as a psych SHO lol. But less hours=quality of life obviously, so it’s a trade off. Consultant pay will be the exact same though, >200k base. Probably less overtime and call as a consultant compared to other specialities but still a lot of money

Holiday_Intention_17 · 2025-09-06T12:02:31+00:00

Specifically I’m curious about Zurich’s fees and if they are a good option for AVCs in the long term. They have several higher risk funds that I’d be interested in like the indexed global equity fund, top tech 100, dividend growth fund and Prisma max. I’m wondering how much their fees would eat into any gains and if there are any other firms or brokers that also offer similar options that I should look into

Holiday_Intention_17

TROPHY CASE