Pediatrics Career: Pros and Cons — Is It Right for You?

Are you considering a career in pediatrics? With so many specialties to choose from, it’s one of the most challenging choices medical students have to make.

This guide will cover the pros and cons of becoming a pediatrician, from the meaningful impact and intellectual variety to the frantic parents and the brutal financial reality.

There are so many different factors to account for when choosing a specialty, including how many years you’ll spend in residency, whether or not you want to focus on procedures, the level of patient interaction you’ll have, the setting you’ll practice in, the people you’ll work with, your work-life balance, your compensation, and more.

This series delves into the career of a pediatrician from the perspective of Dr. Kevin Jubbal. He outlines the factors he considered and explains why he ultimately chose not to pursue pediatrics as his specialty. That said, rest assured that this guide presents both sides of the story, outlining the pros and cons of pursuing a career in pediatrics.

For a completely objective and unbiased look at pediatrics, including more details into the daily life of a pediatrician and the exact steps to take to become one, also check out our guide to How to Become a Pediatrician (So You Want to Be).

What I Liked About Pediatrics

1 | Meaningful Impact

What initially drew me to pediatrics was something deeply personal. I developed inflammatory bowel disease soon after turning 18, my first year of college, and to this day, it is still the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. Everything changed overnight. I went from being a normal college kid to having to stick to white rice and plain chicken breast while my friends ate pizza and went out to restaurants.

The social aspect was brutal. I stopped eating with people because I couldn’t have what they were having, and I didn’t even want to smell their food. You don’t realize how much of social life revolves around food until you can’t participate in it anymore.

And if it was that difficult for me at 18, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much harder it would be for younger kids. I kept picturing an 8-year-old who couldn’t have ice cream because of their GI condition. With early treatment, that kid still had a chance to avoid the worst of what I experienced. And I could be the one to help them with that.

In addition to helping children, parents are over-the-moon grateful when you help their kids. You get thank-you cards with crayon drawings, families that remember you years later, and there’s genuine community respect for someone who takes care of children.

But as I’ll cover later, these best-case scenarios don’t always work out as you envision them.

2 | The Compounding Effect

Next, the compounding effect in pediatrics spoke to me.

When you make a positive change early in someone’s life, it doesn’t just help once—it keeps building on itself over decades. If I could help kids get their GI health on track early, they could avoid years of social isolation, have proper nutrition for growth, and just live normal childhoods and grow on to become thriving adults.

The idea of preventing other kids from going through what I experienced felt like meaningful work.

Now, I’m not exactly great with all kids; I find it hard not to play favorites with my own relatives or my friends’ kids, but there’s something about children that drew me to pediatrics. There’s this innocence and hope in kids—this sense of pure potential.

When kids get sick, it’s not because they made terrible life choices for 40 years. You’re working with patients who haven’t screwed up their health yet. There’s no guilt, no blame. You can’t be mad at a 6-year-old for developing asthma or needing vaccines.

That clean slate aspect felt meaningful to me. These are children who don’t have power or control over their situations, and you’re helping shape their futures.

There’s also the bigger picture: You’re shaping the future of the world. The younger generation is our future, and every healthy habit you instill or problem you catch early on compounds over a lifetime.

3 | Intellectual Variety That’s Unique

Another fascinating thing about pediatrics is that children are not just little adults. Their physiology is completely different. You can’t just take an adult dose and divide by four. A child’s anatomy, development, and drug metabolism all change with age, sometimes dramatically.

And trying to figure out what’s wrong with a 2-year-old who can’t articulate their symptoms is medical detective work at its finest.

The scope is incredibly broad, from newborn emergencies to adolescent psychiatry.

And the subspecialty opportunities are endless—pediatric cardiology, oncology, emergency medicine, critical care, and many more.

As I mentioned earlier, I was particularly drawn to pediatric gastroenterology because of my own IBD. It felt like I could help kids dealing with the same condition I was managing myself.

But as you’ll see, that hands-on experience taught me some things I wasn’t expecting.

4 | Easier Specialty to Match Into

Pediatrics is one of the easiest specialties to match into.

According to SpecialtyRank.com, which uses official NRMP data, pediatrics ranks as the 2nd least competitive specialty in all of medicine.

It has a 99.7% match rate, which is almost guaranteed acceptance. Successful applicants have an average Step 2 score of 247 and 6.9 research items.

Compare that to dermatology, where the match rate is 67%, and the average successful applicant has 27.7 research items. Or take plastic surgery, where the average is 34.7 research items. Even compared to other primary care fields, like internal medicine and Med-Peds, pediatrics has lower barriers to entry.

Now, don’t get me wrong—a 247 on Step 2 and almost seven research items still take serious work, and these numbers are on a steady rise and showing no sign of slowing down.

But that high match rate? It’s not as reassuring as it sounds.

5 | Wide Variety of Work-Life Balance

Pediatrics is incredibly broad. It includes everything from pediatric surgery to pediatric cardiology to pediatric GI. The work-life balance varies dramatically depending on the direction you choose to go.

For pediatric GI specifically, which is what I was considering, the lifestyle was actually quite appealing. It’s not the best work-life balance in all of medicine, but it’s definitely not surgery. You might be on call, but you’re not dealing with the brutal schedules that surgical specialties face.

In general pediatrics and many of the medical subspecialties within pediatrics, you can get predictable hours in outpatient settings, limited night call compared to surgery, and you can actually have a life outside of medicine.

Part-time opportunities are also more readily available in many areas of pediatrics, and colleagues tend to be supportive.

But again, this varies hugely within pediatrics depending on which direction you take.

What I Didn’t Like About Pediatrics

1 | Serving Two Patients

First, when you treat kids, you’re actually dealing with multiple patients: the child and the parents.

Medical school covered this, but I massively underestimated what that actually meant in practice. I had a clear vision of what it meant to take care of kids, having dealt with children in my own extended family, which was great. I enjoyed being around them.

But in pediatrics, you’re dealing more with the parents than the kids themselves.

In most specialties, the majority of patients are pleasant to work with. But in pediatrics, there’s a high percentage of parents who are extremely difficult to work with.

They’re neurotic, argumentative, and despite their best intentions, they often make situations worse.

You’ve got Dr. Google parents who want to argue with your medical degree using their own internet “research.”

Helicopter parents who turn every minor symptom into a medical emergency.

Non-compliant parents who refuse to follow medical advice then blame you when things go wrong.

When you choose pediatrics, you have to decide whether you want to work with kids and their parents as a package deal. The parents are dealing with their worst fears about their children, so they’re often not at their best.

And unfortunately, there are also custody battles and abuse cases where you’re required to report horrible situations, which adds another layer of complexity you might not be prepared for.

2 | Procedural Limitations

Let’s say you’re totally fine with dealing with parents and their neuroses. There’s still another major issue to consider: the procedural limitations.

I knew I wanted to do procedures. I wanted to work with my hands, see immediate results, and have that tangible satisfaction of fixing something.

Now, pediatrics is also a massive field. You can find procedurally-heavy subspecialties like pediatric surgery or pediatric orthopedics if that’s what you’re after. The scope really depends on how you specialize.

But gastroenterology—the field I was considering—wasn’t one of them. I had a moment of clarity when I watched a fellow learn to perform a scope on a patient for the first time. And look, endoscopy isn’t as easy as it looks, but it’s also not surgery.

Sure, there’s advanced endoscopy, but it’s still nothing compared to microsurgery in plastics or hand surgery. The technical challenge, the dexterity required, the level of detail—it’s completely different. And that’s what I was looking for.

I realized I’d always loved working with my hands, and pediatric gastroenterology just wasn’t going to fulfill that for me.

And children are also generally more resilient than adults. They don’t tend to need as many procedures or interventions. Their bodies compensate better, which means fewer scopes, fewer interventions, and fewer opportunities to do hands-on work.

Looking back, I wish I had received more guidance on choosing a specialty in medical school, including the differences between procedural and non-procedural specialties.

I probably would’ve considered surgery earlier, and maybe even explored specialties like urology or ENT, since these are hands-on but weren’t on my radar at the time.

If you’re still figuring out what kind of work really lights you up, there’s a free quiz that can help.

It’s quick and can point you toward specialties that match your strengths and career preferences. Visit SpecialtyQuiz.com to find out what specialty could be your dream career.

3 | The Brutal Financial Reality

The other elephant in the room is money.

Remember how I mentioned that children don’t need as many procedures? That directly impacts compensation. Pediatric care generates way fewer RVUs, which determine reimbursement for each service provided. You can’t bill for expensive procedures like cardiac caths or major surgeries very often. Most pediatric visits are routine check-ups and basic sick visits that generate minimal RVUs.

Pediatrics consistently ranks among the lowest-paid medical specialties, and the gap is getting worse.

Of course, there’s variety within pediatrics. Pediatric surgeons, for example, earn excellent money, but they train as surgeons, which requires a very different skill set and time commitment.

For general pediatrics and many pediatric subspecialties, such as pediatric endocrinology or pediatric gastroenterology, compensation is quite low compared to the average physician salary of $374,000.

The average salary for a pediatrician is around $265,000. That’s a $110,000 annual difference, which compounds to more than $3 million over a 30-year career.

4 | The Applicant Exodus

Another major red flag is what’s happening with pediatric applications—US med students are actively avoiding the field.

In 2024, pediatric applications declined by over 6%, marking the largest single-year drop in a decade.

While applications rebounded slightly in 2025, this wasn’t driven by renewed interest from US medical students. It was largely international medical graduates filling the gap.

When US students avoid a field, competition stagnates.

As the shortage grows, it puts more pressure on those remaining in the field, leading to increased stress and burnout.

In fact, pediatrics ranks 4th among all specialties for burnout, with 51% of pediatricians experiencing burnout—the same as family medicine.

5 | The Emotional Toll

Then there’s the emotional side of pediatrics, which is brutal.

You see child abuse and neglect. You deliver devastating diagnoses to parents.

And let’s be honest about the kids themselves. Most of the time, you’re the last person on Earth they want to see. You’re the person who has to stick them with needles and press on their belly when it already hurts.

They’re going to cry and scream, maybe even just at the sight of you, and after a while, that wears on you.

This emotional toll is one reason pediatricians experience higher stress than many other specialties.

There’s also a terrifying aspect of pediatric physiology. Kids are incredibly resilient and can bounce back from illness faster than adults. But when they crash, they crash hard and fast.

A kid can look fine, maybe just a little sick, then suddenly they’re in serious trouble because their body was compensating until it couldn’t anymore. It’s a lot of pressure to have a child’s health and safety in your hands.

6 | Conflict-Avoidant Personalities

Now, let’s talk about the culture mismatch.

Every specialty attracts certain personality types. Surgeons are very much my personality type. They’re direct, a little rough around the edges, but they get stuff done. They’re not afraid of hard work, and they’re not easily offended. Those are all things I value.

Pediatrics, being less competitive and focused on caring for children, tends to attract more nurturing, conflict-avoidant personalities.

Sounds great in theory, right?

But in practice, it creates a massively passive-aggressive environment.

People are super supportive to your face, but talk behind your back. There’s a lot of “smile and nod, then complain later” energy.

And if you’ve been following me for a long time now, you know I’m pretty direct—if I have a problem with someone, they’ll know it. I’m not someone to be two-faced; it feels inauthentic and like wasted energy. I’m not the kind of person who likes to smile to your face and then talk behind your back.

This whole “pretend everything’s fine while quietly undermining each other” thing just felt exhausting and fake to me.

You need to find your people in your specialty.

You’re going to be surrounded by these colleagues for decades—at conferences, doing research, working together day in and day out. The personality fit matters more than you think.

7 | Modern Challenges Getting Worse

And finally, pediatrics deals with problems that extend far beyond medicine.

There’s a growing mental health crisis among kids, with rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts in adolescents.

Then there are all the technology problems, like screen addiction and cyberbullying, that are creating challenges that didn’t exist a generation ago.

The reality is that people expect pediatricians to solve problems that go far beyond what medicine can address.

I have tremendous respect for the people who choose pediatrics despite all these challenges. We absolutely need them. The work they do is crucial for the future of our kids, our country, and the world.

Someone has to tackle these growing problems, and pediatricians are on the front lines of some of the most critical health issues facing the next generation.

Should You Choose Pediatrics?

Should you choose pediatrics?

Ultimately, it comes down to this: consider it only if you’ve honestly evaluated all the factors and still can’t imagine doing anything else.

Choose it because you love the entire reality of pediatric medicine.

Yes, that includes the rewarding moments with grateful families and the satisfaction of helping children develop healthy habits for life.

But it also means accepting the financial realities—most pediatric specialties are among the lower-compensated fields in medicine. It means dealing with anxious parents and managing the emotional toll of seeing kids suffer.

Pediatrics may be the right choice for you. But I’m so glad I took the time to explore it and discover it wasn’t an ideal fit for me before I committed years of my life to the wrong path.

This is precisely what medical school is for—to help you figure out what you want to do. Switching directions when you learn something new about yourself just means you’re being smart about your future.

If you want to learn more about pediatrics, check out So You Want to Be a Pediatrician.