Hello Ms. Gökçe. Could you tell us briefly about yourself?
I completed my university education at Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine and graduated in 2008. I started my assistantship in the field of General Surgery at 19 Mayıs University with TUS, which was the first medical specialization exam I took. After working in Samsun for a year and a half, I decided that this department was not for me and prepared for TUS again. As a result of TUS, I started working as an assistant at Bakırköy Gynecology Department. After successfully completing my assistant training, I worked in a district of Van for about 2 years due to compulsory service in 2015. Then, by appointment, I started working as a specialist at a public hospital in Bolu. While I was working in Bolu, the idea of settling in Germany arose and I came to Germany in January 2019.
When and how did the idea of becoming a doctor arise in your mind?
I think I was inspired by my father. My father is an ophthalmologist. He is also a graduate of Cerrahpaşa. The image of him in an apron has been in my mind since my childhood. His communication with patients and the satisfaction he left in them impressed me greatly. Money has not been a big motivator in my life. More than money, it makes me happy to see the smile on the patients' faces and to know that I can help people. I think there is nothing that touches a person's life as much as the first meeting of a baby with its mother after birth. This is the biggest factor affecting my career choice.
Is working abroad an old dream?
At first, when I talked to my friends living abroad, I did not have much interest in this issue. Frankly, the idea of starting some things over again after receiving my expertise and completing my compulsory service was not very appealing to me. While I was working in Bolu, working conditions as a doctor in Turkey began to seem quite difficult to me. Communication with patients is very important to me. As the time we could spend with patients became increasingly limited, I began to have difficulties in communicating with patients and finding solutions. As we know, the issue of violence in healthcare in our country is one of the factors that makes the working conditions of doctors extremely difficult. All these reasons led me to open up to new experiences.
What are your reasons for choosing Germany?
For me, there were 5 countries to visit: America, Canada, Sweden, Dubai and Germany. I immediately eliminated America and Canada because of their distance. My relationship with my family and the value I attach to my family have a great impact on this issue. Dubai is actually a relatively easy option; because it is much easier to get equivalence. Even though it takes a while, your documents are accepted. You need to get a license there and you can work with this license for a year. But frankly, I wanted to turn my face to the west. For this reason, I focused on the possibilities of Sweden and Germany. Actually, I first started studying Swedish, but after a friend of mine from university who lived in Germany convinced me, I decided on Germany.
What kind of visa did you come to Germany with?
I came to Germany with a language visa. Before coming to Germany, I learned the language to a certain level in Turkey and applied for a visa to improve my language in the medical field in Germany. It resulted positively and I started the German course in February 2019. I reached B2 level and received a certificate in September 2019.
Being a doctor is a profession that requires mastery of languages. Are you having difficulty with German?
After reaching the B2 level, I continued preparatory courses for the C1 and C2 levels at the Goethe Institute. Then I took a medical German course. Although I am currently experiencing a lack of practice in everyday German due to the pandemic, I am quite satisfied with my communication in German from a medical perspective.
What do you think about doctor salaries in Germany?
I think doctor salaries in Germany are fair; because there are no gaps in between. Whichever hospital you go to, you are subject to a seniority system. Let's say you started as an assistant, your seniority increases every year. At the end of the fifth year, you receive a senior assistant salary. If you pass the specialization exam, the same system continues at the specialization level. You can easily access the information about these salaries by going online. Shift pricing is also quite fair. To summarize, the money I get as an assistant here is more than the salary I get as a specialist in Turkey. Of course, I make this comparison by excluding private hospitals.
Can you tell us about the positive and negative experiences you had when you came to Germany that surprised you?
My most positive experience is that as a woman you feel safe regardless of time and place. In Turkey, especially if you are out after a certain time, you may feel uneasy about your safety. Also, something that makes me very happy is when people greet you even if they don't know you.
What I can say negatively is that everything in Germany is done by letter and appointment. I even had a funny incident like this: I took my bike to a bike repair shop to get it repaired. While I set out with the thought, "I hope he delivers it tomorrow rather than today, so I don't have to wait during the repair," the first question the mechanic asked me was whether I had an appointment. When I said I didn't have an appointment, he gave me 20 days later for a simple operation like brake repair.
What advice do you have for doctors considering coming to Germany?
I suggest that they should attach importance to German and make intense efforts to learn German. This could be finding a tandem, it could be applications like Cambly, it could be one-on-one private language courses. No matter how much grammar you learn, when you have to talk to someone in Germany, you will have an incredibly difficult time at first. Personally, it took me about 6 months to get used to speaking daily.
What are the things you miss most in Turkey?
Stuffed mussels. Jokes aside, I miss my loved ones very much. Before the pandemic, I was flying to Turkey at least every two months. Of course, its frequency decreased significantly after the pandemic started.
If you would like to get more information about becoming a doctor in Germany, Dr. Gökçe Yılmaz's ownsite you can visit.
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