Will I have to quit my job everytime I go to an interview during my gap year?

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cryhavoc

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I'm going to be working a lot during my gap year to save money. But I'm concerned about taking time off to travel to interviews. I've had a few jobs in my life and taking time off when you are new is a death sentence. And they won't even hire you if they know you'll only be there for a year.

Anyone have any experiences they'd like to share? Were you honest with your employer during your gap year about only being there for a year? Were you able to get time off without quitting?

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I work at a hospital, and I told them I was applying to medical school during my interview. 100% of the nurses aides here are students--they understand. I didn't have any trouble getting work off for interviews/family events/etc. Granted it'll be different at every workplace, don't cut yourself short! And DEFINITELY don't quit because you have a few interviews. Talk to your boss about it ahead of time, explain it's important. If they don't budge, stay calm, explain again and go to your interview. Even if they didn't give their OK there's a chance that you'll still have a job after you come back. Good luck!
 
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I don't know what kind of job you're looking for and I've never taken a gap year, but I know that a good amount of people do research at the NIH (https://www.training.nih.gov/student/Pre-IRTA/irtamanualpostbac.asp). This program is designed for people applying to professional schools, so many PIs are probably used to having people taking days off for interviews.
 
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Interviews actually only take a few hours

You actually don't have to quit your job. What I would do is tell your boss that you will be unavailable on this day or these 2 days

Always tell your employer you are committed and mean it. Times change. It isn't your fault that your plans were altered. You wanted a job, but later you wanted something else. It isn't your fault.
 
I don't know what kind of job you're looking for and I've never taken a gap year, but I know that a good amount of people do research at the NIH (https://www.training.nih.gov/student/Pre-IRTA/irtamanualpostbac.asp). This program is designed for people applying to professional schools, so many PIs are probably used to having people taking days off for interviews.
OP said they're working to save money; good luck saving up more than a couple grand when you're making ~27k a year and living in the DC metro area.
 
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OP said they're working to save money; good luck saving up more than a couple grand when you're making ~27k a year and living in the DC metro area.
Yeah, it has to be a job a small town might have. I'm going to be slumming it for 8-10 months of my gap year and saving money so I can go on a vacation or two before I start medical school.
 
Yeah, it has to be a job a small town might have. I'm going to be slumming it for 8-10 months of my gap year and saving money so I can go on a vacation or two before I start medical school.

Does the small town have any healthcare facilities? (I don't know if you have a small town in mind or not)

Applying to med school / traveling to interviews is a hectic process for most people. "Working a lot" at the same time is not always an option.
 
Even relatively small towns have temporary staffing agencies. Working as a temp means not having the assurance of steady work, but you usually get paid a bit higher than permanent staff doing the same job to make up for it, and getting time off is easy as telling the agency when you will be unavailable to work. Different companies specialize in various kinds of work, others are more generalized in their offerings. And you don't have to feel guilty about not planning to be there for the long haul.
 
Does the small town have any healthcare facilities? (I don't know if you have a small town in mind or not)

Applying to med school / traveling to interviews is a hectic process for most people. "Working a lot" at the same time is not always an option.

I don't know how many interviews an applicant might expect. If you are really good you might get 6 or 8. Even if you travel the day before for an early morning interview, you'd be home late the following day. That means that out of 20-22 working days per month times 12 months or about 240 working days, you'd miss about 12-16 days of work for interviews -- if you are lucky. It might be as few as 3-8 missed days if the interviews are geographically close to where you are living, if you don't get that many, or if you decline invitations to interview after getting your first offer of admission.
 
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I missed a bunch of days to go on interviews, and my boss was certainly not happy about it. When looking for a gap year job, the first thing I would recommend is to look for a boss who is very supportive of you going to med school and does not care about you missing time to go to interviews.

Even though I was upfront about applying to med school with my boss, my boss was not happy that I was missing work a lot, and it made the application more stressful than it should have been.
 
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Okay, I just need a job to save. But obviously my interviews will be ten times more important than my job, so I could, worse case scenario, quit if they won't let me. Still, I wanted to see how it went for others.
 
Interviews take 3 days. One day to fly in, a day to do the interview, and a day to fly out. Of course you may have a couple of interviews locally that you can drive to. You shouldn't have more than 10 interviews, max. Missing 30 days over 8 months or so isn't that bad. Realistically you'll probably do less.
 
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Okay, my 2 cents: I am in a professional career as a teacher. I certainly couldn't come out and say that I'm trying to switch careers, but I also didn't want to lie. Therefore, I used the resources and the path available to me: as a teacher, I'm allowed 10 days off across the school year. For the first semester, since I didn't know how many interviews I would get (4) or how many days I'd need for interviews (5), I pushed myself to work even when I was sick in order to make sure I could keep all of the days necessary in case I interviewed at every school I applied to (8). Here's how I handled my interview days: I asked off, citing "Personal business." I made sure a sub covered my classes (something you won't have to do) and I went to the interview. I'm allowed that time, and keeping it closed like that allowed me to avoid lying or telling the whole story. You simply have "business" you need to handle. It's just not a big deal.
 
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Okay, my 2 cents: I am in a professional career as a teacher. I certainly couldn't come out and say that I'm trying to switch careers, but I also didn't want to lie. Therefore, I used the resources and the path available to me: as a teacher, I'm allowed 10 days off across the school year. For the first semester, since I didn't know how many interviews I would get (4) or how many days I'd need for interviews (5), I pushed myself to work even when I was sick in order to make sure I could keep all of the days necessary in case I interviewed at every school I applied to (8). Here's how I handled my interview days: I asked off, citing "Personal business." I made sure a sub covered my classes (something you won't have to do) and I went to the interview. I'm allowed that time, and keeping it closed like that allowed me to avoid lying or telling the whole story. You simply have "business" you need to handle. It's just not a big deal.
Wow that's very interesting Claire! What subject do you teach?
 
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Interviews take 3 days. One day to fly in, a day to do the interview, and a day to fly out. Of course you may have a couple of interviews locally that you can drive to. You shouldn't have more than 10 interviews, max. Missing 30 days over 8 months or so isn't that bad. Realistically you'll probably do less.

I would assume most people fly out the same day as their interview. Unless you're going cross country and there is issues with flights and what not.
 
Older thread but just thought I'd put my two cents in if anyone is still following. I took a gap year since I didn't get in when I applied for matriculation straight out of college so I started look for jobs. I didn't tell my employer that I was only staying a year (I was a re-applicant at the time and was unsure if I was going to get in this time around since the first time around majorly ripped apart my ego and self esteem). They expected at least a 2 year commitment and I did a soft yea sure why not, but I did mention that I had thought about going back to school for grad or med school if I hated working (just FYI I said that word for word in the interview and they still offered me a position. Looking back, I would highly advise against it) I started in July and got my first acceptance by December and have decided to wait till May to tell them that I am leaving in June.

Reasons I didn't tell them outright
  • I wanted a full time salary job, with decent pay, good regular hours, benefits, and those are always looking for a longer term commitment.
  • You never know for sure if you are going to get into medical school (as I learned very well the first time applying and not getting in)
  • I got a great entry level job but I don't feel like there's much growth for me (or anyone really) here. Even if I didn't get into medical school, I probably wouldn't have stayed here more than a year or two. Also doesn't help that I don't particularly love my supervisor
  • You never know what is going to happen. Maybe you do end up loving whatever job you have and stay with them forever. No reason to jump the gun right this second and limit your options.
Reasons I waited until May to tell my boss I was leaving
  • Everyone's boss is different. Mine is passive aggressive, catty, and gossipy. I want to leave them time to find a replacement because I love where I work but do not want to have to endure months of her passive aggressive BS.
  • I know the last two weeks I want to work there included a lot of work travel, so even though I'll them over a month notice, we really only have 3 weeks to find and train a replacement. If you like them, give them time. If not, two weeks notice is standard.
  • ADVICE: If you're going to not tell your boss you're only committing to a year and applying to med - don't tell ANYONE in your office. I mentioned to people that I was thinking about medicine and I guess word trickled over to my boss. One day when I met with her about a project we were doing, she very slyly asked me about my interest in medicine, when I would want to apply, details about the process (to see how much I had looked into it), if I had taken my MCAT. I could tell she was trying to gauge how serious about medical school I was and trying to be sneaky about asking me. I found that to be incredibly distasteful - first it was from gossip around the office and second she was trying to trick me into telling her. I gave very generalized and obscure answers to her questions, basically telling her I don't know. Maybe med. Maybe something else. She tried to push some answers out of me but eventually gave up and the topic of conversation went to something else. I was definitely not ready to tell her yet. If you're not going to tell your boss, don't tell ANYONE you work with because the office is a breeding ground for gossip.
Why you really shouldn't stress about it:
  • Med school interviews aren't that hard to hide from employers. First off, pretty much any full time/salary job give you two weeks vacation that you can choose to use whenever. I usually just told them I was taking a trip to see family, boyfriend, taking a long weekend, or it was some obscure aunt's birthday. Smaller companies/orgs generally have a more lenient vacation time structure while big ones will only give you certain available vacation days. Any interviews with a a conflict with my work, I just called them and they were perfectly nice about rescheduling my interview day. Most of my interviews were across the country so 4+ hour flights. I'd get there the day before and leave to fly back right after the interview and go back to work the next day which means 2 days off if it was a midweek interview. I mostly planned them to be Mondays if I could help it so I could get there Sunday night and leave afterward on Monday = 1 vacation day. It does get tiring though going straight from interview back to work. My vacation days also reset in the new year so more time off yay. You also usually get personal days you can use whenever but if you don't have those, just call in sick. It's not a big deal. You just happened to "get sick" those days - your boss can't technically get mad about that.
  • You are not (unless you signed one) bound by any contract that says that you MUST stay for X amount of time. They could have fired you just as easily as you could have left for other reasons.
  • Think about it this way - companies fire people all the time. People leave jobs all the time because they don't like their coworkers or deserve higher pay or just feel they need a change. And those are all perfectly legitimate reasons, why is you getting in medical school and trying to better yourself any different? If you are serious about being a physician, do what it takes. Do it in the most amicable way possible, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Anyway I'll update what happens when I finally tell them in a few weeks.. Wish me luck.
 
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Older thread but just thought I'd put my two cents in if anyone is still following. I took a gap year since I didn't get in when I applied for matriculation straight out of college so I started look for jobs. I didn't tell my employer that I was only staying a year (I was a re-applicant at the time and was unsure if I was going to get in this time around since the first time around majorly ripped apart my ego and self esteem). They expected at least a 2 year commitment and I did a soft yea sure why not, but I did mention that I had thought about going back to school for grad or med school if I hated working (just FYI I said that word for word in the interview and they still offered me a position. Looking back, I would highly advise against it) I started in July and got my first acceptance by December and have decided to wait till May to tell them that I am leaving in June.

Reasons I didn't tell them outright
  • I wanted a full time salary job, with decent pay, good regular hours, benefits, and those are always looking for a longer term commitment.
  • You never know for sure if you are going to get into medical school (as I learned very well the first time applying and not getting in)
  • I got a great entry level job but I don't feel like there's much growth for me (or anyone really) here. Even if I didn't get into medical school, I probably wouldn't have stayed here more than a year or two. Also doesn't help that I don't particularly love my supervisor
  • You never know what is going to happen. Maybe you do end up loving whatever job you have and stay with them forever. No reason to jump the gun right this second and limit your options.
Reasons I waited until May to tell my boss I was leaving
  • Everyone's boss is different. Mine is passive aggressive, catty, and gossipy. I want to leave them time to find a replacement because I love where I work but do not want to have to endure months of her passive aggressive BS.
  • I know the last two weeks I want to work there included a lot of work travel, so even though I'll them over a month notice, we really only have 3 weeks to find and train a replacement. If you like them, give them time. If not, two weeks notice is standard.
  • ADVICE: If you're going to not tell your boss you're only committing to a year and applying to med - don't tell ANYONE in your office. I mentioned to people that I was thinking about medicine and I guess word trickled over to my boss. One day when I met with her about a project we were doing, she very slyly asked me about my interest in medicine, when I would want to apply, details about the process (to see how much I had looked into it), if I had taken my MCAT. I could tell she was trying to gauge how serious about medical school I was and trying to be sneaky about asking me. I found that to be incredibly distasteful - first it was from gossip around the office and second she was trying to trick me into telling her. I gave very generalized and obscure answers to her questions, basically telling her I don't know. Maybe med. Maybe something else. She tried to push some answers out of me but eventually gave up and the topic of conversation went to something else. I was definitely not ready to tell her yet. If you're not going to tell your boss, don't tell ANYONE you work with because the office is a breeding ground for gossip.
Why you really shouldn't stress about it:
  • Med school interviews aren't that hard to hide from employers. First off, pretty much any full time/salary job give you two weeks vacation that you can choose to use whenever. I usually just told them I was taking a trip to see family, boyfriend, taking a long weekend, or it was some obscure aunt's birthday. Smaller companies/orgs generally have a more lenient vacation time structure while big ones will only give you certain available vacation days. Any interviews with a a conflict with my work, I just called them and they were perfectly nice about rescheduling my interview day. Most of my interviews were across the country so 4+ hour flights. I'd get there the day before and leave to fly back right after the interview and go back to work the next day which means 2 days off if it was a midweek interview. I mostly planned them to be Mondays if I could help it so I could get there Sunday night and leave afterward on Monday = 1 vacation day. It does get tiring though going straight from interview back to work. My vacation days also reset in the new year so more time off yay. You also usually get personal days you can use whenever but if you don't have those, just call in sick. It's not a big deal. You just happened to "get sick" those days - your boss can't technically get mad about that.
  • You are not (unless you signed one) bound by any contract that says that you MUST stay for X amount of time. They could have fired you just as easily as you could have left for other reasons.
  • Think about it this way - companies fire people all the time. People leave jobs all the time because they don't like their coworkers or deserve higher pay or just feel they need a change. And those are all perfectly legitimate reasons, why is you getting in medical school and trying to better yourself any different? If you are serious about being a physician, do what it takes. Do it in the most amicable way possible, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Anyway I'll update what happens when I finally tell them in a few weeks.. Wish me luck.

Great thread, Panda! Did you get in this time? :)
 
This is why taking 2 gap years makes sense sometimes:

1) Save more money
2) Save up vacation days.
 
This is why taking 2 gap years makes sense sometimes:

1) Save more money
2) Save up vacation days.
I think gap years are valuable for multiple reasons but money isn't one of them. Think about what you are giving up (a year of mid career physician salary) and what you are getting (a relatively meager salary).
 
Depends entirely on the workplace. The hospitals in my region employ a lot of young people as techs and assistants and realize they're going off to school. All they care about is you getting the job done while you're there. Other employers, like business-type ones, may be less flexible with missing work. You need to get a feel for your potential workplace before you accept a job there, and make sure the employer understands your situation before they make a hiring decision.
 
Great thread, Panda! Did you get in this time? :)

Thanks! Yes I got in! Several acceptances actually. First time around I think a) I wasn't as prepared for my interviews as I should have been and b) I had a lot more to talk about with my job experience in outreach and advocacy (something I was lacking in before) the second time around

I think gap years are valuable for multiple reasons but money isn't one of them. Think about what you are giving up (a year of mid career physician salary) and what you are getting (a relatively meager salary).

I agree, money shouldn't be the largest factor but it does help for your own gratification and peace of mind if nothing else. Granted whatever you save is like a drop in bucket compared to your entire debt coming out. Also, vacation days don't always roll over depending on the company you work for.

As for how long of a gap if at all - I had a friend put it to me this way - "You should just apply now, worst comes to worst you don't get in and you take a gap year anyway. Best case you get in without having a year of limbo. Might as well try and hope for the best." Although I have to say, not getting in does do a number on your morale, but I guess failing forced me to examine my strengths and weaknesses a bit more carefully.
 
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I think gap years are valuable for multiple reasons but money isn't one of them. Think about what you are giving up (a year of mid career physician salary) and what you are getting (a relatively meager salary).

That meager salary allowed me to pay for all my apps, my interviews, Go to London and Dublin, and pay for the multi country se Asia trip I'm doing this summer.

Oh, not to mention multiple publications including a first author, a podium talk at a conference, and seeing gnarly surgeries in the OR.

So yeah, I'll take the gap years.

To think about a physician salary, you have to get in first. I'm not about putting the cart before the horse.

There's more to life than theoretical physician salaries. I'm 26 and I've gotten a ton out of all but one of my 5 gap years. This obsession with theoretical earnfuture earning is asinine.

Then again, my parents couldn't pitch in a penny to help pay for apps and I was on fap, so my future theoretical salary would have done nothing for me if I couldn't have afforded to apply.
 
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There's more to life than theoretical physician salaries. I'm 26 and I've gotten a ton out of all but one of my 5 gap years. This obsession with theoretical earnfuture earning is asinine..

I hear this all the time when I talk about taking a bit longer, and I literally couldn't care less. I want to get my career done right, and I want to accomplish the things I want to accomplish, not rush through school and the MCAT and missing time for valuable non-academic experiences in an effort to make an extra year's salary.
 
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it depends on your employer. CVS fired me just because i went on 3 interviews! I did tell them beforehand that i was applying to grad school. still...
 
That meager salary allowed me to pay for all my apps, my interviews, Go to London and Dublin, and pay for the multi country se Asia trip I'm doing this summer.

Oh, not to mention multiple publications including a first author, a podium talk at a conference, and seeing gnarly surgeries in the OR.

So yeah, I'll take the gap years.

To think about a physician salary, you have to get in first. I'm not about putting the cart before the horse.

There's more to life than theoretical physician salaries. I'm 26 and I've gotten a ton out of all but one of my 5 gap years. This obsession with theoretical earnfuture earning is asinine.

Then again, my parents couldn't pitch in a penny to help pay for apps and I was on fap, so my future theoretical salary would have done nothing for me if I couldn't have afforded to apply.

I think you are misunderstanding my point completely. Then again, it is clearly foolish for people to actually read what you say on here. All I was saying was that people shouldn't take a gap year simply to take out less loans the first year. If you can't pay for apps or want to do other things like go to Asia/publish/shadow, then it makes sense. What is asinine is the inability to financially consider the impact of wages now versus wages in the future. Plenty of people think that taking out 20k less loans is a big deal but compared to what you are giving up it is nothing.
 
You can't give up what you never had. This is all theoretical in your end... What percent of applicants get in again?

Not having money to apply to med school and taking out loans for all of it is ridiculous. Are you going too live off loans for a year to apply or take on credit card debt as a new grad or college student? Great idea!

Obviously I was speaking directly to the ops situation and there are other reasons to take gap years as well. No freaking duh.
 
Hey soccerusa, I meant what i said, but my first comment was way harsher than I intended. Sorry about that.
 
Hey soccerusa, I meant what i said, but my first comment was way harsher than I intended. Sorry about that.
Its all good. Also see below. I was just trying to make the point that people shouldn't do it just for money. That's all. Also, most people know if they will get in somewhere or if they are more borderline when making this decision anyways.

I took 2 gap years to have a blast and travel a bit, sew wild oats, etc.
It cost me about $1,000,000 in lost income.
Keep that in mind.
 
I've gotten a ton out of all but one of my 5 gap years.

5 year gap year FTW!


@hellopanda123 I freaking loved reading that. My situation down to a T including the passive, aggressive boss. Agreed on not telling your boss or ANYONE else you work with for that matter. Gossip spreads like wildfire even in the most professional of environments. We had some people quit recently and I knew before it happened. Congrats on getting in and moving forward!
 
I took 2 gap years to have a blast and travel a bit, sew wild oats, etc.
It cost me about $1,000,000 in lost income.
Keep that in mind.

What are the chances that you could do any of those things re: traveling etc at this point of time and not take an even harder hit?

I work for a spine surg practice and a lot of the fellows are talking about what they're going to have to do to establish themselves in a new practice. One of them just told me at lunch that I should do any traveling to remote areas I want to visit that take 2-3 days to get to this summer because taking more than a week or two off when you start practicing is damn near impossible.

I'm going to vanish for over 6 weeks. What would that cost you now in terms of job etc?
 
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What are the chances that you could do any of those things re: traveling etc at this point of time and not take an even harder hit?

I work for a spine surg practice and a lot of the fellows are talking about what they're going to have to do to establish themselves in a new practice. One of them just told me at lunch that I should do any traveling to remote areas I want to visit that take 2-3 days to get to this summer because taking more than a week or two off when you start practicing is damn near impossible.

I'm going to vanish for over 6 weeks. What would that cost you now in terms of job etc?

You might want to add major historical travel sites that might be at risk for disturbance in the future (i.e. Egypt). Some of these places might be war zones by the time we get another chance.
 
I couldn't take more than 2 weeks off now without an act of congress. However, I have always taken between 5 and 8 weeks off between residency/fellowship/jobs to vaca and get established in the new house, etc. I want to go on a trip that cannot be shorter than 20 days, and I don't think I can do it. :(
 
I couldn't take more than 2 weeks off now without an act of congress. However, I have always taken between 5 and 8 weeks off between residency/fellowship/jobs to vaca and get established in the new house, etc. I want to go on a trip that cannot be shorter than 20 days, and I don't think I can do it. :(

Right, so you'd be giving up way more than 1 million if you were to do something like this now if it were even possible.

I'm saying this because that number of 'future earnings' gets thrown around a lot and yes it is something to consider, but future experiences is never something people talk about. I'm quickly beginning to figure out because these experiences cannot exist in the future.

So the lesson I'm getting is that if you want to travel, build up your resume, save a bit of money, have substantial growth and opportunities outside of medicine and even within medicine, and can get the footing to do these things, then a gap year or two can be a good idea.

I support 2 gap years over one because of the logistic issues that the OP is facing, i.e. vacation time at work for interviews etc, but also because not that much gets done in a year if you're doing it for research. Most of the things I submitted in my first year came to fruition in the second year.

If you're good with research or continuing on at the same lab while getting some volunteer work/clinical experiences in then a 1 year gap can be fine if you've already taken your MCAT.
 
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