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.