Accepted a job offer question

[deleted647690]

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So I applied to the NIH IRTA program and interviewed with a PI. I have basically told her I will work in her lab. He sent me all of the paperwork to start the process of becoming a contractor there.

However, after I accepted this position, I heard back from two other research technician positions at a medical school. I have interviewed at both, and I am waiting to hear back about whether I have been accepted.

The technician positions pay about $7000 in salary. However, the NIH position has benefits too.
For one thing, it is the NIH
The NIH PI seems like the best PI out of all 3 positions I am considering. She seems very focused on the learning aspect. She also has a DO, so she is familiar with the med school process. She seems to be the most flexible. For example, she said that I would be able to take time off to retake my MCAT if I needed to.

The only reason I'm considering the other positions is because they pay more.


However, my question is about whether it would be professional for me to tell the NIH PI that I am no longer interested, after I have already basically accepted the position.
She just emailed me to follow up and find out when I would be turning in my paperwork.

Is it wrong for me to be applying for these other positions?

 

[Go4Doc]

So I applied to the NIH IRTA program and interviewed with a PI. I have basically told him I will work in his lab. He sent me all of the paperwork to start the process of becoming a contractor there.

However, after I accepted this position, I heard back from two other research technician positions at a medical school. I have interviewed at both, and I am waiting to hear back about whether I have been accepted.

The technician positions pay about $7000 in salary. However, the NIH position has benefits too.
For one thing, it is the NIH
The NIH PI seems like the best PI out of all 3 positions I am considering. He seems very focused on the learning aspect. He also has an MD, so he is familiar with the med school process. He seems to be the most flexible. For example, he said that I would be able to take time off to retake my MCAT if I needed to.

The only reason I'm considering the other positions is because they pay more.


However, my question is about whether it would be professional for me to tell the NIH PI that I am no longer interested, after I have already basically accepted the position.
He just emailed me to follow up and find out when I would be turning in my paperwork.

Is it wrong for me to be applying for these other positions?

Hey, I think I remember you from a couple of months ago! Congrats on all of the success with your NIH/ job applications! As someone who dealt with a similar scenario I know exactly how you feel. The NIH PI's got back to me much quicker than the med school research jobs did and it was pretty stressful. While I don't think I ever gave the overt impression that I had accepted their offer, I definitely did make my interest known during our interviews. Ultimately I was faced with some tough choices: an NIH IRTA position or research jobs at WashU, UCSF, or Stanford. I don't think there's any objectively right answer to this situation, just the answer that's most right for you.

While it may seem selfish and a bit morally ambiguous to turn down the NIH offer, I'd recommend that your next step (job-wise) is to do whatever is best for you. Now this doesn't mean I'm recommending the technician job over the NIH offer. Rather, I'm suggesting you figure out what is most important to you as you prepare to apply to medical school. You haven't signed anything formally tying you to this PI's lab so you technically haven't accepted their offer yet. If that was the impression you gave off, it's unfortunate but what's done is done. Personally, if I were in your shoes I'd likely go with the NIH job because it sounds like that's the best place for you. A flexible and understanding PI will make your life a million times easier as you deal with the stress of applying to medical school and if you're planning on waiting until the next cycle to apply, you will likely get a powerful LOR out of it. The extra money from the tech jobs would be nice, but if you aren't sitting on a lot of loans right now, I wouldn't worry about it.

If after this you're still split and you'd like to have concrete research tech offers before you move on these decisions, you can try using your NIH offer to leverage the medical schools/ PIs into action. That's actually how I got my current job. I told them the truth. I was extremely interested in their labs but I had an offer from the NIH with an expiration date. Only do this if you're seriously considering the research tech jobs though. Also it's worth knowing exactly what your job will entail. If you're just going to be carrying out experiments without any real role in the conceptualization/ grant writing/ report writing process, you're just a grunt and I'd definitely pick the NIH job. However, if you can get a job that offers effectively the same responsibilities as the NIH would, it's worth considering.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[deleted647690]

Hey, I think I remember you from a couple of months ago! Congrats on all of the success with your NIH/ job applications! As someone who dealt with a similar scenario I know exactly how you feel. The NIH PI's got back to me much quicker than the med school research jobs did and it was pretty stressful. While I don't think I ever gave the overt impression that I had accepted their offer, I definitely did make my interest known during our interviews. Ultimately I was faced with some tough choices: an NIH IRTA position or research jobs at WashU, UCSF, or Stanford. I don't think there's any objectively right answer to this situation, just the answer that's most right for you.

While it may seem selfish and a bit morally ambiguous to turn down the NIH offer, I'd recommend that your next step (job-wise) is to do whatever is best for you. Now this doesn't mean I'm recommending the technician job over the NIH offer. Rather, I'm suggesting you figure out what is most important to you as you prepare to apply to medical school. You haven't signed anything formally tying you to this PI's lab so you technically haven't accepted their offer yet. If that was the impression you gave off, it's unfortunate but what's done is done. Personally, if I were in your shoes I'd likely go with the NIH job because it sounds like that's the best place for you. A flexible and understanding PI will make your life a million times easier as you deal with the stress of applying to medical school and if you're planning on waiting until the next cycle to apply, you will likely get a powerful LOR out of it. The extra money from the tech jobs would be nice, but if you aren't sitting on a lot of loans right now, I wouldn't worry about it.

If after this you're still split and you'd like to have concrete research tech offers before you move on these decisions, you can try using your NIH offer to leverage the medical schools/ PIs into action. That's actually how I got my current job. I told them the truth. I was extremely interested in their labs but I had an offer from the NIH with an expiration date. Only do this if you're seriously considering the research tech jobs though. Also it's worth knowing exactly what your job will entail. If you're just going to be carrying out experiments without any real role in the conceptualization/ grant writing/ report writing process, you're just a grunt and I'd definitely pick the NIH job. However, if you can get a job that offers effectively the same responsibilities as the NIH would, it's worth considering.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thanks for the detailed reply! I interviewed for one of the tech positions today, and it sort of seemed like a grunt position. I tried to ask if I'd have a say in the design of the experiments, and the PI emphasized that she already had ideas for the projects planned out. This PI just opened her lab, and she said she expected a lot out of the technicians because there are not any others in her lab at the moment. She explained that she expected techs to function as graduate students. We'd do the work to help advance her projects, and in return, we would benefit.
She also said that it wouldn't be like any old tech position where I'd be coming in and running a machine and sitting around or whatever (not sure what that means).

I asked her if I'd have a role in writing, and she said I could do what I was able to. She seemed to be saying that I wouldn't have much a role in grant writing/publication writing because I don't really have much to contribute since I don't have that much experience. Isn't she right? Why should I expect to have a role in writing if I haven't actually gone to graduate school/done such a thing before?

The other tech position seemed sort of similar. That lab has post docs though, and it seems like I'd be mainly reporting to them. I guess that one sort of came off as a job where they'd tell me experiments to do, and I'd go do them. However, they did say I'd have to be very independent.


I think the NIH PI said that I'd have an opportunity to do a project and write a publication (if I remember correctly).

 

[deleted647690]

Hey, I think I remember you from a couple of months ago! Congrats on all of the success with your NIH/ job applications! As someone who dealt with a similar scenario I know exactly how you feel. The NIH PI's got back to me much quicker than the med school research jobs did and it was pretty stressful. While I don't think I ever gave the overt impression that I had accepted their offer, I definitely did make my interest known during our interviews. Ultimately I was faced with some tough choices: an NIH IRTA position or research jobs at WashU, UCSF, or Stanford. I don't think there's any objectively right answer to this situation, just the answer that's most right for you.

While it may seem selfish and a bit morally ambiguous to turn down the NIH offer, I'd recommend that your next step (job-wise) is to do whatever is best for you. Now this doesn't mean I'm recommending the technician job over the NIH offer. Rather, I'm suggesting you figure out what is most important to you as you prepare to apply to medical school. You haven't signed anything formally tying you to this PI's lab so you technically haven't accepted their offer yet. If that was the impression you gave off, it's unfortunate but what's done is done. Personally, if I were in your shoes I'd likely go with the NIH job because it sounds like that's the best place for you. A flexible and understanding PI will make your life a million times easier as you deal with the stress of applying to medical school and if you're planning on waiting until the next cycle to apply, you will likely get a powerful LOR out of it. The extra money from the tech jobs would be nice, but if you aren't sitting on a lot of loans right now, I wouldn't worry about it.

If after this you're still split and you'd like to have concrete research tech offers before you move on these decisions, you can try using your NIH offer to leverage the medical schools/ PIs into action. That's actually how I got my current job. I told them the truth. I was extremely interested in their labs but I had an offer from the NIH with an expiration date. Only do this if you're seriously considering the research tech jobs though. Also it's worth knowing exactly what your job will entail. If you're just going to be carrying out experiments without any real role in the conceptualization/ grant writing/ report writing process, you're just a grunt and I'd definitely pick the NIH job. However, if you can get a job that offers effectively the same responsibilities as the NIH would, it's worth considering.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Also, thanks!

 

[enchantediris]

Sorry, to clarify -- do the tech positions pay $7,000 more than NIH, or $70,000?

 

[deleted647690]

Sorry, to clarify -- do the tech positions pay $7,000 more than NIH, or $70,000?

I think it's about $7,000.

The NIH pays a stipend of about $29,100 for the first year, and $31,200 for the second year.

Only one of the med school research PIs discussed salary info with me, and she ballparked like $38,000. So that is a little more than $7000 difference, but I think I would also have to pay for parking for the med school positions, which would take out like 1,200

 

[Go4Doc]

Thanks for the detailed reply! I interviewed for one of the tech positions today, and it sort of seemed like a grunt position. I tried to ask if I'd have a say in the design of the experiments, and the PI emphasized that she already had ideas for the projects planned out. This PI just opened her lab, and she said she expected a lot out of the technicians because there are not any others in her lab at the moment. She explained that she expected techs to function as graduate students. We'd do the work to help advance her projects, and in return, we would benefit.
She also said that it wouldn't be like any old tech position where I'd be coming in and running a machine and sitting around or whatever (not sure what that means).

I asked her if I'd have a role in writing, and she said I could do what I was able to. She seemed to be saying that I wouldn't have much a role in grant writing/publication writing because I don't really have much to contribute since I don't have that much experience. Isn't she right? Why should I expect to have a role in writing if I haven't actually gone to graduate school/done such a thing before?

The other tech position seemed sort of similar. That lab has post docs though, and it seems like I'd be mainly reporting to them. I guess that one sort of came off as a job where they'd tell me experiments to do, and I'd go do them. However, they did say I'd have to be very independent.


I think the NIH PI said that I'd have an opportunity to do a project and write a publication (if I remember correctly).

From what you described I'd steer clear of that first tech job. Sounds like she's focused on making a name for herself which means she won't be able to support you and invest in your personal growth.

To answer your question about writing, how do you think all those people who got PhDs learned to write articles? By doing! While you shouldn't necessarily expect a first author paper, she should ask you to assist in writing a review of literature and show you how to analyze the data. She's honestly contradicting herself here by saying you should function as a graduate student without giving you the same responsibilities as one. A good mentor will expose a graduate student to every single part of the process so that they're prepared to embark on a research career. You will only learn via practice. There isn't some special class you take that endows you with the ability to write scientific articles.

 

[Go4Doc]

From everything you've shared, I'd still say the NIH sounds like your best bet.

 

[drmantistobbogan]

Without a doubt, do the IRTA program. It is such a widely recognized program that makes up for the $7,000 difference.