Right before I started my job in medical research, I was offered a position as a pharmaceutical rep with one of the most well-known companies out there. The pay was out of this world, I could use my science degree and there would have been tremendous opportunity for growth. The negative aspect was that the territory that I was offered was in a very rural area and it would have meant moving my daughter and myself somewhere that we had no support network. Aside from that, perhaps the biggest deciding factor in my not taking the job was the absolute, overwhelming, throbbing deep down feeling that I wouldn't be able to call on physicians every day and bug them to buy my product if only because I would want to stay at the clinic or hospital and be doing their job! I felt that I would be more interested in what their patients were up to and what was going on clinically than I would be with the product that I was trying to peddle. That thought kept haunting me day and night for weeks while I was going through the interview process and eventually deciding on the position.
I never found that hunger to sell or become successful in that type of work. I think that was really the turning point in my life; when I knew that I was meant to go in a whole new direction. So I did. I turned down the offer, much to the chagrin of my father who just wanted me to succeed and my grandma who was sick of her "smartest grandchild" wasting her talent but, luckily, I was immediately offered a full time position at the University, in the Department of Medicine even, and the rest is history. I will be applying to med school, fingers crossed, next app. cycle.
Good Luck Everybody!
