Does it look bad to have "gaps" between jobs

[JulianaW]

I am applying for the 2011 cycle and I graduated May 2010. My plan was find a job ASAP after graduation and stick with it until my apps were in... but it didn't turn out that way. I ended up finding a job that didn't start until mid-June, so I went home and visited fam/relaxed/went to San Fran in the meantime. I started my job in June (a full-time clinical thing) but left after a month because 1) I was bored out of my mind as a PCT and I felt I had gotten all I could out of that particular position 2) I wanted to look for a research job.

I found and started a full-time research job in September and I'm still at it.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I was getting worried that it would look bad that I didn't have a continuous job after college. Do you think this matters? I don't know how closely the timeline of my activities will be looked at and if anyone will care if I didn't have a job in May and in August.

I do tutor so I did keep that up throughout my job switches.... and I was studying for the MCAT.

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[frescoengano]

I am applying for the 2011 cycle and I graduated May 2010. My plan was find a job ASAP after graduation and stick with it until my apps were in... but it didn't turn out that way. I ended up finding a job that didn't start until mid-June, so I went home and visited fam/relaxed/went to San Fran in the meantime. I started my job in June (a full-time clinical thing) but left after a month because 1) I was bored out of my mind as a PCT and I felt I had gotten all I could out of that particular position 2) I wanted to look for a research job.

I found and started a full-time research job in September and I'm still at it.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I was getting worried that it would look bad that I didn't have a continuous job after college. Do you think this matters? I don't know how closely the timeline of my activities will be looked at and if anyone will care if I didn't have a job in May and in August.

I do tutor so I did keep that up throughout my job switches.... and I was studying for the MCAT.

u r o k

 

[Southcane]

No it doesn't hurt you at all... During my time off after college i worked lots of random jobs at random times and traveled in between, so my work schedule looked all messed up. med schools don't really look at your detailed work history, they just look at what jobs they were and what you did

 

[gettheleadout]

Don't worry about this anymore...relax. You kept up the tutoring between the jobs, and its completely understandable that you'd have some time between them lining up/confirming a new one. Just the fact that you did get another is enough to show that you intended to spend your time productively working, and switching from clinical to research work gives you a broader experience than working in just one for a year.