Framing Engineering experience as a positive?

[Donald Kimball]

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Hey all,

I've been working at an engineering firm as a senior designer and project leader since last year, despite graduating from college with a degree in biology and psychology.

I will be a reapplicant this year, and I had trouble explaining in interviews why I went into engineering after college if medicine was my goal. Truth be told, I needed the financial stability of the job because I couldn't afford being paid a pittance to scribe or nurse, while also being expected to volunteer, etc.

This cycle, I am planning on describing my choice to go into engineering as a decision to challenge myself, build real world experience, and secure my financial stability so I could still pursue shadowing/clinical experiences.

I think the teamwork, leadership, and analytical skills I've developed and enhanced at my job will be incredibly useful to me as a future physician.

I'd love to hear how some of you are framing your decisions/career choices/skillsets.

 

[qwertysdn]

Personally I think everything you said sounds completely reasonable (but I'm just another premed so I don't know how adcoms view this). I'm looking for a job atm and when I looked at the pay for being a scribe... man.. and most of the positions are part time. I think being a scribe you get less pay than working at In-n-Out (fast food chain in Cali). I think it's pretty cool you've been able to get a solid and interesting job.

 

[sazerac]

Yeah you got it. I would emphasize "leads others", "finds the best practical solution given multiple constraints", and "my passion is in medicine". Have a story or two to back up each point. You'll be fine.

 

[ridethecliche]

I think the question that they're really asking is:

"If this kid went to school for engineering and now has worked in engineering for a bit and is already sick of it and looking to jump ship, then how can we trust them to not do the same for medicine?"

Did you volunteer during undergrad?
If you had good med related experiences during undergrad and currently, you should say that you were interested in medicine throughout. However, the reasonable follow up question, then, is to ask you why you didn't just apply straight out of undergrad.

These are things you should definitely think about.

I would probably say that you were interested in learning to approach problems from a completely different perspective and that's why you chose to get experience the way you did. If you had volunteer experience throughout, then tie it back to how you saw things differently.

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

I think the question that they're really asking is:

"If this kid went to school for engineering and now has worked in engineering for a bit and is already sick of it and looking to jump ship, then how can we trust them to not do the same for medicine?"

If they are asking that then they did a really poor job of reading his transcript.

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

Hey all,

I've been working at an engineering firm as a senior designer and project leader since last year, despite graduating from college with a degree in biology and psychology.

I will be a reapplicant this year, and I had trouble explaining in interviews why I went into engineering after college if medicine was my goal. Truth be told, I needed the financial stability of the job because I couldn't afford being paid a pittance to scribe or nurse, while also being expected to volunteer, etc.

This cycle, I am planning on describing my choice to go into engineering as a decision to challenge myself, build real world experience, and secure my financial stability so I could still pursue shadowing/clinical experiences.

I think the teamwork, leadership, and analytical skills I've developed and enhanced at my job will be incredibly useful to me as a future physician.

I'd love to hear how some of you are framing your decisions/career choices/skillsets.

I'm confused about a few things. Your status says that you're a "medical student-accepted", but here you say you're a reapplicant?

Senior designer of what?

I don't see why explaining that it was just a job, not a career move for you, isn't the most reasonable explanation. Without an actual engineering degree or maybe an architecture degree your vertical movement potential at an engineering firm should be pretty limited. (though, I've seen crazier things in this business.) So, "I found a good paying job that would allow me the resources to volunteer my time on the weekends, shadow physicians, etc".

 

[Donald Kimball]

I'm confused about a few things. Your status says that you're a "medical student-accepted", but here you say you're a reapplicant?

Senior designer of what?

I don't see why explaining that it was just a job, not a career move for you, isn't the most reasonable explanation. Without an actual engineering degree or maybe an architecture degree your vertical movement potential at an engineering firm should be pretty limited. (though, I've seen crazier things in this business.) So, "I found a good paying job that would allow me the resources to volunteer my time on the weekends, shadow physicians, etc".

Thanks, I was going to go down the path you suggested by describing my engineering experience as a means to more fully explore medicine.

However, I was recently accepted to medical school yesterday, so I hope that explains the discrepancy!

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

Thanks, I was going to go down the path you suggested by describing my engineering experience as a means to more fully explore medicine.

However, I was recently accepted to medical school yesterday, so I hope that explains the discrepancy!

Awesome, congrats! Best of luck with the upcoming year.

 

[ridethecliche]

If they are asking that then they did a really poor job of reading his transcript.

Alright snarky-pants. I totally misread that part 😛