Gap year job dilemma

[Shejeboshease]

i'm a reapplicant this year...i already worked as a research assistant last year. as for this year, i can either continue my research at the NIH (in a different lab) or I can start working at the patent office. NIH pays about 26k and I can start from next week. However, the patent office pays about 40-50K which doesn't start until november. which means i will be unemployed (and without health insurance) until november.

for filling out secondaries, nih job looks great..and I can write about my experiences in my new lab. but if i wait until november for the patent office job, i got nothing to say about my year off in the secondary application.

personally, i would love to do clinical research at the NIH. its not like i would love to work at the patent office..i know it will be a boring office job..its just that it pays so much more.
what do you guys think?

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[DropkickMurphy]

Do whichever you would enjoy more. Trust me, being well paid to do a job that you hate sucks, even if the money is nice.

 

[Shejeboshease]

Do whichever you would enjoy more. Trust me, being well paid to do a job that you hate sucks, even if the money is nice.

i know...thats what i would probably do..its just that getting another 10-15K would have been really useful as i already have 5K credit card debts in addition to this year application costs and my undergraduate loans.




didn't someone say...no matter what..its all about money

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Yeah, but I've done a job where I cleared about 2x what I should have been making given the amount of work involved but would not go back to that unless it was my only choice. Whomever is responsible for that quote was probably crazy.

 

[Sir Buckethead]

In my 21 years of life, I have been fortunate enough to be uninsured for less than two total weeks.

unfortunately, during those two weeks was the only time I've ever been hospitalized. It was absolutely hilarious.

So I'd say option A.

 

[artaxerxes]

as a member of the uninsured, I live life on the edge of medical oblivion each day. Doesn't stop me from enjoying my life by getting kicked in the head though....

 

[Sir Buckethead]

stop ducking.

 

[RxnMan]

I am considering doing a year-off at the NIH, so I'm tempted to tell you to go for the NIH. But do what you want. If you think the patent job and the cash will help you do something more important (let you travel, let you apply earlier, whatever), then go for that. DKM is right in that a crappy job with high pay is still a crappy job, but if I had a carrot at the end motivating me, I could stand the short-term pain.

 

[superfan56]

both jobs seem fairly equal. Personally I'd take the higher paying job. I've been 2 years w/o insurance. But think of it this way, there is an end to your job. So regardless of how bad it might be, you always have an out. If you were doing this job for the rest of your life, it might be intolerable, but for a year you can stick it out

 

[brianmartin]

Seems like the patent job is leaning pretty far away from being medically related. Not that it has to be, but, you are applying to med school...