I have to move to get residency for the med school I would like to attend, so that means looking for a new job. Does anyone have any suggestions on jobs that would help when applying to medical school? I have a law degree, work as lawyer, and am licensed in the state I will be moving to. I am not opposed to practicing law but since this will be a short-term, hopefully a 1yr job, I would be willing to sacrifice a significant portion of my salary for something that will help on my application. I'm the sole breadwinner in a family of three, so while I can take a job making less, I have to make something so I can support them. I've tried looking with little success. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Good Pre-med jobs for a JD
- Thread starter gst426
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Personally, I would take the job that guarantees you the the highest salary, which in your case is probably law. Taking an entry level job is not going to significantly add to your application and it sounds like the extra money would really help in your situation. If you need to continue building your application, just volunteer somewhere.
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Moving in the hopes of getting into a particular med school seems nuts to me, especially when you have a family to think about. Why not continue working as a lawyer? Why med school? How will you support them while you're in school?
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Agree with the others. You'll never be a cookie cutter premed. You can be an experienced lawyer who brings something new to the table though. If there was some way to do law relating to medicine, that would be useful perhaps.
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I'm a lawyer and while I didn't move to apply to med school, I did have to make some big changes to my career. I'd actually suggest looking for something with a flexible schedule or even part time if you can afford it, so you can make time to do things like volunteer. You might also try to pick up some pro bono that is in some way related to health care or underserved populations. I did a lot of pro bono over the course of my career and it was a big component of my application to med school.
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Do law part time to earn money, and do the premed stuff (likely for free)the other part of the time. You really don't have the skillsets to make a decent income sufficient to support multiple people in a healthcare job at this juncture. However I note that a lot of us found it difficult to balance intense law careers and premed obligations and ended up "retiring" from law a bit early just to make this all happen. As pointed out, you will be without income in med school so whatever you are planning at that juncture with respect to dependants perhaps could start a bit earlier?
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Would be completely logical and appropriate if we were living in the late 1800s.
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I think it's all about risk mitigation. You have a family to support, so if you are a marginal medical school candidate without extensive savings don't do anything that will reduce your employment potential as an attorney if things don't work out and you need to get back into the legal profession.
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I know that most hospitals have people with a law degree on staff for legal purposes. It's called the "risk assessment" department at the hospital where I work. You might look into a job like this where healthcare and law meet.
