Hi everyone,
For those who know my situation, I am the resident who was let go before completing my intern year. I think the best option, for the time being, is to obtain a research position somewhere. The questions I have is how does one go about doing so?
1.Whom would I contact?
2.What would I say about why I want a position?
3.Would I be considered "overqualified"?
4. How much of a hindrance will being let go be in obtaining a research position?
5. Is it even possible to get a research position given my history?
I thank everyone in advance for their advice.
1. You could contact research institutions, the NIH (they have some post-doctoral fellowships BUT many want a PhD trained person, i.e. somebody who has been trained to do research, generally the M.D. doesn't teach you procedures and techniques and you can't be physically productive in a lab right away.
2. If you are just doing research to gain a residency position you would be much better suited doing more clinical work i.e. volunteering in an ED or something, research helps if you want a big fancy orthopedic residency AND you have the requisite good board scores, if you got fired from a residency then research isn't much of a backdoor into anything as you need to address why you could now do well in internship.
If you have always loved research and want to head into a research career then tell them that, but if you are just doing it as you don't have anything else to do or think it will help get a residency then think again. There are some people who post here who have worked in research for years after being canned from a residency only to find that they lack any recent clinical experience and can't get a residency.
3. You are sadly actually
underqualified. Unless you have done prior research work what labs love is somebody who say was a lab organizer/researcher for years and can do various fancy techniques even somebody who has grant writing experience, right now you don't have these skills. This is why folks get MD/PhDs, because it allows them to have the research background/experience. You *might* be able to get a research job BUT you would be competing with newly minted B.S. who have done research throughout college and who might be aiming for graduate school, it might be a tough market research job wise now, expect to start at the bottom rung, i.e. lab assistant making solutions or something like that and you might report to someone who has a master's degree or just a bachelor's degree but has been there longer.
4. It won't help having been fired from a residency and you won't be considered a doctor in terms of helping with anything clinical wise as you don't have the BE/BC in IM or whatever. It might turn off a lot of people
5. Probably, the best job if you LOVE research would be to get an NIH post-doc (they give some to MDs) and realize you will have to work very hard doing this, HOWEVER most if not all require prior research experience, if you haven't been churning out research in college and medical school then you are behind. Unless for sure you want to do research as a career, then I wouldn't do this at all, you would need to get clinical experience and act step 3 if you haven't already, and apply everywhere next cycle if you want to stay in medicine. Sure in 2 to 3 years you could buff up your research experience HOWEVER this is at the expense of your clinical training which would be out of date for most residencies to even consider you. Only open the research door if that is where you want to go.
