Leaving Gap Year Job for Another Job

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[CatDad26]

Hi everyone, I'm currently taking a gap year and have a CNA job that I started around March. Although I love my job and credit the job with confirming my desire to pursue medicine, there are a few problems with it. It is a night shift job, which I still have trouble adjusting. Also, the pay is on the lower end and I would ideally like a job that pays better. A raise won't be possible and a transition to day shift also won't happen unfortunately. With this job, I currently have around 400 hours of clinical experience, but I also have around 175 hours of clinical volunteering. I plan on asking for a recommendation letter from my charge nurse, who I get along with really well, but I don't want it to seem like I was there just for a recommendation letter. Seeing that a lot of scribe/CNA jobs pay similar in my area, I don't think it would be a good financial decision to continue this job for at least another year. Would it be a good idea to look for another job, even if it might not be a clinical position?

Financially it depends. Are you net negative each month or saving a bit? Do you have student loans/excess of bills? Of course it's important to save a bit before med school if possible, but at the end of the day the purpose of a gap year is to build your resume. As long as you can afford cost of living then continue to focus on resume building.

As for finding another job that's better paid... In terms of the CNA/MA/scribe realm your wage won't change much no matter what you do. Research jobs at medical institutions may pay better for a clinical research coordinator or research assistant gig, but still maxing out around maybe 50k. If you do have decent experience in either basic or clinical research I'd advise you to head to industry/pharma. If you have a masters or lots of undergrad experience you can see 6 figures even at a big company. My company starts out research associates at around 65k total comp if you have strong research experience from undergrad.

Feel free to PM me about the industry route if that's an option and I may be able to point you in some good directions.