Research Assistant or Clinical position before grad school

[syzergy]

Hello All,

I have a question that I've been bouncing back and forth in my head for weeks. I graduated last year and have been working as a paid research assistant while prepping myself for grad school madness. It's not a full time position, at most 20 hours a week, so money has been tight.

I applied for a massive government hiring for foster care and child protective services. I did well in the interviews and they have been contacting my references (a good sign). I'm expecting to hear from them within the next couple weeks. This would be a full time position.

My dilemma is that I want to keep working on my current research project because it's given me experience and credentials (posters, publications, etc.). The full time government position would solve my money issues but it's not research based or directly related to my research interests. I'm focusing on intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Child abuse is kind of related to my interests. My mentor said I need to decide if I want to work specifically with women or children before applying to grad school but I'm not there yet.

I have worked in 5 research labs over the years and three different clinical positions, most all related to intimate partner violence or children. I feel like I already have a lot of clinical experience so the only real benefit of the government job would be the extra money.

Ideally, I would want to add a second paid research position to get in more hours. I work for a large research university where undergrads are begging for research positions so trying to find another paid position is near impossible. I've searched the area for other paid research opportunities (hospitals, privately funded, other schools) but haven't found any.

My mentor is the director of clinical training at my university and she's been invaluable for my sanity, but even she isn't sure what I should do. There are pros and cons of both decisions so I was wondering if anyone had any input. Even just asking questions to help me figure out my path would be really helpful!

Thanks!

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[syzergy]

More information: I plan to apply to clinical phD programs that are highly matched in terms of research interests. A lot of them are highly competitive so I'm really leaning towards keeping the research position.

 

[jynx]

Have you considered taking the government job and then looking for an unpaid research position? Or would the lab you're currently working in let you reduce your hours or work a few hours a week on a volunteer basis, so you could keep working on your current project?

 

[reluctantPhd01]

If you have already obtained some posters and publications from your current position, and you think your mentor there would give you a strong letter of recommendation, I would say take the government position. In the end, your goal is graduate school, not a job in research, and you need to focus on that end goal. I would say take the government position, and like the above poster mentioned, try to reduce hours or do stuff on the weekends/evenings. Maybe even see if your new job would let you trade in one week day for a weekend shift. Just make sure you leave things on a good note with the current position; you want that letter of rec!

 

[syzergy]

Thanks guys, this is some good advice. Still waiting to hear back from the position (guess I should get used to waiting, hmmm?). I think I'm going to take the position and try to cut back hours on my research job. As much as I would love to just do research, it's just not paying the bills.