Should I quit my engineering job?

[irishforever182]

I am applying the 2025-2026 cycle, and am currently working full time as an engineer in manufacturing at a pharmaceutical company. I am in need of some advice regarding clinical hours as a student with a background in engineering working full-time in the pharmaceutical industry (3.8 / 510). Financially, I cannot afford to quit my full-time job which requires me to work 50+ hours a week while being on call during nights and weekends. I have been volunteering at my local Children’s Hospital for a bit over a year for a few hours a week, reading to patients and bringing books and other library items to them in their rooms. I also have been volunteering with the hospice and visiting with patients to make sure they feel comfortable. My concern is that this clinical experience is lacking compared to others on this sub, and may not be viewed favorably by adcoms as I keep reading clinical experience is one of the most important parts of the application. What are some things I can be doing either in addition to or in replacement of these activities to get significant clinical exposure before I apply next cycle? If I were to keep with these two activities, I would probably have about 350 hours total.

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[double_doc_in_progress]

I'm an engineer in academia and work super full time, always 50+ and sometimes 65+ hours a week. I have lots of clinical hours from 4+ years ago, very few recent. I have a few II, all at my top choices, even though my LM is 65 and I applied relatively late to MD only. Here's my $0.02:
-From my experience so far, adcoms weigh the hours a bit differently if you work full-time in a professional job. Not an adcom but not having any current clinical hours doesn't seem to be deterring them.
-Your clinical experience doesn't seem particularly lacking compared to many others on SDN or reddit. The folks saying they have 5K hours of clinical experience, an 80+LM, and no II/A probably have some other glaring red flag in their apps.
-What does the rest of your app look like? Clinical experience is just one of a multitude of factors.
-If possible, get CNA training? or MA? Not so sure on this, many of my clinical hours came from EMT work but that's hard to do by next year
-Could volunteer for flu vaccination campaigns, some folks in my area do this - you wouldn't be injecting patients but helping to manage logistics etc.
-In my interviews so far, clinical experience has come up mostly as a way for me to articulate why I'm changing careers and why that clinical experience is relevant. So if you can tie your narrative to the clinical volunteering you're already doing, you may be all set.

Hopefully some adcom/advisors chime in here but if the rest of you app is solid, it doesn't sound like you're in a particularly bad spot. best of luck!

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

I only did volunteer hours and a very part time Saturday only clinic gig for mine. Also a former engineer, now MD student.

 

[ecobio]

I dont have advice on this specific question, but wanted to point out that you'd likely be a great fit for Carle IL school of medicine as they're the first (only?) engineering-based medical school.

good luck on your future cycle!

 

[PB2464]

I am applying the 2025-2026 cycle, and am currently working full time as an engineer in manufacturing at a pharmaceutical company. I am in need of some advice regarding clinical hours as a student with a background in engineering working full-time in the pharmaceutical industry (3.8 / 510). Financially, I cannot afford to quit my full-time job which requires me to work 50+ hours a week while being on call during nights and weekends. I have been volunteering at my local Children’s Hospital for a bit over a year for a few hours a week, reading to patients and bringing books and other library items to them in their rooms. I also have been volunteering with the hospice and visiting with patients to make sure they feel comfortable. My concern is that this clinical experience is lacking compared to others on this sub, and may not be viewed favorably by adcoms as I keep reading clinical experience is one of the most important parts of the application. What are some things I can be doing either in addition to or in replacement of these activities to get significant clinical exposure before I apply next cycle? If I were to keep with these two activities, I would probably have about 350 hours total.

Nothing compares to scribing in terms of ease of entry and clinical exposure that's actually meaningful. Find your closest ER and see if they have scribes. Find out which company they use. Easy.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Read

Q&A with Carle Illinois College of Medicine: Developing Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Health Professionals - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

 

[Hollow Knight]

Financially, I cannot afford to quit my full-time job

Easy answer then. Don't quit.

Go volunteer with hospice. Go sit and read books or visit with people who are dying on the weekends. That's what I did anyway, and it was good experience for the darker side of this job.