Tell Me I'm Being An Idiot

[Detective SnowBucket]

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For once I want SDN to tell me what it always does...you're just being a neurotic premed.
I'm on my gap year. I have good stats and I didn't get in last cycle because I was critically low on volunteer hours. After 2 interviews and one post interview WL, I didn't get accepted anywhere. I got 1 II this cycle so far but.....I am still doing .... all with my life since graduating in May! I do absolutely nothing and have been since I stopped traveling and settled down in late July!

I am looking for a job. I have gotten 5+ interviews for jobs and I went in for one 'working interview' even, all in MA positions. I've applied for so many MA positions but have gotten so little interest.

Do I need to go into a paid clinical position? I was hoping med schools would see that and know that I will have even more clinical experience since last cycle (what brought me down in the first). At this point I just need a job, should I really hold out for something in healthcare?

 

[Moko]

Tell Me I'm Being An Idiot

You're being an idiot. I only read the title. You're welcome.

(After reading the post: how much additional clinical hours have you accumulated? Applicants do not necessarily need a paid clinical position, though having one now would address your two major problems: lack of income and clinical experience. Have you attended the "5+" interviews for MA positions yet? Given the current job market, I suspect that one of those will net you a job offer)

 

[GloballyMed]

For once I want SDN to tell me what it always does...you're just being a neurotic premed.
I'm on my gap year. I have good stats and I didn't get in last cycle because I was critically low on volunteer hours. After 2 interviews and one post interview WL, I didn't get accepted anywhere. I got 1 II this cycle so far but.....I am still doing .... all with my life since graduating in May! I do absolutely nothing and have been since I stopped traveling and settled down in late July!

I am looking for a job. I have gotten 5+ interviews for jobs and I went in for one 'working interview' even, all in MA positions. I've applied for so many MA positions but have gotten so little interest.

Do I need to go into a paid clinical position? I was hoping med schools would see that and know that I will have even more clinical experience since last cycle (what brought me down in the first). At this point I just need a job, should I really hold out for something in healthcare?

If you need a job, then get whatever you could find. You can always volunteer to get the clinical experience you need. Do what you need to do to pay your bills. And no, you don’t need to have paid clinical experience. It would be great if you could get paid while gaining clinical experience. But it seems like the most important thing for you right now is getting a job. So do that.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

You're an idiot. I only read the title. You're welcome.

(After reading the post: how much additional clinical hours have you accumulated? Applicants do not necessarily need a paid clinical position, though having one now would address your two major problems: lack of income and clinical experience. Have you attended the "5+" interviews for MA positions yet? Given the current job market, I suspect that one of those will net you a job offer)

All but one of the 5+ went beyond the first interview, the last one I'm still waiting on. I'm now at a little over 100 clinical hours and 175 non clinical volunteer hours. The lack of income is not a huge deal since I'm living at home.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

If you need a job, then get whatever you could find. You can always volunteer to get the clinical experience you need. Do what you need to do to pay your bills. And no, you don’t need to have paid clinical experience. It would be great if you could get paid while gaining clinical experience. But it seems like the most important thing for you right now is getting a job. So do that.

The job/income is not a huge deal, I could live forever at this rate (at home)

 

[Peter Pan.]

For once I want SDN to tell me what it always does...you're just being a neurotic premed.
I'm on my gap year. I have good stats and I didn't get in last cycle because I was critically low on volunteer hours. After 2 interviews and one post interview WL, I didn't get accepted anywhere. I got 1 II this cycle so far but.....I am still doing .... all with my life since graduating in May! I do absolutely nothing and have been since I stopped traveling and settled down in late July!

I am looking for a job. I have gotten 5+ interviews for jobs and I went in for one 'working interview' even, all in MA positions. I've applied for so many MA positions but have gotten so little interest.

Do I need to go into a paid clinical position? I was hoping med schools would see that and know that I will have even more clinical experience since last cycle (what brought me down in the first). At this point I just need a job, should I really hold out for something in healthcare?

You’re being an idiot.

 

[Means]

If you live in or near a major city with that has a saturated healthcare market, it can be extremely difficult to find even an MA job without prior experience. I was in the same boat as you and applied to probably 30+ jobs until finally landing one. If you really want to get a clinical job while waiting for interviews, just apply to any job that sounds remotely interesting regardless of qualifications and hope for the best. I will say that being an MA gives you invaluable experience in learning how to communicate with patients and provide basic patient care.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

If you live in or near a major city with that has a saturated healthcare market, it can be extremely difficult to find even an MA job without prior experience. I was in the same boat as you and applied to probably 30+ jobs until finally landing one. If you really want to get a clinical job while waiting for interviews, just apply to any job that sounds remotely interesting regardless of qualifications and hope for the best. I will say that being an MA gives you invaluable experience in learning how to communicate with patients and provide basic patient care.

Yea I’m in a large city. It is saturated (but what do I know) I’d like an MA job but I’d rather not be jobless

 

[907914]

All but one of the 5+ went beyond the first interview, the last one I'm still waiting on. I'm now at a little over 100 clinical hours and 175 non clinical volunteer hours. The lack of income is not a huge deal since I'm living at home.

You are still kinda critically low on clinical hours...is 100 what you were at upon application....?

 

[CaptainPoopyPants]

Medical scribe?

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

You are still kinda critically low on clinical hours...is 100 what you were at upon application....?

yep

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Medical scribe?

Applied for those too

 

[keolu hills]

Phlebotomist. Some labs will train lab assistants to become phlebotomists.

 

[Cornfed101]

Outpatient clinics are often looking for assistants. I work in an ophthalmology clinic. It pays like 2x what I was making as a scribe with better patient exposure and everyone keeps their clothes on. Win/win/win

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Outpatient clinics are often looking for assistants. I work in an ophthalmology clinic. It pays like 2x what I was making as a scribe with better patient exposure and everyone keeps their clothes on. Win/win/win

I've applied to almost only outpatient clinics because all the hospitals want CMAs

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Phlebotomist. Some labs will train lab assistants to become phlebotomists.

I looked into that since I'd like that sorta position but all the jobs are for certified phlebotomists.

 

[CaptainPoopyPants]

You could work at a plasma bank. They train you to be a phlebotomist.

 

[907914]

I looked into that since I'd like that sorta position but all the jobs are for certified phlebotomists.

A phlebotomy class is usually only a couple weeks though, right?

 

[Select All That Apply]

@Detective SnowBucket Confused why you are going for MA positions with no certificate. Not understanding the focus here on MA. Also, hard to gauge what exactly is going wrong, but tempting to appropriate a lot of your current difficulty with self-sabotaging behavior. Is the clinical setting not offering any clinical positions? It's so hard to give advice when there is little information on the table.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

@Detective SnowBucket Confused why you are going for MA positions with no certificate. Not understanding the focus here on MA. Also, hard to gauge what exactly is going wrong, but tempting to appropriate a lot of your current difficulty with self-sabotaging behavior. Is the clinical setting not offering any clinical positions? It's so hard to give advice when there is little information on the table.

I'm applying for medically related positions. They do not all require a CMA license. What have I done to sabotage myself? What clinical setting?

 

[Select All That Apply]

I'm applying for medically related positions. They do not all require a CMA license. What have I done to sabotage myself? What clinical setting?

You have clinical volunteering. Is your volunteer site not hiring anyone in a medically related position?

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

You have clinical volunteering. Is your volunteer site not hiring anyone in a medically related position?

No, I also graduated and left that town

 

[Select All That Apply]

You're looking for a position that you have no certification in limiting yourself in terms of job prospects. Just because an MA position does not list certification as a requirement does not mean that they are not looking for certified applicants. It also doesn't mean that a certified MA is only restricting themselves to MA roles that specify certification as a qualification. Your B.A./B.S. is not a broad certificate and in some cases can be limiting as many employers within this field are just looking for someone who is a specialist in phlebotomy, EKG reads, etc. and it doesn't help that there are many community school programs that deliver on that end.

You had clinical volunteering experience, but you did not consider looking for employment in that type of setting. You are looking for jobs, but did you ever consider what the jobs are looking for from you? I would suggest talking this over with your parents or to hire a headhunter, I know that if I go any further that I'm probably going to get another infraction for not spelling out what should be common sense. Or at least not doing it in a hand-holding manner when these issues have to be forcibly teased at one at a time from the ground floor up. I already deleted my initial response to this thread because I knew it would be taken poorly.

Clinical volunteering though for someone especially with a B.A./B.S. in a field like biological science is the best opportunity for you to treat it like a job and then to transition that into a real experience. However, I have seen plenty of "premeds" ruin that opportunity by treating the task like an obligation and showing 0 passion for attempting to turn it into an employment opportunity. Getting your foot in the door and building a relationship is always the first step and hospitals are the most willing setting to allow you to fill out a piece of paper, drop it off, and then to allow you to build a list of contacts within the hospital that you can use to transition into a job.

 

[differentiating]

OP, please correct me if I’m misunderstanding: you know that low clinical hours sank your last application cycle, but you’ve applied again without increasing that number significantly? If so, I’d focus first on increasing clinical volunteering hours while you’re hunting for a job.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

OP, please correct me if I’m misunderstanding: you know that low clinical hours sank your last application cycle, but you’ve applied again without increasing that number significantly? If so, I’d focus first on increasing clinical volunteering hours while you’re hunting for a job.

Actually that is a pretty big increase from last time

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

You're looking for a position that you have no certification in limiting yourself in terms of job prospects. Just because an MA position does not list certification as a requirement does not mean that they are not looking for certified applicants. It also doesn't mean that a certified MA is only restricting themselves to MA roles that specify certification as a qualification. Your B.A./B.S. is not a broad certificate and in some cases can be limiting as many employers within this field are just looking for someone who is a specialist in phlebotomy, EKG reads, etc. and it doesn't help that there are many community school programs that deliver on that end.

You had clinical volunteering experience, but you did not consider looking for employment in that type of setting. You are looking for jobs, but did you ever consider what the jobs are looking for from you? I would suggest talking this over with your parents or to hire a headhunter, I know that if I go any further that I'm probably going to get another infraction for not spelling out what should be common sense. Or at least not doing it in a hand-holding manner when these issues have to be forcibly teased at one at a time from the ground floor up. I already deleted my initial response to this thread because I knew it would be taken poorly.

Clinical volunteering though for someone especially with a B.A./B.S. in a field like biological science is the best opportunity for you to treat it like a job and then to transition that into a real experience. However, I have seen plenty of "premeds" ruin that opportunity by treating the task like an obligation and showing 0 passion for attempting to turn it into an employment opportunity. Getting your foot in the door and building a relationship is always the first step and hospitals are the most willing setting to allow you to fill out a piece of paper, drop it off, and then to allow you to build a list of contacts within the hospital that you can use to transition into a job.

I am not only applying for MA jobs. I wasn't staying in the city where I did my volunteering and they were only hiring social workers anyways. Limited or not, I have applied to around 30 positions for MA alone at this point. Now to my original question. Is there a reason I should hold out for a clinical job, whatever it may be.

 

[differentiating]

Actually that is a pretty big increase from last time

What is your current total?

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

What is your current total?

This time its 175 non clinical and a little over 100 clinical.

 

[differentiating]

This time its 175 non clinical and a little over 100 clinical.

That's my confusion - I thought you said you applied with 100 clinical hours before. How many did you have the first time, if you only have 100 now?

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

That's my confusion - I thought you said you applied with 100 clinical hours before. How many did you have the first time, if you only have 100 now?

30.


yes, 30.
Also, I was wrong, I'm at 136 clinical volunteering hrs now, not 100


To believe I got 2 interviews with 30, 1 T20 and one low-yield. Is my volunteering what you're basing recommendation for job type off of?

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

You are still kinda critically low on clinical hours...is 100 what you were at upon application....?

Re-read AMCAS, 136 clinical & 175 non clinical.

 

[differentiating]

30.


yes, 30.
Also, I was wrong, I'm at 136 clinical volunteering hrs now, not 100


To believe I got 2 interviews with 30, 1 T20 and one low-yield. Is my volunteering what you're basing recommendation for job type off of?

That was definitely a dumb idea to apply with 30, but bygones are bygones. 136 is an improvement for sure, but still on the lower end of clinical hours for applicants, so I'd continue to increase that during this year; that way, you can offer up updates about your clinical experiences during interviews/etc. I have no opinion on job type; clinical volunteering would work just as well.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

That was definitely a dumb idea to apply with 30, but bygones are bygones. 136 is an improvement for sure, but still on the lower end of clinical hours for applicants, so I'd continue to increase that during this year; that way, you can offer up updates about your clinical experiences during interviews/etc. I have no opinion on job type; clinical volunteering would work just as well.

Good to hear. That was actually exactly my plan! Send updates as the year went along, regarding increases in clinical hours. I didn't count on it being so hard to find a clinical job though. I guess I'm not as worried because I already have 1 interview and I would be super happy to go there so we'll see!

 

[907914]

I didn't count on it being so hard to find a clinical job though.

That is the ****ty thing about being a premed - most of us major in biology or chemistry, but those degrees are useless unless you want to work for a university or private lab or the forest service lol

Clinical jobs are all certificate and degree-path driven. You can’t do anything clinical with a general bachelors degree. You might be able to become a lab assistant if you are OK with people who have a 2 year degree making $5 an hour more than you, but lab assistant isn’t really clinical work. You could use it as a means of funding a phlebotomy license, which is also a cut in pay and kinda backwards...