Trying to Find Work during my DIY Post Bacc

[DerivativeIntegral]

I'm 24 and currently support myself financially working at an office job. I took a break from the medicine route after working as a scribe in the ED for a year and a half, but realized I should have never deviated off the path. I'm leaving my job next week so I can focus on taking my pre-reqs (2 classes a semester) but I also need to work to support myself. It's also necessary to leave my current job right now because it was only contract work and it has ended.

There seems to be some clinical options, anesthesia/ophthalmic technicians, EMT, CNA, MA, etc. but I've only applied where I could really because a lot of jobs require special training. I'm getting a bit worried because I want to do well in school, but need to pay the bills. Should I take training classes while also doing my pre-reqs and then apply for jobs or shotgun apply everywhere or try to make connections by shadowing? Anyone who's done a DIY post bacc while working who can give me some advice, I'd much appreciate it. Thank you.

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[BleedinBlue2016]

Hey there -- I was in a very similar situation. Fortunately, I was able to take a 'leave of absence' from my work for 6 months in order to finish my DIY classes rather than quit, so I am going back to full-time work once I finish this semester. However, in order to support myself for the next few months without totally draining my savings I am doing two jobs - scribing and tutoring (through a large third party).
I think the key is to find jobs that also boost up your application & are good experiences so that it doesn't feel as though you are 'wasting' study time just to pay the bills.

Getting a scribing job was super easy, and while there is a good amount of training, it's paid training after you get the job and the training is all online so you can do it from your house. The pay is pretty horrible, though.
Tutoring is a lot better, and has a similar online paid training. If you have a high SAT/ACT score, I would definitely recommend going through an organization like PR, Kaplan, Varsity Tutors, etc. since they pay reasonably well ($20+/hr for in person classes) and you don't need any prior experience because they fully train you.

Keep in mind that both of these are options that require pretty large time commitments - in the upcoming semester I will be juggling 2 classes, volunteering, both of these jobs, and studying for the MCAT. I've pretty much sacrificed all social time until the end of the year and there's a pretty big possibility that I'll have to sacrifice another of these activities towards the end to ensure that my classes and MCAT don't suffer. I'd suggest that you definitely have a proactive scheduling game plan if you're planning on working while taking classes and studying.
Good luck!

 

[katiemaude]

How much you want to work really depends on how many classes you need to do your DIY post bacc and how quickly you want to do it. I had to do all the prereqs plus I wanted to take anatomy and physiology (two semesters with labs) and I took a psych class by choice. It took two academic years including one summer. I did not work for the first year and summer because I knew I needed to put 100 percent effort into getting As and I didn't know how much extra I could do on top of classes plus volunteering in a local emergency department for 250 hours over that time (volunteering is more important than patient care experience for med school, although hands on patient care is also good - its just more relevant if you want to go the PA route). I was fortunate to have most of my housing expenses covered by renting out rooms in my house and I got a grant for career changers to pay for classes. I went into $10K of credit card debt for living expenses because I didn't qualify for student loans. I did some freelance work in my previous career to keep the debt reasonable.

The second year I worked part-time in a medical office. Like 15 hours per week. I continued that while taking MCAT classes and studying for the MCAT. Once I took the MCAT I found full-time work as a CNA type (with extra duties such as phlebotomy) in the hospital. This gave me exposure to different kinds of medicine. I also worked as an OR tech for a year. The hospital trained and paid me during the training for both positions.

As for what job is best, if you must work for the money, might as well get clinical experience at the same time. It's something to write about, talk about in interviews and will help you shape what you want to do. I would keep any job to less than 20 hours per week if you are carrying more than two science prereqs with labs as part of a full course load. Your priority should be getting As and learning the material for the MCAT.