Which internship would you have chosen?

[NormalSaline]

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I sent out 2 summer internship applications in early Feb. One to a VAMC in the midwest and one to a huge tertiary care hospital near where I go to school.

Got a call for a phone interview almost immediately from the VAMC. The facility primarily focuses on ambulatory and long term care (which i thought would be a good stepping stone into the institutional world for me, since ive only worked retail). The interviewers were very friendly and told me they would cater my summer towards whatever I would like to focus on. The position seemed nice and laid back. They offered me the position at $13.55/hr. I accepted.

About a month later, I got a call back from this huge, busy hospital. Even though I had already accepted the other position, I still did a phone interview because I thought it would be good practice, and I wanted to know more about this job. The position coordinator seemed very uptight and not very conversational. The position actually seemed to me like a mini-residency which I saw as a huge plus. But it included 40+ hour weeks with "some additional weekends", clinical pharmacist shadowing, projects, journal clubs etc etc. Definitely not a relaxing summer job. Well, today they called me back and offered me a position at $20.xx/hr😱😱😱

I'm extremely excited about where I'm going, but if I had both offers set in front of me simultaneously, I'm not sure I would have made the same decision....

If you had both offers at the same time, which would you have chosen and why?

 

[gaba101]

I sent out 2 summer internship applications in early Feb. One to a VAMC in the midwest and one to a huge tertiary care hospital near where I go to school.

Got a call for a phone interview almost immediately from the VAMC. The facility primarily focuses on ambulatory and long term care (which i thought would be a good stepping stone into the institutional world for me, since ive only worked retail). The interviewers were very friendly and told me they would cater my summer towards whatever I would like to focus on. The position seemed nice and laid back. They offered me the position at $13.55/hr. I accepted.

About a month later, I got a call back from this huge, busy hospital. Even though I had already accepted the other position, I still did a phone interview because I thought it would be good practice, and I wanted to know more about this job. The position coordinator seemed very uptight and not very conversational. The position actually seemed to me like a mini-residency which I saw as a huge plus. But it included 40+ hour weeks with "some additional weekends", clinical pharmacist shadowing, projects, journal clubs etc etc. Definitely not a relaxing summer job. Well, today they called me back and offered me a position at $20.xx/hr😱😱😱

I'm extremely excited about where I'm going, but if I had both offers set in front of me simultaneously, I'm not sure I would have made the same decision....

If you had both offers at the same time, which would you have chosen and why?

of course (in a heartbeat) the latter job offer for all the advantages you listed and the fact that you'll most likely have a guaranteed job during the school year due to the close proximity to your school. However, since you already accepted the other job offer for a month already, I'm sure they already have moved on and away from the "interview" mode so if I were them, I'd be pretty pissed that I have to reinterview everyone and you wasted my time. With that said, since you accepted the job offer at a nationally recognized place (it's the VA), I wouldn't burn any bridges if I were you...(despite how attractive the latter offer is). pharmacy's a small world...

 

[njac]

well the idea of amcare/clinics makes me shudder, so I'd take the hospital. $13+ is decent money for an internship. I wouldn't back out of an offer I'd already accepted. Maybe next summer you can try at the hospital.

 

[NormalSaline]

Oh dont get me wrong guys, I'm definitely sticking with my first choice. I'm a man of my word. And Im really excited to live the midwestern fishing/biking/relaxing type life.

But I'm more interested in these questions: hypothetically, If you could choose between either, which do you think you would learn more at? which would look better on your CV? Could you turn down $7/hr x 400 hrs extra?

 

[njac]

I'd rather work in the hospital. But I know it's what I want to do. I wouldn't have even applied at an amcare/LTC VA.

But I don't mind working a lot as long as I get something out of it.