Which job is more beneficial?

[cheerioay]

I've been offered two jobs on the same day: a medical assistant/receptionist position at a pain management department vs. a patient coordinator position at a neurosurgery department in a hospital. As a patient coordinator, I would be scheduling appointments, making sure insurance is accepted, etc.

I'm stumped as to which would benefit me more. On the one hand, the medical assistant position would give me hands-on experience with patients. On the other hand, the patient coordinator position would let me interact and develop relationships with neurosurgeons, which is what I want to be. (I know, most people want to become neurosurgeons but few stick with it or make it.)

Is the potential to network with neurosurgeons and volunteer for their research worth it to give up the hands-on clinical experience? The patient coordinator job would also be paying about $10 more per hour. I won't be applying until next cycle for admission Fall 2015. Thank you for any input!

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[galaxyx]

I've been offered two jobs on the same day: a medical assistant/receptionist position at a pain management department vs. a patient coordinator position at a neurosurgery department in a hospital. As a patient coordinator, I would be scheduling appointments, making sure insurance is accepted, etc.

I'm stumped as to which would benefit me more. On the one hand, the medical assistant position would give me hands-on experience with patients. On the other hand, the patient coordinator position would let me interact and develop relationships with neurosurgeons, which is what I want to be. (I know, most people want to become neurosurgeons but few stick with it or make it.)

Is the potential to network with neurosurgeons and volunteer for their research worth it to give up the hands-on clinical experience? The patient coordinator job would also be paying about $10 more per hour. I won't be applying until next cycle for admission Fall 2015. Thank you for any input!

Take the better paying job. Although premed networking with neurosurgeons won't help you much, the xtra $10/hr is significant to your quality of life.

 

[carnelian]

Hands on experience, imo, is more important at this point. For one, people change their interests all the time -- you might not even go into neurosurgery after doing your rotations in med school. Even if you do, connections built now might not help all that much years later. Hands on experience, however, will give you a better sense of what medicine, as a whole, entails of. Definitely more beneficial to a premed.

 

[circulus vitios]

The one that pays +$10/hour. How is this even a question?

 

[MindtheGlottis]

Take the better paying job. If you want experience volunteer more, but you should enjoy the years before med school. Take trips, go out, etc, and regardless what your into, you'll need the funds to do it.

 

[Juan Solo]

As said before, take the paying job because you will probably need the funds in the near future. It also sounds like a good experience.

Good luck!

 

[Pons Asinorum]

The one that pays +$10/hour. How is this even a question?

/thread.

 

[earf]

The one that pays +$10/hour. How is this even a question?

Take the lower paying job. Your bank account is obviously too full to handle an extra $1,600 per month.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Take the one that gives you the best opportunity to achieve the best possible grades and MCAT score.

People sound silly when they say they will automatically end up doing a competitive specialty, and especially planning their lives around it so quickly, no offense. I realize everyone is saying to take the $10 more per hour, but looking to the future, it's pocket change. At the end of the day, neither job is blazing new trails that will make an ADCOM go bonkers. So do what's best for you, which means GRADES, GRADES, GRADES. MCAT, MCAT, MCAT. If the job proves to be too much, then it's not worth it.

If money isn't an issue at all, you should do hospital volunteering. It's the best deal in town. Check off the clinical experience checkbox plus the volunteer checkbox simultaneously, at only four hours per week at most places!

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Take the one that gives you the best opportunity to achieve the best possible grades and MCAT score.

People sound silly when they say they will automatically end up doing a competitive specialty, and especially planning their lives around it so quickly, no offense. I realize everyone is saying to take the $10 more per hour, but looking to the future, it's pocket change. At the end of the day, neither job is blazing new trails that will make an ADCOM go bonkers. So do what's best for you, which means GRADES, GRADES, GRADES. MCAT, MCAT, MCAT. If the job proves to be too much, then it's not worth it.

If money isn't an issue at all, you should do hospital volunteering. It's the best deal in town. Check off the clinical experience checkbox plus the volunteer checkbox simultaneously, at only four hours per week at most places!

I think everyone was working on the assumption that the time/difficulty required of each of the two jobs is equivalent. Of course Planes' point is 100% accurate, but all things being equal take the higher paying job. Neither of them looks any more impressive as an EC on your app. They will look different on your bank statement.

 

[Planes2Doc]

The one that pays +$10/hour. How is this even a question?

I have seen too many self-hating pre-meds and medical students believe that getting paid LESS as a physician makes you more righteous. If you declined additional money in any other field, people would think you're an...

IDIOT.

But of course, more money is better given that the job does't negativelf affect anything else in your life.

 

[Barcu]

Take the higher paying one, which also seems to be the one you find more interesting. Those both outweigh the hands-on experience.

Yes, hands-on experience is good, and it will make you a bit more comfortable at the start of med school. However, you will be trained and expected to perform procedures. While people with some previous experience will be better at first, you will do enough that the gap will disappear quickly. The best training you can do as a pre-med is interacting with patients and getting comfortable with talking to them. You can do that whether your job is hands-on or not, and both of these opportunities seem to fit the bill.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Take the higher paying one, which also seems to be the one you find more interesting. Those both outweigh the hands-on experience.

Yes, hands-on experience is good, and it will make you a bit more comfortable at the start of med school. However, you will be trained and expected to perform procedures. While people with some previous experience will be better at first, you will do enough that the gap will disappear quickly. The best training you can do as a pre-med is interacting with patients and getting comfortable with talking to them. You can do that whether your job is hands-on or not, and both of these opportunities seem to fit the bill.

I can't emphasize enough how true this is! The former EMTs in ourclass had about a half-hour advantage over the rest of us. Too much emphasis is placed on getting jobs that are mostly irrelevant to what physicans do. Pre-meds aren't striving to become career scribes, EMTs, techs, phlebotomists, medical assistants, etc... You're asked to check the box that you saw what the clinical environment is. That's all that's asked of you.

 

[cheerioay]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I'm taking the higher paying one =)