Working as a pre-med: jobs, internships, life experiences

[triplebond]

I recently got hired as a part time pharmacy clerk and was going to accept the job soon. But my parents think that 1) a pharmacy job won't give me the clinical experience that a pre-med student needs and 2) I should just focus on doing well in school. While I understand that a large part of getting accepted into med school is good grades and MCAT, doesn't getting a job show adcoms that you can juggle the many things and still succeed?

If a pharmacy job isn't right, what sort of meaningful internships, volunteer, jobs, or experiences should I involve myself in that's provides clinical experience? Before applying to medical school, I want to make sure that medicine is right for me. While everyone may want to help/heal people, not everyone is cut out for the stress, blood, sweat, etc. that comes with the job. the What ECs were you guys in as an undergrad that you found rewarding and really exposed you to the technically side of medicine?

Thanks

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[NeuResurgens]

A pharmacy job is fine, and working during school can be a positive on your application. Plenty of us here work and juggle a few other activities while maintaining good GPAs. Just try to make sure you don't overstretch yourself. Are you feeling confident that you could handle this, but doubt because of what others say? Or do you doubt your own abilities to take on this job?

 

[triplebond]

I'll admit that I did have some doubts applying for this job, and I think it's because I've never worked before. But I just want an experience that's meaningful and pertinent to my pre med education. It's a job that I have to commit 2 years to so I don't want to take the decision lightly either.

 

[ConfusedChemist]

working with customers gives you more relavent experience than any of the typical volunteering/research stuff
find out if you really like caring for people, even when they don't care about you at all

bonus you learn to communicate respectfully and judgement free with anyone

 

[nwts]

If it's going to keep you from getting good grades and doing the other things you need to do like shadowing, volunteering, and probably doing something that shows leadership, then don't do it. However, I feel like some people freak out too much about putting all of their time into things that are supposed to be golden for a medical school app. For example, people who have 300 volunteer hours, but forgo a job so that they can have 400 volunteer hours. Maybe I'm overly optimistic and naïve, but I feel like adcoms understand that medical school and undergraduate degrees aren't cheap, and a lot of us need to work jobs to help pay for things. Sure, working a job is not an excuse to have a bad GPA, hardly any shadowing, or hardly any volunteer service, but would they really expect us not to work to pay for things so that we can pursue 600 volunteer hours and 200 shadowing hours?

 

[genericpremedstudent]

any kind of customer service is beneficial. for example, I used to be a stripper (no joke) and it definitely helped me with my interactions with people. not that I would list it on AMCAS or anything...