Previous Post: http://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5352
Thank you so much for your input and advice on my last post. I was happy to see that the input I've received from everyone seemed very understanding of my situation. I'd like to provide some updates, if you'll bear through my wall of text, if not you can skip to TLDR below:
I developed some depression since my first post that I'm currently taking care of with some professional help. I've also done a significant amount of distraction, self-doubt, and navel-gazing about the future. A lot of that distraction and navel-gazing has continuted, albeit with more work on my part. My SO and I also broke up within that time. Subsequently I have made more friends outside of the program in this new city as well as adjusted my expectations from my fellow students.
So I am still in the medical program. I passed last quarter with a C+ average (something I would have never considered acceptable in my undergrad - I had a 3.5+ GPA). And at one point I did have a job offer to return to my old lab job. Through some serious consideration I decided to continue the quarter and school.
However, some jobs I did apply to did come up with interview offers. I received one offer for a more permanent position at a different area of my same Lab. The pay would be 65k/year with full benefits, incrementally increasing vacation, and raises. I would be a contractor - but they did say that the funding for that position would be indefinite - though dependent on what gets passed down from above, and the contracting company said that the job would be available for at least the next 4 years (they have a contract with my lab that renews every 5 years, with a high likelihood of continuing).
I loved my old job. There was a good deal repetitive lab work, but I loved the prestige of it, the feeling of satisfaction of serving a public good, and freedom it awarded me. Now I have the ability to not only have a great wage and some degree of stability - based on performance (it is incredibly difficult to get a full-time position at my old job, you need to either have some form of status - veteran - or a master's degree) but also to work in an area that I loved, something I thought was closed off to me. My old job was a four-year max position for recent grads and a great envirorment with intelligent, young people - completely unlike a "real job".
The new position would definitely have more responsibility, be more dangerous, and I would have to learn some new methods. But its so exciting to me! Right now I'm seriously considering dropping out of school for this if I get past the final interview. I also have another offer which would be potentially be more stable - working in a forensics lab at a state gov job in the midwest, which I also find awesome. It would be for 40k, but stability is worth something, and I could get paid to go to school.
Every day I feel demoralized at school. I feel like the school is not prestigous enough for me (it is for-profit, and they have predatory practices on recruiting undergraduates). It was ranked high in a list of the worst schools in the US in a national publication within the last 5 years, though it is still good in its medical programs. Also I still don't find the material particularly interesting and struggle to memorize it (too much time to thorougly learn).
Actual work experience-wise I go to my clinical rotations, and even on good days with excellent preceptors that I enjoy I come back crying. I feel like I'm forcing myself through this program. I just feel so bored in the hospital, and when I see the work my preceptor does - its mostly paperwork and little actual medicine - which I don't like as much. Almost all of my friends and family have been supportive of my decision to drop out.
If I complete my program wholesale I would most likely earn a job making 100k+, in a field that usually has very high job satisfaction - flexible hours, 5-6 weeks vacation, stable, and one that is in high demand currently. Almost all my preceptors love their jobs, have great middle-class lives, and would never picture doing anything else.
I often find myself - in the time that I should be studying - looking at graduate programs for my field of research or applying for jobs in science. I have recieved 5 interview/job offers from this. I feel so conflicted because I feel that I should be more into my program while I pine for other options and careers/jobs in my interest.
I also know that now that I have a transcript with sub-par grad grades it will affect any applications I will have to a science grad program. I also feel like the fellowship I would be shooting for would be out of my reach with a crappy semester record and dropping out of a program. I would like to complete it - but its $3000/mo. I'd leave with 100k in debt. If I'm going to get out I need to do it now.
There is a chance in the contractor position of possibly gaining an advanced degree while working and then hopefully transitioning to a full-time employee, but it seems a remote prospect at this point. Although with all the offers I'm receiving it seems that my work experience is much more in-demand than I thought. There are lots of applications, and I could just go get more experience, and work in science industry later. I could reasonably retire after working 15+ years if I continue to retain this level of salary, and live comfortably otherwise. I wouldn't even feel the need to totally retire, I would be doing what I love and getting paid.
I have talked with the dean about my concerns, and they said that they have written reccomendation letters for drop-outs before. And I have been giving it a great deal of my effort, excluding some distraction. This may make it easier to apply for science grad schools.
TLDR - Still unhappy with current medical program, now deeper into it, and school debt. Dream job available with medium-term stability, great pay, good envirornment, and much more meaningful work. Feel like I've taken myself a step back options-wise with continuing school, but now would be the time to pull out if I want to make a career towards science.
I appreciate any discussion or opinions on this, but I'm pretty set on going back into science.
Statistics: Posted by NewERE88 — Fri Oct 24, 2014 2:13 am