Taking Time for Clarifying Goals

When I graduated I wasn't completely sure I wanted to go to medical school. I decided that if I wasn't certain, it wouldn't be a good idea to spend a lot of time applying and attending, while spending a lot of money in the process. 

I looked on Cornell CareerNet for medical-related jobs around January, February, and into March, but a lot of them were already taken. A friend of mine suggested that I go onto the NIH funding website and see who is getting funded in areas that I was interested in. If they had a lot of funding and their research topic sounded interesting, I sent them an e-mail and attached my resume.

I sent a ton of these things to people being funded at places that interested me, and I interviewed with six people in Boston, three in NYC, and three in California. I got at least one offer to work at any one of the places for a year or two, so it did work. Cornell CareerNet probably works for a lot of people, but this approach is a little more proactive.

I never took any of the offers, however, because while I was doing all that I also called a professor I had worked with a previous summer and told him I was looking for jobs to last a year or two to figure what I wanted to do about med school and also improve my application if I did go. He offered me a job to work with him while I was getting a Master's Degree. If I chose not to go to med school I would also be moving in the direction of a Ph.D. (my other option besides going to med school). I took this job/grad student position. I happened to end up using a connection to get a job, even though I always used to be annoyed when other people got jobs through "connections."

Therefore I say to those taking a year off: first, make a good resume. Then call your "connections" and see if they can help. Look at Cornell CareerNet. If all else fails, be pro-active and e-mail people who are in the location you want to be and doing the things you think are interesting.