Best job during medical school?

[banker22]

Hi all

I posted a few months back. I am a late 20s / early 30s banker in London, and plan to leave finance in 2017 and retrain as a doctor.

I will have some savings to live off of, but was also planning to work whenever possible during my 4-6 year training period, particularly during the 2-3 year pre-clinical phase.

I am looking for some ideas as to what would be a good role for me during this time. It's worth noting that I have 18 months to learn / practice / develop / prepare for this.

Here are the criteria:

1. Flexibility: some weeks I will be able to work c5hrs, others (during breaks) I will be able to work full time.

2. I would like to earn £10-15k per year, averaging 10 hours per week. So £20-30 per hour.

3. I am open to anything. I have a background in finance, but am not wed to this by any means and it probably doesn't lend itself to criteria #1 or #4.

4. I'm not sure where I will be going to school, so it needs to have a degree of geographic flexibility.

5. I need to be able to become proficient in my spare time in 18 months. I may have scope for 1-3 months of full time training between ending my job and starting school.

6. I'm generally pretty good at learning new things, quite logical / quantitative and have been told I have a natural ability for programming, although have no formal training outside of a 4 day VBA course.

Do any ideas spring to mind?

Thanks all

[ether]

Why not become a nurse aid? I think the education requirement is very low. By starting out in the bottom trenches of medicine you'll know what it's like for the people that work under you! You'll be able to earn the respect of the nurses you work alongside when you become a doctor because you'll have experienced the same things they have.

[banker22]

Why not become a nurse aid? I think the education requirement is very low. By starting out in the bottom trenches of medicine you'll know what it's like for the people that work under you! You'll be able to earn the respect of the nurses you work alongside when you become a doctor because you'll have experienced the same things they have.

Thanks for the reply, and good idea. Unfortunately they only make an average of £7 an hour, with very little variance. As a result, I would have to work full time to hit my goal, which isn't really feasible.

[SimpleLife]

Why not become a nurse aid? I think the education requirement is very low. By starting out in the bottom trenches of medicine you'll know what it's like for the people that work under you! You'll be able to earn the respect of the nurses you work alongside when you become a doctor because you'll have experienced the same things they have.

Thanks for the reply, and good idea. Unfortunately they only make an average of £7 an hour, with very little variance. As a result, I would have to work full time to hit my goal, which isn't really feasible.

Uber?

[vexed87]

I was waiting tables during uni 2009-2013, flexible hours ~15-20/week and I would make minimum wage plus cash tips. The only problem was the antisocial hours and the odd people treating your like dirt because of what you do, don't let that put you off though as generally the public are pretty friendly and you can have a chuckle while you work with them too.

Depending on your skill/personality, you could be making anywhere between £2-20/hour in tax free tips. You have to avoid the quiet shifts to make a living in it, having a good relationship with whoever writes the rota's is key! I did ok, I made about £10-15/hour on top of minimum wage, and I'm hardly an extrovert/socialite (INTJ, but good at hiding it), psychologically exhausting work for an INTJ though.

[Riggerjack]

This doesn't really work with your requirements but may mesh with your goals.

Small care facilities, group homes, etc. Need a graveyard shift caregiver. Since the residents are already down for the night, you are there just to make sure nothing goes wrong. This means you get paid to study.

Mike_bos has a blog post about it, and my cousin paid his way through school this way.

Good luck.

[banker22]

Interesting one, thanks! I've had a quick look at the blog...any idea what the name of the post is or what some of the search terms could be?

Thanks !

[George the original one]

http://lackingambition.com/ was mike_bos' blog. His ambition for blog writing apparently wore off...