248 Days Since Graduation

Today I signed out at the Hospital where I volunteer and I noticed that I had completed over 50 hours of the Ambassador stage. The Medical Career Exploration program begins with 24 hours working in Central Transport (running labs, blood units, discharging patients and transporting non icu patients to internal appointments) and 24 hours in Patient Liaison (escorting patients to Pre-op or Day Surgery). I have completed over 30 hours in CT and 22.5 hours in PL. I made my appointment with the coordinator and when I get back from North Carolina in a couple of weeks, I will get placed in a department. So far the only placements I have heard of are in Lab Control, the ER and the NICU. I hope to get placed in Ortho because I am interested in Ortho or Sports Medicine. I have a hunch that this position doesn't exist. We will see.

So far it seems that I have my time planned out through the end of the summer. 24 hours at the Brookline Practice, 6 hours volunteering at the big hospital, blood drives and other miscellaneous volunteering as available, 8 hours a week with Elly til july, 8 hours a week with Jemma, 3 hours a week with Auden, 3 hours every other week with Grady. Class Mondays and Saturdays til July, and Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer. Somewhere in there I will spend time with my man and my friends. Sleep? I've slept enough in the last five years.

239 Days since graduation

Early yesterday morning I received a phone call from Amber. She said the practice in Brookline wanted an interview. The kicker is they wanted to do it over the phone (no suit was ever needed). Anyway, I went into work with the baby and put her down for her nap in time for my phone interview. Amber had sent me a detailed description of the position complete with important skills of mine to mention. I thought that I had done a pretty great job of sounding awesome, but the HR director sounded very disinterested. I was a little disappointed, but it was my first real job interview, so I chocked it up to experience.

I spent half an hour complaining to two friend about how I'd screwed up this job that was for the ideal position that I wanted. I got the baby up and we went out for an adventure. Then I got another call from Amber. She wanted to know how the interview went. I told her that I thought I'd done the best I could, but that they didn't seem too interested. Apparently part of the job of an HR director is too seem very composed and aloof because they hired me. I start as soon as I get home from NC. It's a MTRF position, so I will still probably work as Elly's Nanny on Wednesdays, and I may even keep my Sat, Sun baby sitting jobs as well as pick up a few extra weekday evening gigs. I'm so excited to start, though it is a Temp-to-Hire position, so there is no guarantee that the position will even exist permanently.

Now that the job hunt is temporarily over, I can focus on my midterms this week. I have one in Biology and one in Psychology, but I haven't even bought the textbooks for either class, so we'll see how that goes. On to the future!

235 Days Since Graduation

I suppose I wrote Amber off too soon. I received a phone call this morning offering me an interview with an Internal Medicine practice in Brookline. It's part time, temp-to-hire, and it pays 13-15 dollars an hour. The position is 18- 25 hours a week. This is actually fewer hours and less money than i was making as a part time nanny, but at least I can say I worked with patients. I'm certainly not turning down any interviews! Apparently Amber doesn't think I'm too under qualified to interview as an Administrative Assistant. This position would be ideal for me as it would still allow me to volunteer at the hospital, and maybe even get in some more time at the Blood Bank, and I have learned from speaking to medical students that I will need anything I can put on my resume.

This quarter I am taking two psych classes, Chemistry I & II and Biology I. I hope that come the fall or so I might be able to apply for a job working in a lab. This would be the best experience to get into a good medical school. Apparently medical schools, like most schools are more concerned about what you will bring to them as an Alumna than educating the best and brightest. While I wouldn't normally be concerned with getting into the very best school (my father went to an non-top 100 medical school and was able to get a residency at a top school and everyone in medicine knows that it's where you do your residency that matters), but part of my still has these hopes that I could land an Ortho residency. Orthopedics is, apparently, one of the most competitive surgical residencies - as if surgery wasn't competitive enough to begin with. The more realistic part of me is planning on going into Internal Medicine with a focus on Sports Medicine. Maybe a job in an Internal Medicine practice could be valuable experience even if I am the glorified receptionist. I say this like i've landed the job already. I still need to get a repeat PPD and take the software test. At least it's a step in the right direction!

234 days since graduation

I graduated from a well known, prestigious college in September 2009. This is the first year that I am actually beginning to feel like an adult. I'm finally learning to refer to it as "adult" and not "grown-up." Baby steps. Since my graduation I have worked as a canvaser for one of those non-profit groups that stop you on the street and beg you for money (only at this job we went door-to-door, at dinner time no less), and a nanny. I am currently pursuing a Post Baccalaureate Pre-med Certificate, with the goal of entering med school in 2012. In the mean time I want to find a job that is more fulfilling than retail, more stable than childcare and, ideally, will look good on a med school application. I have sent out my resume to more HR departments than I would like to admit. So far the best I have gotten is a phone call at a time I couldn't talk and a promise he'd call back that I am still (a month later) waiting to see carried out. This is a blog about my struggle to cope with the fact that I am now a certified adult completely responsible for myself and in control of my future (well as in control as I'll ever be.)

It has been 234 days since I graduated, and $40,000 into debt after graduating college, I am no more qualified to do any job than I was with my high school diploma. Most expensive piece of paper ever. Part of the problem is that I have a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Writing, Literature, and Publishing, but I spent my college time working as a Nanny and at Natural Grocery Chain. Without any internship experience I am qualified to do exactly that: child care and retail. Today, I visited a staffing agency. My agent told me I am not qualified to work as an Administrative Assistant. I can type 75 WPM with 95% accuracy, I speak English Fluently and I can tell time. How am I only qualified to be a receptionist. For those of you who don't know, Administrative Assistant is the PC term for Secretary. I have a college degree and I am not qualified to be a Secretary. Needless to say, I will not be returning any of her phone calls in the future. I am on to bigger and better staffing agencies!

One thing I did get out of the meeting, is that I needed to buy a business jacket. On my way home I stopped in at a discount out of season store. They did not have a lot of women's business attire, and what they did have was not separates or in my size, but I reluctantly picked up an $80 sized 8 suit and tried it on. I don't know if it was the fact that I was swimming in the thing or that it was the first time I'd seen myself dressed in business attire, but I looked in the mirror and I saw an eight-year-old playing dress-up in her mother's clothes (though ironically, I would be surprised to find out my mother ever owned a suit.). I decided $80 was too much to spend when all I needed was a jacket and it looked like something I'd stolen from my grandmother (who also probably never owned a suit). The last thing I need is Stacy and Clinton running down the street after me.

I did eventually find a jacket, and it was only $35! I look less like a child in it than the other suit, but I still find myself wondering how I got here. When did I grow up? Who decided I am qualified to be an adult? Who would ever hire me; I'm a child in an adult's body. Does everyone feel this way? Does anyone ever feel like an adult? At what age does the word adult not feel dirty and off limits? Will you hire me :-)?