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I graduated with a biology degree 2 or 3 years ago, thinking about applying to some health careers. My stats aren't the best, around 3.08 cumulative gpa and a 2.7 science gpa. Alot of the main common advice I get for whatever program I want to go in says I need to do a masters program, I need to go through more schooling, my stats aren't good enough etc... What program can I realistically get into and make a decent living? Or better yet what can I do right now to make a decent living, 60-80k is my goal. One of my friends had a tough time and got into the military as an officer so thats the path he has chosen, but I don't think that route is for me. Alot of my other friends are just working low wage jobs with not really any plan to get out.
At this point I just want a [bleep] career hopefully around 60-80k in health care. I don't need to be a doctor or anything, I just want to get in a program and get a career so I can start living my life. I am more of the mindset of I work to live, I don't live to work. 8-5 job making 60-80k I am good. Have enough money to do my hobbies and live my life. Its hard out here scraping by making 10 bucks a hour living at home with my parents when I have a degree. Can't do anything with my science degree, getting into grad program is the best option. Any programs I should look into? I know alot of aspiring health care professionals have been on this path.
Last edited by PJSaturn; 02-24-2016 at 09:22 PM..
Reason: Inappropriate language.
You have the ever popular nursing as an option. However you can also look into the allied health fields: sonography, respiratory therapy,x-ray tech etc...-however depending on how you ask, Respiratory therapy is a "dying profession" X school is pumping out to many surgical technicians etc..., so its hard to tell if the allied health field is thriving or dying.
Going the office side, assuming you don't have a masters in health management or know someone internally, you will most likely be competing for the patient registrar, unit clerk type positions and in my experience hospitals are very SLOW in getting back to job applicants if in fact they get back to you at all. IT in healthcare is another option, however I don't know to much bout that area.
The first step I guess would be do I want to go the clinical side of healthcare or am I interested in the non-clinical area, then go from there.
You have the ever popular nursing as an option. However you can also look into the allied health fields: sonography, respiratory therapy,x-ray tech etc...-however depending on how you ask, Respiratory therapy is a "dying profession" X school is pumping out to many surgical technicians etc..., so its hard to tell if the allied health field is thriving or dying.
Going the office side, assuming you don't have a masters in health management or know someone internally, you will most likely be competing for the patient registrar, unit clerk type positions and in my experience hospitals are very SLOW in getting back to job applicants if in fact they get back to you at all. IT in healthcare is another option, however I don't know to much bout that area.
The first step I guess would be do I want to go the clinical side of healthcare or am I interested in the non-clinical area, then go from there.
Thanks for the response. I don't know I am just frustrated with life atm. I just want a stable career. Some people find their passion and thats all they want to do with their life, for me I just want a stable career then I can do my hobbies and live my life. Being broke and living under your parents roof is no fun. Feel like my life is on hold if I don't get into a program, that I am just waiting and wasting time.
The desire of just wanting a stable career fades pretty fast after you have one. And your statement of just wanting a stable career "atm" is telling. Specifically, it tells me that after that stability is achieved the moment will be over and there is too high a likelihood of misery if your only pursuit is something at the moment. Get it? My guess is that you do but don't care because, like you said, you want what you want. so ok...
The quickest, most stable, highest paying career that comes to mind for you would of course be nursing. That's no mystery. There are plenty of schools that have fast track BSN programs. And you should definitely have all the pre-reqs (with a BS in bio). You must have looked into that right? Your gpa isn't good enough for the top nursing programs but there are tons that are perfectly good and that you can enroll in.
Give up the idea that you "work to live"... that's just fluff talk. It sounds good, until you realize everyone has a life outside of work. You can always pick a job that work 12 hour shifts and only work 3 days a week. When you spend more days off than you work, you better find a hobby. Living in midwest, I was able to travel from Mexico to Canada, from Nevada to Carolina on my days off. It took me 2 days to drive out there, and 2 days back. I did that for a year before I got tired of seeing the highways (I went on road trip nearly every week to see friends/sights/campgrounds). Others I know "slow" travel and worked travel contracts where they got to stay in an area of the country for a few months. 3 friends are still doing that, they follow the seasons, one goes up and down west coast (Alaska to California) and 2 are on east coast Maine to Florida. Now I am back in midwest and looking forward to family life. I plan to work current job until retirement.
Working a traveling job is nice for new grads (well "new-ish", they like people with a year or two of experience). They pay housing, provide gas money (or rental car), part of per diem is tax free, have 401k. You get a few vacation days, but it isn't really "needed", you just take a week or "month" off between contracts. Sure you aren't paid but well, you really save enough as a single person during the contract to be able to take time off unless you have other obligations at home (family/loans). Travel Nurse Tax Deductions and Salary Package Tips is a pretty good description of it. I'm not a nurse, but pretty much the same package deal, just more travel nurse info online than other kinds of travel allied health. The Gypsy Nurse is good for the lifestyle of travel work as well. Aureus and Fusion medical are two good companies. They sometimes get bad rep online but the case handlers are good if you are professional and do what you agree to in contract. They assign you a case handler while you work with company so you don't get someone new each contract, so you get to know each other and they learn that you like "rural vs urban" or "north vs south" or "west vs east" jobs. One of my friends who started traveling was simply because it paid better than her home area and we ended up at same hospital.
I also worked with someone that is a full time PRN. He agrees to work the hours/shifts he wants. He buys health insurance on open market since it isn't provided to PRNs. But he works PRN at a few places and end up working 70-80 hours a week, but he takes 2-3 months off a year too. As PRN, he can just "not agree" to work during that time period, and he doesn't need to "request" off and hope it isn't rejected. PRNs often make "PRN rate", about equal to overtime rate of normal employee because they don't provide benefits so the money isn't bad either.
Your bio degree, I can't say much in that regard. It's a personal choice. I work with people with all kinds of degrees so it being a bio or not doesn't matter. But to get proper certification, degree might matter, or you have to go back and take those classes first.
I'm just giving you ways you could "live a life" as an allied health from personal experience of work schedule, and how friends do it with their own schedules.
PS: Fairly "easy" way to fed job is through IHS... they seem to always be short since they are in a rural area and the field has fewer competition than general work force. Transfer out later if you want. Sure indians get preference, but the odds that there are as many of them in same job and applying at same time is a lot lower than general public jobs too.
The allied health and nursing call all be done at a community college, though if you go the nursing route I recommend going to a 4 year and getting a BSN right off the bat. The question then is: do I have the time, money , commitment to go back for X program? I believe many of the allied health fields can be done in about 2 years of schooling (assuming you don't have to take any prereqs) and a fast track nursing program will be under 4 years.
"money" shouldn't be much of an issue... I mean it is, but nearly all of my employer/former have paid all or part of the tuition. They require you to stay for a length of time to work it off, but you are paid for the work like anyone else and you have a job. If they don't have a job open for you then you can go elsewhere and not pay it back. But you can't just "strike" off on own without paying them back either, it's just if they don't have a spot for you that contract with them ends without you paying them back. Its rare though, since they only offer to pay for people who they know they need.
The MLS program I did cost me about $3k for entire thing, tuition/books, then I got it back after working for them but I made more than program cost during that time, so it was a nice bonus, but still "worth" it cost even if I didn't get it back. If people haven't graduated yet, they could do it as part of their 4 years of college too (this would cost whatever the college rate is). No idea what it costs now though...
edit: I think it cost $6k overall, not $3k. It was $3k/semesters, but the cost really wasn't too bad was what I was trying to say.
Go to All Nurses forum and read through the threads. Read through them for a few weeks to get an idea of what you're going to be dealing with. This will give you a very realistic assessment of what it will be like.
I graduated with a biology degree 2 or 3 years ago, thinking about applying to some health careers. My stats aren't the best, around 3.08 cumulative gpa and a 2.7 science gpa. Alot of the main common advice I get for whatever program I want to go in says I need to do a masters program, I need to go through more schooling, my stats aren't good enough etc... What program can I realistically get into and make a decent living? Or better yet what can I do right now to make a decent living, 60-80k is my goal. One of my friends had a tough time and got into the military as an officer so thats the path he has chosen, but I don't think that route is for me. Alot of my other friends are just working low wage jobs with not really any plan to get out.
At this point I just want a [bleep] career hopefully around 60-80k in health care. I don't need to be a doctor or anything, I just want to get in a program and get a career so I can start living my life. I am more of the mindset of I work to live, I don't live to work. 8-5 job making 60-80k I am good. Have enough money to do my hobbies and live my life. Its hard out here scraping by making 10 bucks a hour living at home with my parents when I have a degree. Can't do anything with my science degree, getting into grad program is the best option. Any programs I should look into? I know alot of aspiring health care professionals have been on this path.
There are some one year programs for those who hold BS degrees. They become Medical Laboratory Scientists or Clinical Laboratory Scientists. This is also a BS degree. It can pay very well depending on what state your are in---I wouldn't bother in some places. But you can start at 50K+ but it depends on location and you will earn less than nurses.
Don't just do health care because someone says it's good. Not everyone is meant to be a nurse.
Nursing sounds like a quick and easy career fix, buts it's not. It's actually one of the most difficult positions in healthcare with tremendous amount of responsibility. The schooling is no cake walk, many people compare it to "boot camp" and that it literally takes over your life for 4 years. Then, once you finally do graduate, jobs are more scarce than you think. I second the poster that mentioned going to allnurses forum to really get an idea of what you would be getting yourself into. Many say that it takes a good 5 years after becoming a nurse for the feeling of being physically ill from nerves while driving to work or crying after a hard shift to start to subside. It's not an easy profession and this is why many, many nursing students drop out and many nurses quit nursing within the first 2 years out of school.
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