Huh.

You never know where really good advice is going to come from.

Yesterday, I was sitting in my Outcomes Research class, and as class was wrapping up, one of the students from the Master's program, who I've talked to several times in the past came up to me and asked me for a favor.

Somehow we got to talking about age and our careers, and how it seems like we're never going to be finished. In her case, she did her medical training abroad, and then had to repeat EVERYTHING when she came to the US. In my case, I just started later than most.

In any event, she said something along the lines of, "You're interested in critical care, right?"

And I said, "I think so, but it's hard to say since I haven't done much actual critical care yet as a med student. But I really don't like outpatient medicine very much."

And she said, "Well, then it's obvious. You should do internal medicine. Then when your done with residency, you can get a job as an instructor, and apply for grants then, since you'll already have completed your research training."

And I thought about it, and she's right. I could totally do that. Most of the fellows in the Master's program are taking all of these classes because they've never had any research training before. I totally don't want to have to do that again. It would be a complete waste of my time.

The thing is, after the fellows get the research training, THEN they get jobs as instructors so that they can apply for grants and the like to support themselves as researchers. This takes 1-2 more years after fellowship before they take their first real job.

In fact come to think of it, my mentor, who also has an MD-PhD, did a Pulm-Crit Care fellowship, but spent the last 2/3 of it applying for his K award and a bunch of R01s. He took a class here and there, but that was it.

I did a bit of math in my head.

So, if I have 3.5 years left of this program.

Plus 3 year of internal medicine residency.

Equals 6.5 years until I get an instructor position and I can really start my research career for real.

And you know? 6.5 years is a heck of a lot more manageable sounding than 10 years.

I suppose if I did something like specialize.... in Neurology or in some IM specialty (ID? Cards? Pulm Crit Care?) I would have 1 extra year of clinical work before I started applying for grants, which is really not all that bad.

And this is all assuming that I don't fast track in internal medicine residency. That would mean only two years of residency before fellowship, and 5.5 years until my first "real" research job where I apply for a K award.

Considering I've already done.... 8 years of this so far if you count my post-bac, 5.5 - 7.5 doesn't seem so bad, really. I'm more than 1/2 done.

Wow.

Thank you for making my day, Master's student!

You never know where the good advice is going to come from sometimes.