Looking for other work

Since it's a very real possibility that I will have to spend another year applying to medical school, I've decided to be productive with my time and not "relax" like I did this past year. This has very little to do with my future application and/or bettering my resume, because I sincerely hope I don't have to go through this process three times. That would suck. Instead, it has everything to do with my sanity.

My current job is pretty awesome...on paper. I have ridiculous flexibility with my hours and the work is challenging enough for me. However, it has nothing to do with medicine and I spend most of my time alone, either on my laptop at home or in my dungeon of an office.

I call it a "dungeon" because it's in the basement of the chemical engineering building and my desk is separated from the deserted lab space by a cage door/wall combination. I don't even get a real wall.

It's kind of like this, except jankier, sans female model (that would mean there are other people down there), and from the 70s with many holes that have been fixed by soldering:

In other words, I can't imagine spending another year doing what I'm doing. I crave human interaction, which is part of the reason I'm returning to medicine, and I want to do something that will advance my future career even if I have to start as a research underling. The skills I'm learning now have very little application to any sort of medicine or medical research I may ever envision doing. Oh, and our funding got cut due to the sequestration, so I may not even have a job come September.

So I've been applying for other jobs, which means even more writing, and you know how much I love doing that. Cover letters are even worse than secondary essays, for the record. I also can't help but think that all this effort I'm putting into plans for next year (job and school applications) is for naught because I may still get in off the waitlist. All this writing for nothing...hopefully.

Mostly, I'm looking for something in clinical research (definitely not bench work) and there have been postings popping up here and there. It's actually fortuitous timing because most people that hold these jobs have applied to medical school and are going to be starting in mid-summer/early fall. So more positions should open up.

The only real downside to these clinical research jobs is that I'm looking at a 1-hour commute to work and another hour back since the nearest major medical center is that far way. Well, that and having a legitimate 9 to 5 that I can't leave for Happy Hour on a whim is a slight bummer, since it's a situation I haven't had in a while (I've been fortunate with my job choices).

There would be some things to give up but I think if the position was a good fit, it would totally be worth it. I would have to make sure that I'd be participating in real research at least part of the time instead of just answering phones and coordinating emails, because that's the kind of job I currently have and I'm not willing to give that up quite yet. So that would be something I'd have to ask during my interview, if I were to get one. If it turns out to be more office work than research, then I'd stick with my current job, keep looking for others, and pick up a shift or two as a medical scribe to give myself something to do during the day.

Speaking of things to do, that's another problem with my life right now: I have no reason to get up in the morning. Like, there's nowhere I have to be and nothing I have to do. While this life is fun for a while, I can't deal with it for extended periods of time and I would love nothing more than having to be somewhere every weekday. I say that now, but a few months in, if I do get hired somewhere, I may be singing a completely different tune.