The Benefits of Working a Part-Time Job During Medical School

Medical school is not easy. I should know, I’ve been through it. As a medical student, you need to endure countless mundane lectures, deal with tedious study groups, and basically learn an entirely new language (medical terms number in the several thousands). All throughout, you are forced to compete against the brightest of the bright for future job opportunities. These burdens are of course separate from any issues you may face while working a part-time job during medical school.

As detailed in some of my prior articles, medical school does not just come with academic stressors, but financial ones as well. As you likely already know, medical school is not cheap. At the time of my training, tuition varied from forty to sixty thousand dollars per year (depending on the state and school), and it is likely even more now. In this sense, medical students are tasked with not only trying to pass their classes and clinical rotations (and not killing people in the process), but also with finding ways to pay for this expensive educational experience.

Student loans, it turns out, are not always the answer when it comes to paying for medical school. While the amount a medical student needs to learn may be overwhelming, and classes require many hours of studying, it is still possible to find part-time employment. In this article, I will talk about my experiences working a part-time job during medical school. While this employment certainly made me busy, it also helped make me more efficient. As the old saying goes, “if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.”

As previously mentioned (ad nauseum) in some of my prior articles, I took out substantial student loans to pay for medical school. Several months into my first year of medical school, though, I realized that I did not borrow enough student loans to cover the full cost of my living expenses. Rather than obtain a private loan with a shockingly high interest rate, I decided to see what part-time jobs were out there.

I knew I needed a job that would let me set my own schedule, so even though I had some prior experience in the restaurant business, waiting tables or bartending were not very appealing options. I also don’t have much of an entrepreneurial spirit, so promoting myself as some kind of instructor (for tennis or piano) seemed to require a little too much effort. I therefore went searching online, and was thankfully able to find a job relatively quickly at a local tutoring company. Impressed with my medical school background, this company hired me to help with SAT/ACT prep, and to tutor high school students on a variety of subjects.

This job was perfect for me, as the hours were flexible (the kids had school during the day, after all), and my employer had no problem working around my busy medical school schedule (less work during exam time or during more difficult rotations). In fact, the tutoring company often advertised my medical school background in order to attract new parents and students to their company.

The hourly pay at my tutoring gig wasn’t half bad either! The average hourly wages for my previous work-study jobs during my undergraduate years were only slightly above minimum wage, so this job was definitely a step up from these more common part-time opportunities for students. Despite the great pay, the kids I tutored were sometimes a bit of a pain, and occasionally acted extremely entitled. Overall, though, the gig was super easy, and the students ultimately ended up doing whatever I asked. In addition, my boss at the tutoring company never required me to teach anything too difficult, as I usually taught students on topics with which I was familiar. As an added perk, if I ever needed time to study for medical school, I could simply do it while the students completed practice problems during our hourly sessions (I did have to be subtle, though).

By working a part-time job during medical school, I was able to earn enough money to cover the cost of one year’s worth of tuition. I also was able to cover most of my living expenses, all while only working a maximum of fifteen hours per week. Tutoring also made me a lot more efficient when it came to studying. Instead of procrastinating by binge watching some brainless show, I was forced to come up with a strict study plan based on my weekly tutoring schedule. Of course, I didn’t always stick to my plan, but I am convinced that I completed many of my medical school projects faster because I did not have the time to leave things for the last minute.

While my experiences working a part-time job during medical school were limited to a tutoring company, there is a whole array of part-time opportunities out there. If teaching is not your thing, turn a hobby into a money maker. In college, for instance, I had a friend who was talented with arts and crafts, and she was able to sell a wide variety of clothing and accessories through online websites. If you’re good at a sport or at playing an instrument, become an instructor! Or, if you like kids, become a part-time nanny or babysitter. Of course, many of these jobs will not allow you to cover the complete cost of college or graduate school, but working part-time can at least help lessen the student debt burden you may face.

Working a part-time job during medical school definitely has its drawbacks, and I will admit that some of my study time was likely compromised because of my part-time job. I do not know of anyone else who worked a part-time job like I did during medical school, and this is likely because most medical students want to devote as much time as possible to studying. But despite working 10-15 hours per week throughout most of my time in medical school, I still managed to graduate on time, get into a residency of my choice, and perhaps most importantly, maintain a normal work-life balance. Sure, I was definitely not the valedictorian of my medical school class, but unless you are going into a highly competitive field, who really cares?

There is nothing special about me that allowed me to work this tutoring job, and working a part-time job during medical school enabled me to lessen my student debt burden and gain some financial security that I would not have otherwise had. If I can work a part-time job in medical school, then so can you!

Adam Rothman is a guest writer for Student Debt Diaries and is currently a medical professional in the New York City area.  He is a brother of Jordan Rothman, the founder of Student Debt Diaries.  You can reach Adam through email at adam@studentdebtdiaries.com