Any drastic career changers?

[thisismyaliassn]

Hi everybody,

 

I graduated a year (Age: 24) ago from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor with a BA in Psychology and minor in Chinese (~3.6). I've been working in marketing/project management for about a year and I hate it. I worked in a hospital for about six months in food service and for a short amount of time in college as an immediate care receptionist. I find myself missing driving into the hospital almost everyday. It was food service for sure - but at the end of the day when I served food to people's rooms I felt like I was helping someone else. I loved the hard work. I worked 100+ hours/wk and generally liked it.

 

I miss analytical problem solving and recently developed a love for science over the past two years.

 

I recently took my first prerequisite at a local community college (Dev psych, which I suprisingly never took at uni) in the area and also got my phlebotomy certificate (not easy working 60+ hours/wk). I'll be looking for phlebotomy jobs in the area. If I decide to exit the marketing industry, it'll be insanely difficult for me to get back in (I'm assuming).

 

I'm still trying to figure out if this is exactly what I should be doing and the right way to go about exploring it.

 

Some questions for people in the forum -

 

- How much debt do you come out of PA school with? I've got 30k from undegrad now. Just trying to figure out how much of my life I'll be in debt. H

- Has anyone come from an entirely different field / changed careers to medicine? What was your motivation?

- How did you go about taking the classes to get into PA school? I'd probably 1-2 community college classes while working 50-60 hours/wk every semester.

- How did you come to the conclusion to become a physician assistant?

- Is phlebotomy a good foot-in-the-door job to get into a hospital? How much is the pay? Did/Do you like it? I'm just trying to figure out if I can live on it or if I"ll have to move back in with my parents (don't really want to do that).

- Also considering getting a CNA - what's that like? Is the pay generally good enough to live off of?

- Any other advice or things to consider before making a big career change like business to medicine?

- Any other ways you'd recommend going about it with the (marketing) experience I have?

 

Thanks!

[thisismyaliassn]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong forum. Could one of the mods delete this? I'm going to post it in the Pre-PA forum.

 

Thanks.