Hello, it's me again - Gordon. But right now I feel like CHAD VADER - trying to be someone in control but failed miserably. Why am I saying this? That's because I could see the long-hard road ahead of me as a sports medicine researcher, but I feel like I can't do anything to make it smoother. I had a discussion with a junior faculty in the school, for the job market in this field in US. He described how difficult it is. How hard? Let's put it this way, it's like being in a large company like Microsoft, and you are working your way up to become the CEO.
Tony, an accomplished PhD student in our lab and a very promising sports medicine researcher, told me how a license in clinical field such as athletic training and physical therapy could help me secure more jobs. There are different levels of research institutes in US. Level one institute means a position which you could do solely research and have no teaching responsibility, but these positions are VERY VERY competitive and hard to come by. There are a bit more level two institutes, but they require employees to teach classes. Level three institutes are more numerous, but need employees to do not only research, but also teaching and clinical works. And this is where clinical licenses become very handy. They translate to more job opportunities and places where you could fall back.
I talked to Anne, my fellow master student and a very good physical therapist, about applying for PT license in US. She said she had already explored this possibility because she originally wanted to apply for a PT master program and work in clinics to pay for her tuition. And her inquiries turned up negative. It seems most physical therapy boards in US adopt a policy to protect graduates from native physical therapy program, and physical therapists trained in foreign countries have to take a lot of make-up courses, even though they may have took similar ones already back in their countries, to be eligible to take the board exam for license. These make-up courses are so numerous that it might be easier just to do the whole undergraduate program again. However, I don't really care about doing clinical works anyway. From my experience during PT internship, I had to stretch my nerves to the point of breaking every day from interacting with patients, and by the end of the week, I just didn't want to be near any human beings. I just don't see myself working as a clinician in the future.
I understand a lot of people have no choice but to do the jobs they don't fit in. For example, a lot of MD students switched their profession to math, arts, or something totally unrelated to medicine, once they got their MD license and worked enough to pay for their tuition loan. I must be very grateful to my parents for allowing me to skip this process, but now I have to face the reality - this is going to be an uphill battle.
Now I feel like singing Chad Vader favorite song - "Chocolate rain" with my own lyrics:
" CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!
I went down a road filled with obstacles.
CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!
I don't see any way to make it easier.
CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!
...
...
...
Tell me how could I stop the chocolate rain,
CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!"
P.S. Watch the full episode 1-8 of Chad Vader at Blame society film
