Interesting medical jobs?

Edumate me about the world of part-time jobs in 2015/ biology filter

• Can you help me brainstorm part-time and/or temp type jobs relevant to the general population and also for me (background in biology) in 2015? I feel like an idiot for having to post this question. For the record, I have had part-time jobs in my life, but those were mainly in my high school/undergrad years, and from some of the posts I read within ask metafilter, I think that the economic climate is likely to be dramatically different now in 2015 (vs going through old questions in the archives). The predicament: I am planning to give myself a "sabbatical" and work on creative projects for 2-3 years. I have enough money saved up to do this without working, provided that I make changes to my cost of living (ie, move to a city with a lower cost of living, eat cat food, etc.). However, I think that if I work part-time along the way, I might be able to extend the time for another year or two. I am also a bit anxious about money, so having a small amount of money coming in at the same time would be helpful. I will also need to return to the workforce after doing this, so I want to still be employable if possible. I do have a primary alternative plan (ie, take on limited projects from my small business that only require ~a week of work every month or every other month), and/or contact businesses during the last quarter of the year in my industry and work like a dog during that time of year - but if this doesn't work - I would like to learn/think about part time jobs now. This will primarily be a backup plan. I want to stress that I am *not* looking for a full-time job, salaried job, etc., or anything that can turn into an uncontrolled number of hours. I do want to have the time to work on the other projects. All of the questions revolve around part-time work. • Are there types of part time work that anyone (or let's say a college grad) can walk off the street and pick up for a weekend, a week, every week on an hourly basis? What would be those types of jobs and where would you look for them? • Are there any special skill sets/certifications that would be worthwhile obtaining to get a higher per hour pay for part-time work? • I know absolutely nothing about temp work. Can someone only do temp work part-time or on a week-by-week basis? If so, are there skills that would be in higher demand (probably relevant to the previous question - certification, etc.) for these types of gigs? • This is a brainstorming filter for part-time jobs that might be relevant and interesting to me. I do have an undergrad degree in biology and a grad degree in a field within biology. Within the last few years, the main skill set that I could bring to any job is being able to search through pubmed quickly to find relevant biology-type or medical articles, interpret the info, teach it to someone or write it up for someone as needed. Besides medical communication companies, is there anywhere that would want or hire someone part-time to do this? Would there be any other relevant jobs for someone with a background in biology on a part time basis? For this last question, I am considering approaching labs/clinical studies for part-time work (this is alternative plan A for now). I have ruled out doing adjunct work because at least for me, even teaching one university course takes many, many hours and would be a job that I could do on an hourly basis and leave it afterwards. There might be more things that I have not thought about within this domain - so here is where you come in. I am considering relocating to Philadelphia, but haven't definitively selected a city yet, so ... if you know of places that will hire pple off the street for part-time work in Philadelphia, etc., it would also be relevant to this question. Like always, thanks in advance.

• Answer:

  Hi. Have you considered working in a city, county, state or national park? With a biology background, it is possible you could lead nature walks etc. Or, if that is even too close to teaching (you mentioned not adjuncting), what about being the person in the booth who takes everyone's 5.00 and hands them a map. You could potentially do some type of Fish and Wildlife/Department of Natural Resources work. Some park jobs are temporary and/or part time, focused mainly in spring/summer/fall because that is when the parks are open. Places to look for job postings are: 1. http://usajobs.gov - this is the official website for federal jobs. Look for The Department of the Interior (runs the national park service) and the National Fish and Wildlife Service 2. http://governmentjobs.com 3. Every state, county and city website within a 20 mile radius of where you might want to live. In the Minneapolis/St. paul area where I live, this is about 30 different websites. I realize I am focusing on outdoorsy biology and you may be looking more for medical biology. So give those sites a look through for medical stuff too because there really are a vast array of jobs available. Hope that is helpful. I was recently looking at this stuff myself because I was thinking of looking for an easy breezy summer position at a park.