I'm looking for a new job

I think that's reasonable. I'm not particularly keen on staying in my current role. The work isn't all that interesting, I don't feel challenged. Sure the pay is great, but that won't sustain my interest in the long-term. Plus my skills are slowly wasting away, since I'm barely using any of them to do my current job. I've spent about 90% of this week either surfing the net or reading blogs. Rather a waste of my time, if you ask me. I still can't believe that someone is willing to pay me as much as they do for doing very very little work.

In complete contrast to my previous job where I was constantly staying back late, as the work always came in faster than I could get it out. Now, I'm getting paid almost double (about 1.7x more, to be exact) for less work and less stress. Everyone says that's pretty much a dream come true (to get paid more to do less work), and sure, I relished in my newfound freedom when I first started in this job, but now the novelty is really wearing thin.

The problem that I'm faced with is the sheer uncertainty of the med application process. I don't even know if I'll be offered an interview later this year, let alone a place at one of my chosen universities. I may have to suffer through the entire application process again next year. And because of this, what am I supposed to do in my current field? I can't abandon it completely, in the unfortunate chance that med doesn't go through (which is a complete possibility). So I want to continue developing my skills in my current profession.

So let's say I do land a new job, and all is hunky dory. Then the good news arrives (from my point of view, that is!) and I get offered a place at one of the universities. What happens to my new employer? I end up working for them for a few months, and then have to leave again to go back to uni. I don't think that's very fair on any employer to have to go through the entire recruitment process, only to have the successful candidate bail out on you after just a few months.

But say the news on the university front isn't so rosy, and I end up working for at least another 12 months for my new employer while I go through the whole application process again. That ain't so bad for New Employer….

B's opinion is slightly different to mine, though. He thinks that I should stick it out in my current job and wait until I find out whether I am offered a place. He reckons that over the next 18 months, I should put 100% of my energy in to landing myself a medical place, and then if that doesn't work out, then I can re-focus once again on my current field. I only have next year left to give medicine a shot before that 10-year rule kicks in, so he figures why not just focus on getting in while I still have the chance. And save as much as I can now in my well-paid and rather cushy job, before I revert back to being a poor uni student once again.

Perhaps I have the "grass is greener" mentality, expecting that a new job will offer me something more. Am I chasing an elusive dream job that doesn't really exist? And why am I chasing that job in my current field, when perhaps I will have changed to medicine in six months' time?