Post graduation: What now?5 mins read

This post is about my post-graduation/pre-housejob experience and how I was able to keep myself busy all those long months.

I sat for (and passed!) my final professional examinations in medical school in April 2018. As with many other students, both medical and otherwise, it was such a relief to FINALLY be done with school – all the late night reading, exams and waiting anxiously for results to come out. Even though a lot of older colleagues will always say things like “just the beginning”, “reading never ends” and all the other similar stuff, at that moment, it was just enough to know that I was done with that phase and could move on to other things in life. I was finally free to do whatever, whenever. It was bliss.
This bliss lasted all of a couple of weeks before it turned to boredom.

I’d like to state here how fleeting the happiness achievements bring can be. Don’t get me wrong, I totally dig having achieving your goals and ticking stuff off your year plan/bucket-list. However, we can all admit that the ‘high’ we get from achieving these goals, never lasts forever. This is what motivates us to do more and exceed our set target. It is the reason why after becoming a medical doctor, you want to become a resident then a consultant (and the equivalent in other professions), and even at that level you still want to be more. This goes to show that attaching your happiness to a particular achievement, although it could be a great motivation, can be harmful in the long run.

My days became routine-like, with nothing significant to fill them up and I just couldn’t wait to be inducted and start my housemanship year. As the boredom set in, I tried to find some productive things to fill my days with. I had foreseen this turn of events and had a number of things planned to occupy myself in my enforced free time. Although I didn’t get to do all, I was able to do a few which kept me occupied.

In my pen-ultimate year as an undergraduate, I had to conduct a research as part of the requirements for graduating. I got to present my research findings at local and international conferences, although I eventually didn’t get to publish it in a journal. I found that I enjoyed the process to an extent and didn’t find it as difficult as some of my classmates. So prior to writing my final exams, I reached out to a colleague who was into research and asked if I could learn more under him and he accepted. I also took an online course on Cousera and got my certificate for free (I applied for a waiver and got it!). I learnt quite a lot this period (and also made some money) and I was glad I took that step.

While still learning more about research, I reached out to one of my consultants who had mentioned while I was still in his unit as a medical student that he would need research assistants for a project he was working on so I got involved in that too. This was a bit tasking because it involved data collection (which is one of the most tedious aspects of carrying out a research) but I carried on with it because I didn’t have so much else doing, plus I was earning from it. 

All this while, I was chilling on LUTH to release their houseofficers’ list while also attending interviews and looking out for other openings. There was always news that the list of successful candidates will be pasted ‘soon’ – this soon could be “the end of the week”, “in 2 weeks’ time” and so on but that list still never came at the stated time.

The last major activity I got involved in prior to starting my housejob was a promotional campaign where I was the team medical doctor, offering basic check-ups and medical advice. The campaign required travelling with a team of about 6 other people, including one nurse, to 7 South-Western Nigerian cities – Akure, Ado-Ekiti, Oshogbo, Ile-Ife, Ilorin, Offa and Ibadan – within a period of 4 weeks. It seemed like fun but I also had some reservations because I could get called by LUTH at any time and will need to resume in like 2 weeks and being so far away from Lagos then wouldn’t be a good idea.

In spite of my reservations and after consulting with some friends, I decided to take the plunge and accept the offer and handle anything that came along the way. The campaign experience was a good one, I got to travel, meet new people and speak lots and lots of Yoruba. I am glad I didn’t pass up on the offer because of LUTH as the long awaited list didn’t come out while I was on the trip. Post ‘roadtrip’, I decided to take time out to rest a bit while also taking up some other research jobs.

In retrospect, I realize that most of the things I did were research related and also involved making some money on the side. I also did some work on finding out more about different aspects of medicine in order to figure out what I want to do going forward. I haven’t honed in on my specific field yet but my choices have been informedly narrowed now, thanks to my search.

About two weeks after I got back, I received a text from a friend saying that she got a call from an organization that we had both been interviewed by the Health Management Board, Akure for housemanship placement (I had applied there while waiting for LUTH – putting my eggs in different baskets, and went for the interview in the middle of my ‘roadtrip’). I panicked initially because my phone had been switched off all of that day so I didn’t receive any call. I called my mom and she helped me visit the office and found that my name was on the list of employed applicants. I was relieved.

Concerning this job offer, I was elated and worried at the same time. Elated because I finally had a job, worried because I didn’t want to leave Lagos, for several reasons. Thankfully, I had a period of one month to consider accepting the employment offer before it could be revoked so I used that time to stylishyly wait for LUTH while also preparing myself mentally to relocate to a new state for my housejob.

Three weeks later, LUTH finally sent out their highly coveted employment text messages – and I didn’t get one. I was shocked for some moments because I really thought I’d get it but I immediately got over myself and thanked God that I had a job already which made the experience less painfully. At that point, I didn’t have a choice anymore as getting housejob placements didn’t exactly come easy so I prepared and got ready to move out of Lagos for 12 months.

I said my goodbyes, packed my stuff and boarded a bus to Ondo State to begin another phase of my journey.

• Housejob: Also known as housemanship. A period of one year (two in some countries) during which newly inducted medical graduates are assigned to hospitals and trained under consultant doctors (with many more years of experience and certifications).
• LUTH: Lagos University Teaching Hopital.