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Landing a job before your externship ends.

Hi everyone. I have a question. A former classmate & I were talking the other day about the above mentioned subject. We are both in the middle of our Externships. We decided to wait until we graduated before starting them. There were some classmates who chose to do theirs b4 graduation. Some are finished. Some aren't. Anyway, my classmate brought up the topic of getting a job b4 the externship was completed. I never thought of that, but I guess it COULD happen. She said she's been applying for job for the past 2 weeks and if she is offered one, she's gonna take it. She asked how I felt about that and I really couldn't answer her. As I said, I never thought of that happening. We have already gotten our cma certificate and will get another one when we complete our externship. She feels like the cma certificate would be enough for her to land a job w/o also having the certificate saying she completed the externship. She doesn't plan on taking the national certification test right now, so she feels like she can go on and apply for jobs.

So, has anyone ever been in that situation?

Are You Still In School? NO

Are You Working? NO

Re: Landing a job before your externship ends.

Hi. I actually landed my first job at the practice in which I began my front office externship. As I was working there the school allowed me to also do my back office rotation with him. The tricky part was wages. As part of each externship you have to put in a certain number of hours in the office. I was then paid for my additional hours in office. Like your friend I didn't go on and sit for my certification exam which I now regret. I'm faced with finding a new position as the doctor I work for is retiring and without the certification in a field that so many are entering I'm finding that getting a new job is a bit more difficult. Because I have been at this for 30 years I've been checking into grandfathering in order to get my certification but not finding much information out there. I would recommend she take her exam and by all means if you feel confident in working before you finish school then I would advise you to go for it. Good luck!

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Medical Assistant/CPC

Are You Still In School? No

Are You Working? Yes. Full time medical assistant/CPC