Clinical Experience VS Lab Manager job for Non-Traditional student

Hello fellow students and Dr. Gray,

Here’s my situation. I am a recent college grad (STEM major) with a pretty horrendous GPA; cGPA ~ 3.0 and sGPA ~ 2.9. My college career started at a Community College and started very poorly (ex: I failed BIO 1 and CHEM 1 two times each before passing). After taking time off, I was able to go back to CC receive all As and Bs before transferring to a four-year university. At University, I took the rest of my prereqs for med school and many upper division science classes. This consisted of about 28 classes. In 25, I received As, while the other 3 were Bs. I should also add that I had a part-time job and was involved in a research lab.

Currently, I have two job offers. The first job is as a full-time scribe at a private practice. The second job is as a lab manager at a T5 school, with a two-year time commitment. The lab manager position is a support role, but there is potential for me to be on publications within the lab. I would also have the opportunity to work on an independent research project, and I would get to shadow physicians who have clinics at the school.

Originally, I wanted to take two gap years to do a post bacc, take the MCAT, work on my ECs, and get some clinical experience. But now I’m worried it’s going to take much longer than two years. At this point, I don’t have much clinical experience, and I know Dr. Gray emphasizes clinical experience, so I’m worried I should be focusing on getting hours for that over the lab manager position. At the same time, this position does sound like a great opportunity, and I am interested in the research they are doing.

I am pretty lost, so any input would be helpful. Thank you so much in advance!