<p>i wish to go for graduate studies when i officially graduate. Now im being offered an asst lab officer position which is mainly on the daily maintenance of the lab, procurement, mouse-rearing. Should i instead concentrate on doing a research internship. My current internship involves helping research scientist in their work, learning valuable lab skills. im afraid that being a lab officer does not give me tat kind of training, it might become a daily mundane task of lab maintenance.
if i apply for graduate school, which 1 seems more attractive to the admission committee? Thank you.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard this terminology but the answer is that the opportunity that allows you to take on a project of your own will be best for graduate admissions. Purchasing, washing dishes, maintaining safety paperwork etc were all considered ‘undergrad duties’ when I was in your position but provided that the undergrad duties were taken care of, each undergrad in the lab had their own project to do with as we saw fit. It is these kind of projects that provide insight for what you might want to study in grad school, provide a formative basis for your career as a scientist and inform admissions committees that you could be competent in research in their program. In short, don’t take an undergrad position that doesn’t allow you to do a research project.</p>
<p>Yea, I agree with Belevitt. Often you’ll accept a position like that thinking you would have time for a side project but it is pretty hard to manage a lab and focus fully on your project. I would accept the research internship because admissions committees want to see you excel in research, and I doubt you will have that opportunity as a lab officer.</p>
<p>hey thanks for the advice…most of the lab officer in my current lab just maintain precious cell lines, prepare invoice, control lab budget, order equipments and stuffs and doesnt really participate in research while postdoc and research scientist do purely research and doesnt really do housekeeping at all…</p>
<p>Is one position paid and the other not? How badly do you need money? If you were my kid, I’d say take the one with the salary. You will gain immediately marketable skills that can take you into the workplace.</p>
<p>hey thanks everyone. I found yesterday the jobscope was entirely lab maintenance, clean mouse-****, procurement…man…heh…the money is quite ok but i dun tink i would sacrifice research experience for the money since its critical to graduate admission committee. Thanks agaiN~!</p>