Lab tech position before grad school and advice

Graduate School
1

<p>I know many of you have held lab tech positions before entering PhD programs (as opposed to entering straight from undergrad), and I was hoping you could offer some insight.</p>

<p>I'm a rising senior and looking to apply to BMS PhD programs in the fall. However, I feel that my round of applications will be slightly complicated as I will be applying with my long term girlfriend (she's applying to medical school). This is putting me in a tough spot to apply to more programs than I normally would (15 right now). In case we don't end up getting admitted to schools in the same city, I am strongly considering working in the field for some time and re applying. From what I have gathered it is a great way to gain experience in the field; as well as verifying your own specific interests. </p>

<p>I know 15 programs is alot (per the thread posted a few days ago), however I feel confident that I have researched the schools enough that I would not be upset going to any of them. However, after looking through the list, they are some of the top programs in the country, and I am starting to second guess myself. (Rockefeller, GSK, UCSF, Cornell, Chicago etc).</p>

<p>Furthermore, I know many of you harp on the idea of knowing exactly what you want to study when entering PhD programs. However, right now I have a small variety of interests. Though I feel that I have a good idea of what I want to do, I am starting to second guess myself. I am interested in the immune systems role in cancer metastasis, primary tumor, or secondary tumor formation. In the fall I'll be taking cancer bio and immunology, so hopefully those courses will help validate and strengthen this idea. At the same time, whenever I look into what faculty are doing at a given school I am drawn to the work of gene therapy and various cancer therapies. I'm not sure if my interests are defined enough, or if I am just being overly critical of myself.</p>

<p>So I have a few questions about lab tech jobs, as well as applying to grad school in general.
1) How difficult is it to secure a lab tech job? - I know this will vary by lab and institution, but will I be looking at the same difficulty as getting into the graduate program?
2) Are the working contracts usually 1-2 years? How long would I be looking at working before re applying?
3) If I work at a given institution as a lab tech will I be in good shape or in trouble for applying for the PhD program? I know it is sometimes frowned upon to do a PhD at the same school you did your undergrad. Is this same sort of thing true with lab tech positions? Or will it actually work in my favor?</p>

<p>So, what am I missing? I know this post is probably full of naivety so I would absolutely love it if you guys could help me get over it and put me in reality. Sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to get organized.</p>

2

<p>first, don’t worry if you aren’t sure what you want to focus on- in my experience most people do not and, even if they think they do, they often change their minds.
there are many benefits to working as a tech- full-time experience in a lab, a better understanding of how much you actually enjoy the bench work that your given interest might entail and, not least for sure, people will treat you differently if they know that you have a couple of years of real lab experience under your belt (that and you are more mature, generally speaking).</p>

<ol>
<li>getting a position is easy. </li>
<li>2 years is the norm and really the best as it give you chance to get to know what you are doing and also get to know potential contacts to write letters on your behalf.</li>
<li> generally it will be to your advantage. a big plus if they know the person that will vouch for you- and i know that many people actually do go the route of working as a tech at the place where they eventually do their phd. </li>
</ol>

<p>of course, all this is just an opinion. good luck</p>

3

<p>I agree with mutation – it’s a great thing to have a tech position in a department where you might want to apply.</p>

<p>My lab has a pretty tough process for hiring lab techs, but I think not all labs at our institution do it the way we do. (We screen promising candidates through phone interviews, then invite them for in-person interviews if they still sound promising after the phone interview. This year, we interviewed 7 or 8 candidates and hired 4.)</p>

<p>And to clarify, because I’m one of the people who harps about knowing what you want to do before you come to grad school, you don’t have to know. (I didn’t.) But it will make your first year of grad school a lot happier and easier, and will make it more likely that you’ll successfully finish your PhD in a reasonable amount of time.</p>

<p>I think your plan sounds like a great one for circumventing the two-body problem. It’s tough to try to coordinate applications with a significant other, and it’s good to have as many options and backup plans as possible.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the comments mutation and mollie. That definitely puts me at ease on applying for a lab tech job. Right now I’m gearing up for GRE/subject in July/Oct. </p>

<p>I figure the only way I can help my application at this point is killing the GRE and writing one hell of a SOP. I was also looking to see if I could submit a abstract to a conference for the spring semester. Not sure if this would make it in time to help me with admissions though. Either way I’d like to have an opportunity to present.</p>

<p>Any other tips?</p>

5

<p>If you submit your abstract early enough, you can absolutely talk about it in your application and interviews, even if you haven’t given the abstract or heard whether it will be accepted yet.</p>

<p>Have you talked with a faculty member you trust? He or she will be able to give you an honest assessment of where you stand, and will likely be pretty spot on, too. He or she could also point you toward colleagues who might be hiring for next year.</p>

6

<p>I’m having alittle difficulty finding conferences that seem to be open to undergraduate research (besides big ones like NCUR). I’ll talk to my PI and a few other professors about common conferences: I’m heading back to campus on Saturday to continue my research so I’ll be talk to them about it then. I guess I’m just a little apprehensive about the process and I’m trying to put myself in the best spot possible.</p>

7

<p>Do keep in mind that even if they don’t have a specific submission set for undergraduates, they’ll likely still accept your abstract for consideration. The conference I presented some of my research didn’t have a specific registration for undergrad, so I essentially registered as a grad student… it really doesn’t matter that much.</p>

8

<p>I don’t think you are being naive at all. The adjustment between college and working a professional job is scary and unfamiliar.</p>

<p>1) Lab tech jobs are pretty easy to come by but they aren’t all created equal. Unfortunately the tech jobs in which you do repetitive assays all day or have a hard ass supervisor, have high turnover- and are thus more often open. Given that getting a tech job isn’t that rough, put some real time and consideration before accepting an offer. Find out why the previous person left, what their track record is with previous techs, their policies on travel to conferences for techs, their policy on publishing for techs.</p>

<p>2) Some institutions are more formal than others about the length of your contract. I remember the University of Wisconsin had people on 12 month cycles whereas the University of Colorado doesn’t formally specify a period of time at all.</p>

<p>3) If you work as a tech in a department, your odds of admission will go way way up. That is the nature of networking.</p>

<p>Best of luck with your job hunt and beginning your career.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the tips and being so helpful everyone! You all have really helped put me at ease about the upcoming months.</p>