So my discussion title explains it all, I’m so confused on which future path to take. I’m currently at a CC in SoCal and working on my transfer courses as a Microbiology major, but Immunology is a huge interest for me as well. I took a Microbiology course and the Immuno section fascinated me so much I guzzled down as much information as I could on Immunology. Then again viruses and bacteria are just as fascinating to me as well.
Which field of study has the best job outlook? What’s the highest level of education I would need to pursue any of these fields?
In life sciences (micro, biochem, genetics, mol bio, imm, etc), it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to work as a lab tech and maybe top out as a lab manager? Then a bachelor’s degree is fine. Do you want to run your own lab, be a scientific writer, be a professor, go into patent law, public policy, etc? Then you need a Ph.D.
My undergrad majors were microbiology and biology. I am currently working on a Ph.D. in cancer genetics. There is a lot of flexibility in the life sciences. You don’t need to pick something super specific right now. In my micro major I took classes in bacteriology, virology, and immunology. All of them counted toward my degree. If you get a degree in micro, there’s no reason you can’t apply for jobs looking for degrees in immuno, viro, or bacterio. Truthfully I’m not really aware of any undergrad programs in viro specifically. Also, most bacterio programs now go by micro programs as bacteriology is a fairly out of date term. Additionally, a lot of schools offer majors that cover both microbiology and immunology like “medical microbiology and immunology”.
Feel free to message me with questions.