<p>I am a rising senior majoring in bio. I'm considering graduate school seriously, but either way I would like to take a year (or probably two) "off" to do research both to reaffirm my interest in research and to supplement my application.</p>
<p>I've read lots of guides to grad school and have been reading these boards on and off for awhile, but the topic of post-bac research is never really discussed to any great extent.</p>
<p>My questions/concerns are...</p>
<p>Where are these jobs? I see some now and then for research technicians/associates/assistants but there seem to be far less advertised than I would imagine given the number of people who say they have done research before grad school. I'm assuming most of these positions are filled by word of mouth, etc.?</p>
<p>I've visited many university/college websites and looked up faculty lab pages-- there seem to be a few research staff listed but, again, not nearly as many as I would think. Or in many cases, there are only undergraduate research assistants. How hard is it to get a job as an assistant? I will be doing lab research next year but aside from that I've only done non-lab research (library research, literature reviews, etc.)-- one of my reasons for wanting to do post-bac research is to gather more laboratory skills because I'm now interested in pursing neuroscience/molecular/cellular biology (my studies have been more psychology-oriented up to this point), but it would seem that I won't be able to find such a position because most of my lab courses have come rather late in my college career...</p>
<p>Also, I'm sure that this varies for each job, but how involved in the research can I expect to be as a lab tech/associate/etc.? I assume there are some positions that are not really research and are actually just data entry & secretarial work, but is it hard/uncommon to find a position where you can actually be involved and have influence on the research/the publication/etc.?</p>
<p>Finally, my impression of salary is that as a tech I could expect to earn maybe 10-15/hour or around 20,000/year... is this about right? I just want to make sure that if I look for this kind of job that it will be enough to pay the rent for a couple years as well as a little extra to take a course or two I'm missing that might help me on the GREs.</p>
<p>If you go to the human resources webpage of a university, you will usually find job listings for technicians. Generally speaking, better-funded labs tend to have more need for technicians than labs that are just scraping by grant-wise, and so it's probably easier to find a tech job at in a respected program.</p>
<p>The NIH also has post-bac research positions (information here</a>), and usually has quite a few of them available. I am under the impression that many of them start at the beginning of summer, but I could be mistaken.</p>
<p>How involved a technician will be in the intellectual aspect of research will definitely vary by lab, and by technician. It's almost certain that you would be doing bench work rather than data entry and secretarial work, but some labs do treat their technicians like extra pairs of hands and don't involve them in the intellectual process. In my undergrad lab and my graduate lab, technicians have had the opportunity to be very involved in research, to have their own projects, and to have authorship on papers, but it's not that way everywhere.</p>
<p>I just graduate in June 2007, and I am taking one year off before starting the grad school. I am currently interning at NIH. I would suggest that you apply at NIH. It is wonderful with abundant resources. I love it. They do hire more students in summer, but they hire all year around.</p>
<p>Other thing, look into faculties in your field (whatever you are interested in). Let's say, if you are interested in RNAi, read some papers, and see who is writing review papers. Contact those PIs and send them your CV. Most of the PIs are nice enough to reply even if they do not have position.</p>
<p>Thanks molliebatmit and gheeya for your responses,
I had come across the site for the NIH minority fellowship, but for some reason thought that was the only one available. </p>
<p>Would you say it would be worth also applying to the Technical IRTA program as well? From the description I can't judge whether or not it would be as relevant/worthwhile to do if my aim was to apply to graduate programs.</p>
<p>Gheeya, if you don't mind sharing, what kind of lab are you in? Are you in one that involves techniques that you've had prior exposure to? As I sort of mentioned, I'd like to switch to a more cellular/molecular direction, but having only a year of courses left I'm going to be limited in what new skills I can pick up. </p>
<p>What are your general impressions of how easy/difficult it is to make such a switch? Of the descriptions I read in the human resources directories, many are requiring/strongly recommending knowledge of very specific techniques.</p>
<p>I should have linked to the postbac IRTA site, sorry -- I had forgotten that there are several different IRTA programs. (I was proud of myself for remembering the IRTA acronym in the first place!) I think it would be fine to apply to both programs, as long as you're okay with the two-year commitment that the technical IRTA program requires.</p>
<p>It's fine to be unfamiliar with techniques as long as you can convince the people who are doing the hiring that you're a quick learner and are enthusiastic about learning new techniques. One of the technicians in my (developmental neuroscience) lab was a chemistry major as an undergrad and had previously only done research in chem labs, but she's a great molecular bio technician now.</p>
<p>I've worked as a part-time research technician for four years. The research I've done has been both fulfilling and challenging. As far as learning techniques, molliebatmit is right - just prove you're a quick learner. It may be overwhelming at first, but you'll get the hang of it.</p>
<p>There are a lot of job opportunities as a researcher but the pay is not the best. I got $14.50 an hour at my best job. Salaried lab techs got $32,000 a year. </p>
<p>As much as I have enjoyed doing research in a basic science lab, I have found that it's a difficult life. The pay isn't good and, in all the labs I've seen, the hours are long. I've worked at a College of Pharmacy and a Cancer Center and during the summers, when I worked full-time, I worked about 50 hrs/week. Your responsibilities will depend on what kind of boss you have. Some will be very demanding and will give you projects of you own. Others will just have you helping out the postdocs. Make sure to ask potential employers how much you'll be responsible for.</p>
<p>One postdoc that I worked for told me only to go into research if it's something I'm truly passionate about, not something I merely enjoy.</p>
<p>Hi,
I am an international student Biology major graduating next year from a US college. I am highly considering taking a gap year and participate in a post bacc program. I was looking at the NIH programs and all of them are restricted to either US citizens or permanent residents. I was wondering whether you know any post bacc programs that accept international students.</p>
<p>Next time, start a new thread - this one is 7 years old.</p>
<p>Most of the post-bacc programs that take international students would probably be independent arrangements between an RA and a PI. Like you would talk to a professor who needed an RA, and work for him or her for 1-2 years. You could also apply to lab tech jobs at universities.</p>
<p>I know of a few post-bacc programs but they are all for U.S. citizens because they are NIH or NSF funded.</p>