advice on research opportunities w/o prior background

[Isaiah]

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Hey all,

I've been a lurker on this forums and I've found them both incredibly useful and uplifting. I'm currently 26, proudly wielding a liberal arts BA from 3 years prior (from a non-GPA institution at that). I'm actively considering taking what amounts to a significant gamble in beginning to jump through the med school hoops.

My question is - as I understand having research experience is a rather big plus, is there any way an unskilled laborer such as myself could get a chance at any kind of role in a lab or research project? If so, what would be the best way of going about it? I'm not currently affiliated with any university.

Thankyou kindly.

 

[lumanyika]

do a post bacc. and find yourself a student-worker lab-tech job at your post bacc. institution. volunteer if you have to.

 

[Isaiah]

thanks lumanyika. You're right that's totally logical. I wouldn't be starting the postbacc until the summer, probably little chance of finding anything before then right?

 

[kami333]

I started out with no lab experience, had a rough time getting a lab tech job initially. (wasn't a student, had been out of school for 2years in a completely different field)

I ended up volunteering for a while, started off doing data entry, then moved to a little more hands on stuff like pulling and aliquoting dna. Didn't really have to do much washing, autoclaving, etc since we our building had a guy who did all that (funny enough, since I started getting paid, we moved to a new building without a washroom guy so now I have to do my own).