Does your job pre-med school matter?

[adenine]

I'm currently employed in a clinical laboratory as an assistant in the specimen processing department. But I may be able to make more money at another job in a food laboratory. Does this type of work matter to med schools? Should I remain at the clinical laboratory?

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[THH]

I'm currently employed in a clinical laboratory as an assistant in the specimen processing department. But I may be able to make more money at another job in a food laboratory. Does this type of work matter to med schools? Should I remain at the clinical laboratory?

What exactly is your role in the clinical lab? Does the lab pursue research? Are you directly involved in the research?

Go with the position that gives you the best opportunity to participate in research.

 

[235788]

no, as long as you have one or are staying involved with other stuff. My jobs were nothing special.

My research wasn't a part of my "job," but was rather a volunteer basis.

 

[adenine]

Neither offers any research opportunities.

 

[wholeheartedly]

It can matter. Just depends.


You are working in a healthcare setting which is a plus. A clinical lab gets you involved with an important part of patient diagnostic testing, but with some exceptions you probably aren't the one doing the testing in a specimen processing area. You probably aren't getting a lot of interaction with patients either. I think you could still walk away from it with some good insight. Our specimen processing people spend quite a bit of time talking to physicians and do wind up learning quite a bit about the diagnostic tests that we do, limitations of tests, interferences, and how the lab works overall, something I've found docs can be a bit clueless about sometimes. In other hospitals phlebotomy and specimen processing are together and some people do both, so in that setting you'd be getting patient interaction as well.

On the other hand, a lot of people don't even know what a clinical lab is including some that might wind up interviewing you . The food lab could be interesting as well depending on what you wind up doing for your job duties. If you could track into research that would be helpful. It could be something interesting to talk about in an interview. You can still learn valuable skills in jobs that aren't healthcare related or only distantly so.

I think you're fine either way you go, just make sure you have the other stuff like patient interaction and what not covered in your app.

 

[Shost5]

My primary employment over the past 4 years has been as an office assistant for a construction company, and I was just accepted on my first time applying. Just do what you feel is best for you and your current situation. No one is going to fault you for trying to better yourself over staying in a job just because it might look better on the application. You can always round out your application in other ways.

 

[willen101383]

Coming from a clinical lab guy YES it matters. But assuming you are going into something else clinically related it wont matter. Granted as a premed you arent doing med tech stuff and are prob scanning tubes into the LIS all day and not actually drawing pts or running labs. But even in my phleb days I learned a ton about testing/ref ranges etc...very useful job for a premed, in a field that not many premeds even consider. I am a MT/BB so ive been in the lab for years and years and it was a HUGE selling point for me when I applied to med school.

FYI for other people who may not know what a clinical lab is: we are talking the lab where clinical specimens are processed and tested for X. Hematology/chemistry/coags/blood bank/etc. Nothing about research here.

 

[adenine]

I don't get a lot of interaction with the pathologist that works there - I don't think I've even met him/her. I get no patient interaction, and I have not learned much about the testing at all. I could probably bother the techs all day about what they're doing, but then I would get yelled at for neglecting my job lol

I've learned more about processing (which tubes we can't accept, which specimens are appropriate for which tests, etc) than about the tests that we do. From the replies in this thread, it doesn't seem like I need to stick around, but it has been a really fun job! Thanks everyone.

 

[thesauce]

I don't get a lot of interaction with the pathologist that works there - I don't think I've even met him/her. I get no patient interaction, and I have not learned much about the testing at all.

Plenty of time for all that later. Make money while you can.

 

[CoolWhipp]

Coming from a clinical lab guy YES it matters. But assuming you are going into something else clinically related it wont matter. Granted as a premed you arent doing med tech stuff and are prob scanning tubes into the LIS all day and not actually drawing pts or running labs. But even in my phleb days I learned a ton about testing/ref ranges etc...very useful job for a premed, in a field that not many premeds even consider. I am a MT/BB so ive been in the lab for years and years and it was a HUGE selling point for me when I applied to med school.

FYI for other people who may not know what a clinical lab is: we are talking the lab where clinical specimens are processed and tested for X. Hematology/chemistry/coags/blood bank/etc. Nothing about research here.

It is menial still, though. You are just putting samples into a machine and getting the results for a doctor. You may be able to sneak a peak to see if the patient is within range, but what does it mean when they are out of it? Who's going to teach you what it means when its higher versus lower? No one.

 

[wholeheartedly]

It is menial still, though. You are just putting samples into a machine and getting the results for a doctor. You may be able to sneak a peak to see if the patient is within range, but what does it mean when they are out of it? Who's going to teach you what it means when its higher versus lower? No one.

This is seriously misinformed. I hate to rant but this is the one thing I dislike about my field, too many people making uneducated assumptions about what we do and how much education we have. It's a great field and this misinformation can deter people from a really fun career path because people think it's just mindless monkey work. While it can be at times, we don't just put samples on a machine to and get results to doctors. We definitely know what the abnormal values mean. We spend significant time in school learning about the different pathologies from the epidemiology and symptom levels down to the molecular and genetic level, what the laboratory values will look like in different states, differentiating whether abnormal values have a physiological cause vs. instrument/interference error, as well as how different treatments will alter those values on top of all the running the sample stuff. Our board certification exam by the American Society of Clinical Pathology requires us to know this stuff at entry level and tests us heavily on this with questions along the lines of "Patient is a 40 yr old female presenting with x, y, z symptoms. CBC values are A, chemistries are B, etc what is the most likely underlying cause?" or " A patient has x disorder, what set of lab values correlates best with this diagnosis?" So while we can't legally, nor should we be able to, diagnose anything we do know actually what's going on with the patient.

It's pretty interesting and a lot of people wind up wanting to take the next step and expand and apply that knowledge to treating patients by going on to medical school. The medical students and residents that have CLS backgrounds have all said that it was extremely valuable to them to have that background.

 

[EvryDayImHustln]

No, it absolutely positively does not matter. I work at a rubber company making rubber from 9-5. Well, technically it is a "materials science" company but still, I had no problems. The job I had right before this was in a molecular biology lab doing intense research. I also have a friend in medical school now that sold jewelery at JC Penny.

The economy is tough right now and adcoms understand that people need to work to get money

 

[SunsFun]

I can see it as positive if you sell it properly. Having a job outside of medicine shows that you have other interests and not just trying to do whatever it takes to be a cookie-cutter applicant to get into med school. You explored other careers and options and maybe gained little more insight in terms of why medicine may be a better fit than something else. Also, there are plenty of universal skills that are transferable. For example, if you were in management, leadership, or a teaching position, you may bring a perspective and experience to class that the rest of the class who worked primarily in medicine as EMT's, lab technicians, or scribes may not have.

I may be completely wrong about this, but if I was on the admission committee I would look at your experiences from the standpoint of how it impacted you and how you as a person, given your experiences, will contribute to the overall intellectual diversity of the class.

 

[Godric]

Go where you can make the most money, for doing the least amount of work lol.

 

[willen101383]

It is menial still, though. You are just putting samples into a machine and getting the results for a doctor. You may be able to sneak a peak to see if the patient is within range, but what does it mean when they are out of it? Who's going to teach you what it means when its higher versus lower? No one.

I just saw this get teh bump so I will respond to you. Not true. You NEED a bachelors degree to work as a clinical lab technologist. You learn this stuff. You learn what high/low results mean, what is causing them in the patient, and what can cause different things to happen to the sample in vitro. If you had work experience in the field you would discover that very frequently attendings have no idea what can skew results and ask for advice.

For every "just put it on the machine" test, there are plenty more you need to physically do yourself. Think UA C+Ss or manual diffs.

As for me I am a blood banker. There is no "just put the sample on the machine" for blood bank. I do everything by hand. Patients lives are at stake based on something I personally do. Attendings,nsg has nothing to do with that. But I guess this is menial stuff to you eh?

Either way, OP will get great experience in the lab if he/she wants it.