Hey guys, I have already graduated from college, but I have absolutely no research experience. Therefore, I have been having a hard time finding one. It seems like once you have obtained a Bachelor's degree, they expect you to have undergrad research experience to be even considered for a position in a lab. What options do I have? Is it possible to find a paid position in this case, or have I no option but to go with unpaid assistant positions?
How about doing a master's to gain some research experience before applying?
A masters would be good, but make sure that you feel you can actually USE that masters if you don't get into medical school. For instance, if you get a biochemistry masters degree to impress the boards, and it fails to impress the boards, are you going to be happy as a biochemical scientist?
My suggestion would be the one I've always used, as it was the path I took. See if you can get a job as an admin worker. The type of job I did as a research assistant paid $8.00 an hour, and my job essentially consisted of ordering chemicals, taking stock, washing dishware, autoclaving waste, and basically do all the things that the researchers themselves were too busy to do.
You'll find that if you have a good PI, and you do a good job in your regular work, you can sometimes begin to inch your way into the research aspect. Learn one day how to do a Western blot, then some other day just watch a researcher culturing cells (or something like that). If nothing else, that counts as SOME type of research experience, and if you're really lucky (like I was), you can manage to land yourself in a publication. Granted, it takes time to get that far, but it worked for me.
The best way to approach that situation is to blatently state in your interview that you're a pre-med interested in gaining research experience, and that you'd be willing to learn whatever the PI wants to teach you. Not only will this show enthusiasm, but it will also guarentee to the PI that you'll stick around for a while and do pretty much anything you need to in order to get that experience. My PI liked me and wanted to see me get into medical school, so he was extremely helpful. I've heard horror stories about others, but like I said, it worked for me, and if you play your cards right, you might have a chance this way as well.
And for what it's worth, I had ZERO lab experience before managing to land my research assistant position. It wasn't so much my experience that got me in as it was my good grades in my science courses (showing I had a grasp of fundamental safety and chemical interactions, and therefore wasn't a liability) and my enthusiam to do well enough to pull a letter from him. Sometimes blatently stating what you want can hurt you, but I guess I was lucky.
Anywho, hope that helps.
