Is it really hard to get a lab tech job?

[yjj8817]

Do you have to be very good at doing research? I am thinking about doing this for gap year.

Also, if I end up doing a full time job that is not really health care or medicine related, does it hurt my application?

Thank you

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[Aerus]

Do you have to be very good at doing research? I am thinking about doing this for gap year.

Also, if I end up doing a full time job that is not really health care or medicine related, does it hurt my application?

Thank you

Lab tech as in the people who clean dishes and prepare solutions? You don't need to be good at research or have any research experience for that. Probably not that hard to come by, although I imagine there would be decent competition for spots like that since people still want any lab exposure and there is the possibility to move up to doing research.

To answer the non health related job, no it does not hurt your application.

 

[Lamel]

If it is a tech position that requires a bachelors, then yes it can be pretty competitive I've heard. It's a good job to have though. And no taking a non health job won't hurt, but maybe keep volunteering a couple hours a week or shadowing to maintain the clinical stuff.

I knew someone who worked in the billing department of a company for 2 years after graduating, he was accepted to UPitt.

 

[MossyFiber]

Most PIs in wet science won't want to keep you on a full-time position if you're only going to be around one year. That's not long enough for you to get good at what you're doing. Thus your time frame is a disadvantage for you.

 

[solesurprise]

Yes it's hard to get a tech job for a gap year because most professors will want a technician for more than one year. It probably isn't even worth training a technician who will only be there for a year.

 

[TheShaker]

I think it's pretty difficult. I have almost four years of quality research experience with a good GPA and I've applied to ~30 positions and have gotten no bites. It's hard enough with ~50 people applying for a single position but we're at a disadvantage because we only have one year to commit, which is a dealbreaker at most places. So the choice is either to lie or hope you get extremely lucky and find someone who is willing to take you among other applicants for one single year, meaning that you will likely only contribute a couple months of full productivity after the initial learning curve.

It's a cliche, but it's ****ing tough out there.

 

[magicm]

in my experience if you want to tech for a company then its pretty easy to find a contract (assuming you have some research experience) but you wont be doing anything fun

If you want to do something fun then it can be quite difficult. The expectation for a tech is different. Basically you are expected to bang out exceptional data quickly

 

[Mountaineer12]

It probably depends on where you want to work, as well. If you're willing to move you could probably find something somewhere, but if you're geographically restricted it will difficult because of you're minimal time commitment and people with Master's degrees now applying for these positions as a result of the horrible job market.

I ran into these problems last year. Thankfully, one of my old professors was able to secure me a lab position--maybe try that out if possible?

 

[N7chell]

Are you ok with working in a chemical company or are you only looking for positions with a research PI? I feel like the former position is a bit easier to come by.

I currently work as a lab analyst for a company testing pharmaceuticals (for clinical trials). I got the job without much trouble, but I had two years of research experience. Then again, there are plenty of analysts at my company that had absolutely no research experience, they just got a lower tier position.

 

[kevinc2]

It can be competitive esp because both pre-meds who want to take a gap year or two or three apply and then there are also people who went to a 2 yr college who also are trained to be a lab tech and wants it as their career. But (like any job), it's all about connections. I know a lot of my friends who were able to find a position because they knew upperclassmen who were 1 yr or 2 yr ahead of them who worked as a lab tech and then now moving onto med school. So best to ask around other older pre-meds or friends you know. It's also worth asking your professor in bio or other science fields whether they know any of their colleagues looking for lab techs. A lot of these positions are not officially listed on websites, so you may even have to email random PIs at an academic health center nearby.

 

[Gauss44]

Do you have to be very good at doing research? I am thinking about doing this for gap year.

Also, if I end up doing a full time job that is not really health care or medicine related, does it hurt my application?

Thank you

An honest, albeit uncharming, answer:

I knew a history major who got a lab tech job (no science classes or experience). And now Massachusetts unemployment has programs to train people of any background to become lab techs. Pay is terrible. You can check glassdoor.com for salaries. And I don't think that qualifies as research experience. On a daily basis, the lab techs I know, go to work, throw out old specimens, pipet new ones, then send blood and urine samples through machines all day, sometimes enter the results in a computer, then go home. Every day just like that. Mind numbing, redundant, robotic. No fun IMO.

You can get cut and exposed when throwing away specimens from 2 long hallways full of blood and urine refrigerators. If you are not careful, specimens and broken glass tubes will splash up out of the trash. Rarely, glass tubes will spill or break when you pick up large sets of them if you aren't super careful (because you're cleaning out 20 refrigerators).

Labs are supposedly trending toward plastic tubes for safety reasons, but most seem to still have glass tubes. Honestly, from a human rights* or safety perspective, I think this job of Lab Tech needs a major overhaul. Use of plastic tubes, not filling up the dillies below, etc. can make a major difference.

An example of what you may be picking up and throwing out full: http://www.shopmedvet.com/product/w...-holds-72-tubes/diagnostic-equipment-supplies

*because poor people are getting stuck with this job

This might vary depending on what company you work for and what department you're in. If you do go ahead with it, be mindful of the above problems. In the interview, ask specifically about your duties.

Definitely check www.glassdoor.com to find out if anyone's written a review for the company and position you are interested in. These reviews are by old employees and are often true from their perspective since they can post anonymously.

 

[kami333]

If you are not careful, specimens and broken glass tubes will splash up out of the trash at you.

OSHA might want to have a few words with wherever they were working...

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Lab tech as in the people who clean dishes and prepare solutions? You don't need to be good at research or have any research experience for that. Probably not that hard to come by, although I imagine there would be decent competition for spots like that since people still want any lab exposure and there is the possibility to move up to doing research.

To answer the non health related job, no it does not hurt your application.

An honest, albeit uncharming, answer:

I knew a history major who got a lab tech job (no science classes or experience). And now Massachusetts unemployment has programs to train people of any background to become lab techs. Pay is terrible. You can check glassdoor.com for salaries. And I don't think that qualifies as research experience. On a daily basis, the lab techs I know, go to work, throw out old specimens, pipet new ones, then send blood and urine samples through machines all day, sometimes enter the results in a computer, then go home. Every day just like that. Mind numbing, redundant, robotic. No fun IMO.

You can get cut and exposed when throwing away specimens from 2 long hallways full of blood and urine refrigerators. If you are not careful, specimens and broken glass tubes will splash up out of the trash. Rarely, glass tubes will spill or break when you pick up large sets of them if you aren't super careful (because you're cleaning out 20 refrigerators).

Labs are supposedly trending toward plastic tubes for safety reasons, but most seem to still have glass tubes. Honestly, from a human rights* or safety perspective, I think this job of Lab Tech needs a major overhaul. Use of plastic tubes, not filling up the dillies below, etc. can make a major difference.

An example of what you may be picking up and throwing out full: http://www.shopmedvet.com/product/w...-holds-72-tubes/diagnostic-equipment-supplies

*because poor people are getting stuck with this job

This might vary depending on what company you work for and what department you're in. If you do go ahead with it, be mindful of the above problems. In the interview, ask specifically about your duties.

The jobs you two describe are not typical of lab tech jobs. While some tech jobs are just nothing but scut work, most tech jobs expect you to have a degree, research experience, and be capable of carrying out experiments on your own after some training and manage lab supplies. Some tech jobs go further and expect you to be a mini-grad student and in addition to the above do things like data analysis and manuscript write-ups. Good tech jobs will offer you the opportunity to present data at conferences and get papers, and resources permitting even carry out a project of your own design.

As an example, I'm a lab tech, and there's little difference between what I do and what a grad student does. I do experiments, animal preps, data analysis, and write-ups. I've not only been first author on papers, but communicating author. I've designed and carried out my own projects. I peer-review manuscripts for my PI. I supervise the students in the lab. I basically run the lab while my PI focuses on grants and other administrative things.

OP, lab tech jobs are both easy and hard to get. It took me seven months to find mine, but at the same time there weren't many being offered in my state and this isn't a job that usually considers out-of-state applicants (the assumption being that no one is going to move across state lines for a job that pays $25-35k). If you don't have much, or any, research experience it can be hard because most labs are looking for people who can jump right in and be trained on the stuff actually matters. There are labs that don't care what background you have though, but those gigs are unlikely to offer much opportunity. Your background does matter; I was a neuroscience major with neuroscience research, and I'm pretty sure I got rejected from most bio jobs I applied to because of my lack of bio experience. Meanwhile the neuro tech job I landed said I was the only applicant they seriously considered because I was the only one with a neuro background.

If you do have research experience though, it probably won't be terribly hard to land a job as a tech. They're usually fallbacks for people who didn't get enough research experience in undergrad, so if you have a CV that's already capable of getting you into grad school, you'll blow away most of the competition. Note that I said "grad school". Tech jobs are viewed largely as something you do inbetween undergrad and grad school. If you come in as pre-med, they may question how dedicated you're going to be (unless you're pre-MD/PhD). This is especially true if you plan to only take one year off. Most labs want you to stick around for two years, since the first 6-12 months are going to be spent training you.

 

[exquisitemelody]

Yes, it's pretty difficult, especially with money being tight. Start looking now, send out a lot of apps. If you have previous experience, that'll help. A lab tech job is a good job - that's what I did for my gap year. I got lucky with my job since the PI actually only wanted me for a year anyway and the experiments I was helping with used techniques I had already learned from another lab. I only have a BS.

Are you currently a student at a research university? Your best bet is to network and try to find a lab at your home institution. Check the job listings - that's how I found my job. And as someone has mentioned before, find older students who are leaving their labs and see if you can find a way to get their position.

 

[aspiringdoc1234]

I found a job as a part-time employee in a biopesticide company developing bacteria to kill invasive species; more specifically I was hired into their aquatic systems department. My personal experience prior to that was all clinically related and my major was in neurobiology. After a month and a half I got a promotion to a salary position, and a couple months later I became an associate.

So, is it possible to get some sort of position in biotech and/or research related? Most definitely. Does it require some luck? Of course.

But what I've found through my two years of work is that if my major had had real-world, relevant applicability (i.e. microbiology, agricultural, plant biology, etc.) I would have been better off than with my physiology major that really only targets academia (wherein jobs are MUCH harder to get) and graduate schools. This is why I always tell pre-med students to think more broadly than medical school when choosing your major and your experiences. The fact of the matter is you're likely to take at least a year or two nowadays, and we all need to work during that time.

 

[Heisenberg1]

Do you have to be very good at doing research? I am thinking about doing this for gap year.

Also, if I end up doing a full time job that is not really health care or medicine related, does it hurt my application?

Thank you

I am a lab tech for a pharmaceutical company. I work with GC, HPLC, UPLC, perform TLC from time to time as well as perform many other tests. I analyze and report my own data. I am more than someone who washes dishes and prepares solutions. In fact, I have an assistant that prepares all my solutions.