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School and Career Surprises: Tips From People on the Job

Career: "I was surprised at how quickly and enjoyably a day can pass when you like and care about your job. I was also surprised at how much exercise I get while doing my job, and at how quickly I've become stronger and more fit while doing it."

Career: "What has surprised me the most is how difficult it is to get along with the patients we're are trying to help/do research on. I work with patients who have HIV and substance abuse problems. Most of them don't even want help. They are so difficult to talk to, relate to, convince, etc. I didn't think it would frustrate me so much."

Career: "I was surprised how much information was neglected about this position when I entered the work force. Also how incredibly irrelevant many of the courses I took during college were in preparing me for the real world."""

Career: "In my line of work I thought I would only have to deal with analyzing test results. However, the part of my work where I found most challenging is the interpersonal exchange I have with patients. Learning more on how to deal with their emotions rather than statistical data on the likelyhood of a child carrying a genetic disease seemed much more difficult."

Career: "I was not expecting my first job from college to be working as a manufacturing technician, wearing a hart hat, steeled toe boots and working with large, dangerous machinery. It was probably the funnest job I ever had."

Career: "I was surprised by how much you need to interact interpersonally with other labs for advice, desired reagents, or protocols. Nobody teaches you about this aspect of being involved in academic research, and it feels pretty awkward the first few times you have to email or call somebody you don't know for help."

Career: "The occupation not only lacks a good salary but also respect by other scientists. Academic funding for research is in a major decline and the job stability is horrible. Also there is a cap on how much one can make in my position which is extremely frustrating."

Career: "I was surprised at how much science is dictated by money. Since the economy has been in a recession, funding has been drastically cut, and we aren't as free to do the research we would like to do. We are struggling to get funding, and it creates an environment of uncertainty."

Career: "I was surprised at how much you work alone. I was also surprised at the amount of independence granted in making decisions about how to do the work."

School: "I think it would surprise others that there is funding for the education for people who choose to pursue a career in my field. A lot of people don't know there are fellowships or assistantships that universities will give to students to enter Master's or Ph.D. programs and they will also award tuition waivers."

Career: "I am surprised how specialized research gets. Someone can have the exact same career title as me and not understand anything I do and vice versa. It is important to become an expert in your area, but not necessarily in other areas of biology. I was also surprised that managing a lab is like being a small business owner. You have to know how to manage money, employees and colleagues."

Best & Worst Things About This Career

"The best part of the job is getting to play CSI. Doing a necropsy (an autopsy on an animal) and trying to find abnormalities can be a little gross at first, but seeing how all the organs work and are connected is pretty interesting. Also, knowing that the work you do is helping to develop drugs that can cure diseases in the future is very rewarding. These drugs could cure diseases or medical conditions that currently have no known treatments. The hard part is that groups such as PETA and other animal rights activist groups dislike the work we do and have infected the general public with a dread and distaste that make our efforts unpopular."

"The best part of my job is that I make other people's jobs much easier. It's really satisfying to improve someone else's job! A frustrating part of the job is that sometimes people don't see that the new system will make their job easier. If the new workflow involves entering a lot of data right away, they think it is harder and don't realize how much time they will save later on, and then it can be a struggle to get them to use the new tools."

"The best part of the job is the opportunity to demonstrate brilliance, whether it's in an expertly carried out surgery, a deftly performed computer technique, a good piece of technical writing, a clearly communicated idea taught to someone who needs it, or a statistical analysis correctly conceived, properly programmed and debugged, and well interpreted that makes the paper publishable. The worst part of the job would be the occasional need to sift radioactive rodent poop. Science isn't all glamor."

"The best part of my career is the academic stimulation that it provides. I am constantly exposed to new ideas and different ways of thinking. I am able to attend academic conferences in cities across the country to present my work. The worst part of my job is the pressure that one feels when experiments are not going as planned. There are a lot of times when something that is theoretically a sound idea, becomes nearly impossible to implement."

"The part of the job I enjoy most is the interaction with a variety of people and learning about what everyone does. I also enjoy creating the training material that people use to learn how to do their job. I enjoy teaching and it makes me proud when I know that I am contributing to the success of the company by making it work better and smarter. I guess the worst part would be trying to schedule meetings with people who are already very busy. It's always a challenge to get the time you need with the people who have the information you want."

"The best part of my career is working with people. The particpants and other people I interact with regularly are diverse and interesting. This keeps my job fresh and fun. I also enjoy managing and thinking outside the box for new strategies. However, the job is not very fun when the results have flaws and when we have difficulty recruiting participants. In addition, working with people with bad attitudes can have a negative influence on the energy and motivation of the study. Overall, this job is awesome."

"Best parts of my job are I work with a variety of different people from all kinds of different backgrounds and cultures. I work with some of the best scientific minds in the world. My job makes important contributions in research to finding new medicines for such diseases as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, infectious diseases, and inflammation. The work I do now may aid in research conducted 25 years from now. It keeps me up to date with advances in science and technology and I use everything I learned in college to perform my job. The worst parts of my job are dealing with language barriers with different scientists and being able to keep up with the work load and deadlines."

Tips for Succeeding in This Career

"Find people who work in biomedical research and talk to them. Get your information from a source inside the industry, and don't believe everything you hear. A college major in any of the life sciences will prepare you well for the work you'll do in this kind of lab. Additional experience in a veterinary clinic or hospital, or even an animal shelter will be of great help in this field."

"Tip"

"Organization is key. You never know when you will have to quickly come up with the paper, the data set, the inspection record that's needed right then. Continue your education. Read up on the field you're working in - it will enable you to be a more productive member of your lab group. You may also develop interests that complement your lab group rather than merely duplicating it. If you become an expert in something it will make you more valuable, and it may lead your career in new and promising directions."

"To break into biomedical research, gain experience working in a laboratory at some point during college. It might be necessary to start off by volunteering until you gain some experience conducting laboratory work. This is easily accomplished by contacting various investigators at local colleges and universities. Take courses in the sciences and make sure to earn at least a B average. If you want to pursue graduate coursework, it will usually be necessary to have achieved a grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. If your are below this threshold, you will not be considered."

"If you are looking to get into the pharmaceutical/biotech field in general, you would really need some kind of science degree, whether it's in biology or chemistry. They even have several now related to biotechnology. You really cannot break into this industry without a degree of some sort. If you are looking to get into the corporate training field, I would suggest looking into either an instructional design degree or a certificate program. Also, online learning is really hot right now so having a good background in computers, especially Flash, is a bonus."

"Tip 1: It is important to stay organized and on top of things. For example, in school keeping an agenda or a calender is a good way to stay organized. Making this a habit will be helpful. Tip 2: It is important to be knowledgeable about statistics. Most research uses statistics to interpret the data into helpful information. Taking statistic classes will be helpful. Tip 3: If you are interested in progressing in your career, more education is required. Generally, to move up the rank you will need a PhD for lead bigger and better research studies."

"Learn a variety of different scientific disciplines. Aspects of chemistry, physics, biology, writing, computer science, mathematics all help me do my job. A foreign language might be helpful like Chinese or German etc. Try to gain laboratory experience thru an internship or coop while still in college. Advance degrees don't always help advance careers in science like they used to. Depending on where you want to go you might want to examine that or consider finding employment where they will help pay for that advanced degree."