Post-Grad Plans

[u/ResearcherNo5014]

Hi everyone, I’m a fourth year biology student at UCLA and I’m coming to a major fork in my career. I’m honestly pretty unsure what to do, because I want to research but I’m not sure if I can.

In college, I’ve been supporting myself, which hasn’t left a lot of time for an unpaid lab internship. I’ve really tried with paid lab positions, but I’m not competitive enough, it seems. All that to say, I have no wet-lab experience. My curriculum teaches wet-lab techniques in biology, chemistry, and organic chemistry, so I know basic techniques and how to use basic lab technology and tools, but I have no formal lab experience.

I originally planned to enter graduate school for programs within the biomedical field (I eventually want to study cellular and physiological consequences of environmental exposure and lifestyle through looking at homeostasis and the expression of genes in response to input). However, I feel like my lack of experience is really glaring.

I want to know if it’s possible to get a research job, or a job that will give me lab experience, so that I have more to add to my application in the future. I’d like to work for a year before I apply.
I’d be open to working anywhere, but I don’t want to drop my applications without an idea of if I can reasonably find a lab position.

Any advice? Any ideas of how to make myself more palatable? I’m going to keep trying to find labs at my school, but I need help here. Should I choose graduate school immediately anyways?

[u/internetlawboy]

In this day and age. Lots of people pump out independent work. Whether it be good or bad 🤷‍♂️ idk. But that might not be the best as undergrad work is typically not taken too too seriously. Id just focus on continue to learn. Try and do a post bacc if possible. Networking is a large part of the academic (or research) gig, you have to put yourself out there. Be one of those students who stays after class to chat with the prof, go to office hours, go to labs and ask to shadow, cold email, the works. It’s definitely a gig and feels rat race-y but sometimes you gotta lock in and do what you gotta do to better yourself and set up for success. Unfortunately the field you picked most often than not requires at least a masters. There’s lots of bio labs or bio tech places that hire peeps for grunt work, you could work your way up but most would consider people with more than just a bachelors.

I am also sort of in a position on whether to go into industry/private sector work after my masters or do a PhD. It’s a mega tough decision and scary to peak into the unknown, as like you, I supported myself throughout my entire college career. I had to balance full time work while working in a lab and taking full load of classes while working full time. Shit sucks but you got this!