Lbarr

Anysunrise

So I'm reading the irritations thread...have I asked you about your job? If I did, I don't remember, so tell me all about it. What do you like about it, what do you hate about it, what's a typical day like, how'd you wind up doing it, what'd you go to school for, etc? 

lbarr088

HI! 

Sorry I'm just seeing this now.  By the time I get home at night from the gym and make dinner I pass out like a lil' old lady

I had always planned on going to veterinary school so I was an Animal Science/Preveterinary major in college.  Basically, I took all the same classes as med school students with the exception of animal anatomy and had all animal vs human-based electives.  Vet school is ridiculously hard to get into so I tried to set myself apart from the crowd and do research, which they like to see.  I ended up really enjoying it and at the end of my senior year at the advice of my PI I went rent into teching rather than stay for a 5th years masters.

I like the fact that the lab I work in works along with the medical center.  My boss is actually a MD/PhD so she does clinical and research work.  I love the fact of being able to test out different drugs and measure their affects to see what is best in treating a specific type of cancer and learning more about the cancer itself.  There are millions of unanswered questions, so it's kind of like exploring something new each day, so not every day is exactly the same.  Some days involve dealing with cells, others mice, others tissue staining, and others protein experiments... and even some days can be VERY slow and full of analyzing data. 

There's not much I really do hate about it.  As a tech I'm contracted for a certain amount of hours so I get a lot of slack from grad students about "having a life."  Grad students are pretty much bound to the lab 24/7, whereas I am definitely not.  Science itself can be super frustrating so most days I love it, then you will get the day(s) where absolutely everything goes to shiit and I hate it.  It's a lot of trial and error.  Also, in technician standards there isn't much room for advancement.  

The only thing I've found is that I really miss helping/treating patients.  Granted, I worked at animal hospitals for years and nothing human related but still.  My goal is to one day get into more of the clinical aspect of human medicine vs. the research aspect.  

I hope that gives you some sort of an idea!  Sorry this was crazy long.

Anysunrise

Awesome, thank you!