« Special Offers Worth Mentioning | Home | Epigenomics Conference Set for March 19-20 in San Diego »
A Student’s Guide to Working in a Research Lab
By Trevor | December 17, 2006
I’m now working in my third research lab as an undergraduate student. I wasn’t fired from either of the previous two positions. Rather, I switched positions as better opportunities became available.Many students find it difficult to find employment in a research lab. I didn’t. Here’s a few tips that may help students out there find a job in a research lab on their campus:
- Be flexible. If you’re only willing to accept a specific position that will enable you to do something, the odds of you finding a position that satisfies your specific requirements are slim. Further, you’re probably not qualified for that position. Instead, be willing to do the things that other people hate to do. In addition, keep your schedule as open as possible. Everyone knows that you have classes at certain times, but saying that you’re not willing to work before noon due to your sleep schedule will not win you any jobs on campus.
- Do your homework. This has nothing to do with your courses, but rather the lab where you’re trying to get a position. Find out about the research that’s being conducted in the lab. Talk to people working in the lab about the research, and what kinds of procedures are done regularly in the lab. Read recent research papers published out of the lab, and visit the principal investigator’s web site (nearly all of them have one) where they detail their research interests. With this information in hand, you’ll come across as knowledgeable and enthusiastic when you tell the person hiring that you’re very interested in this aspect of their research, and tell them in a letter or during an interview that it will be a tremendous experience for you to work in their lab on one of these projects.
- Advertise all of your skills. Whether you’re coming in with plenty of lab experience or none at all, you may have a skill that the lab could definitely use, and you may not have thought of it. For instance, you may be very technologically savvy, and have Web design or database management skills. You may have experience with simple lab materials from a high school chemistry or science course. (Almost) anything that allows you to distinguish yourself from the other applicants is a good thing.
- Be excited/interested/focused on this lab. Some students make the mistake of thinking that if they make it sound as if they have options, this lab will think that they are in a competition for this student, and they are a high quality hire. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Most lab managers will pass on a student that has options elsewhere. Lab technicians want to spend as little time as possible interviewing students, and saying that you have other options available to you means that you might not accept this position if they offer it. So they just won’t offer it to you, even if you were probably the best candidate.
- Follow up. If you were interviewed for a position, come back the next day and drop off a thank you card for the interview, and again express your enthusiasm for working in this position. If there were any “coin-flips” in terms of you or another candidate being selected, this simple gesture will likely give you an edge over another student. The thank-you card is something that few if any other students will take the effort to do, and will help you distinguish yourself as the lab is preparing to select their best candidate.
Related Posts:
Topics: careers, commentary |
December 19th, 2006 at 11:05 am
Point 1 is a good one. In my old lab, 100% of our undergraduates, regardless of how involved they became in the reseach, started as dishwashers. We simply didn’t take undergrads — even unpaid volunteers, by and large — who weren’t washing dishes, and then making media and stock solutions.
From that starting position, some of our undergrads were happy to stick with the paying job stuff, but many transitioned into fairly substantial research projects, working with one or more of the grad students.
It’s important to remember that to a lab manager, grad student or postdoc, an undergrad starts out as an expense — we have to at least get them up to speed on the lab and the local science, and possibly on lab research in general, depending on their level of experience. That’s a pain, so it’s good if you’re willing to do things that other people in the lab feel are needed.
(My first undegrad lab work involved doing restriction digests, and [literally] picking the wings off of flies.)
For point 3, this may be my personal preference, but don’t go overboard with discussing things you did in high school. Focus on solid technical skills (e.g. “skilled with Filemaker”) and mention some relevant coursework. I spent a fair amount of time wondering why it mattered that a job applicant was in one or another high school club.
Point 5 would certainly have stood out to me as not a single undergrad ever did this.
Good post.
December 19th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
parakkum,
It’s a great point that you made about an undergrad starting as an expense. This is something substantial for students to keep in mind, because I have seen postdocs in several different labs get so frustrated with an undergrad that they either a) throw them to the curb or b) stick them solely on washing dishes and other tasks that they would have a hard time screwing up. The latter option, in my opinion, is just a way of not having to face the hard task of telling a student that they’re not cut out for the lab and should be on their way. Or they’re simply not giving them any room to learn and make mistakes. Either way, if a student gets in the position of never being allowed to do anything beyond dishes and stock solutions (even after 3-4 months of getting up to speed), I would jump ship and hope to make a better impression in another lab.
January 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I think that all the tips are great guides for anyone trying to get a position in any sort of job, not necessarily in a lab.
January 19th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Rick,
That’s a good point. I guess I didn’t want to be preumptious that these kinds of tips would work in applying for any position, be it in a lab or not. What I can say with certainty is that these tips have been successful in getting undergraduate research positions, and I assume that there could be other minor things that could be done when applying for other positions in science, such as a postdoc, asisstant professor, etc. And I have no experience applying for those types of positions, so it would be presumptious of me to offer advice for those situations when I have never done them myself.