BS Biology job advice

[lansden]

I just graduated in may 08 from a nationally ranked top 100 school. Millsaps College. I have a bs in biology minor chemistry. A few classes away from a biochem degree, chemistry degree, and math minor. I have 3.9 math-sci gpa. overall 3.45 gpa. I have a plan to go to med school but need to improve my verbal, everything else is high. I have been trying to find a job and see it is one of the worst times to try to find a job. I was wondering what type of certification do need and how to get it to work as a medical lab technologist or work in any lab. Please help me out.

thanks in advance

[alextemplet]

I think your best bet is to ask around at local hospitals and clinics, as each usually has its own requirements. You have a strong gpa so you should be able to find something; I just hope you befriended your professors so they'll be willing to write you good letters of recommendation!

[lansden]

Well I got really good recommendations from professors and even the president of the college and I still get beat out of job opportunities that are in the $25k-$30k range by people with multiple masters. Its a tough time out there.

[MichaelXY]

From what I hear, a BS in bio is worth a plum nickle. Kind of depressing. I know a girl with a BS in botany and she works at Home Depot in the gardening section. It is disheartening.

[alextemplet]

That's part of why I'm dual-majoring in bio and chem.

[MichaelXY]

While attending college, I think it wise to not put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. As in the business world, one should diversify.

Add more colors to your resume rainbow. Learn things like C programming, or maybe solid modeling. An economics course or two.

Learning how to write is always a good thing as well. Bottom line, learn more than just your gen eds, and major requirements.

[mith]

Do what you love, and excel at it.

[MichaelXY]

Do what you love, and excel at it.

In an ideal world that is great, but one must pay for things like a mortgage and groceries.

Being the worlds foremost expert on the Capsicum Annuum will not get you far by itself. One has to be pragmatic and apply their love to practical things. For example: The lover of Capsicum Annuum could apply that knowledge and desire to something bigger like understanding the business benefits of the plant. Perhaps this knowledge and love could be used to assist farming such a product, and then one becomes marketable. Get my meaning?

[alextemplet]

I think the value of a degree depends to some extent on where you are. Around here, not all labs require a BS degree; in fact some of my classmates are currently working right alongside college graduates for only slightly less money.

[lansden]

Well I graduated from a liberal arts school so I am diversified. Took honor cals, as well as liberal art classes. I went to an interview for an associates degree position in a college lab. the pay is from 25k to 30k tops. It was a low pay job and I felt very qualified for the position. Well turns out somebody with two master degrees got the job. I am from jackson mississippi. It is really rough times down here and then the national bailout made it even worse.

I just got a job at walmart as a lab technician. I have taken the mcat and scored high in everything except the verbal so to get pharmacy tech certified will be snap. However, I would like to know some information on medical lab technology jobs. I see they make $20+ an hour. If anyone knows requirements for it please let me know.

[lansden]

Another instance that is confusing to me is I graduated high school in the top 10 of my class.
I went to a community college and graduated with all kinds of awards, honors, magna cum laude.
Then went to a University that cost over $36k a year with a full paid scholarship in state not out of state. I graduated from it in the top of my class, and they have the same graduation orals and examination that Harvard administers and I made excellence on it. Not to mention I have already been published by a medical journal on a cancer drug that mimics to cholchicine toxicity. That alone is what people with masters and Ph.D. wait a life time to achieve.

and still my degree is worth about the same pay as the high school drop out working at subway making minimum wage. there is something wrong with this. Not only something wrong but it is backwards. The more education and where you received your education used to matter to the pay-scale but this is no longer the case.

[alextemplet]

With these sorts of grades, why don't you go to grad school and work towards a doctorate?