Will lab tech role help me become a research scientist?

[flinnbella]

Hello all,

I’m at a crossroads. Roughly a year ago from today I was dismissed from Harvard for social violations. Im an army veteran, and currently in working in Ukraine to get experience and make money working with drones… but I want to do physics and I understand it’s largely locked until I resume and complete undergrad. My question is, from my understanding my veteran status can help me land roles as lab techs at national labs, but I’m just wondering if this will at all be meaningful in advancing a physics career? I imagine it’s potentially useful with undergrad admissions, but it doesn’t make sense to me to work for better admissions when I can instead work in a lucrative career field during that time. Basically, will having lab tech experience for a year meaningfully help towards a physics professor or researcher career path?

Thanks kind souls

Edit: Also for added reference, I want to work at CERN or IAS or a national lab as a particle physics researcher.

 

[symbolipoint]

Basically, will having lab tech experience for a year meaningfully help towards a physics professor or researcher career path?

My sense is, yes, but it is only a step and not a shortcut.

 

[CrysPhys]

Hello all,

I’m at a crossroads. Roughly a year ago from today I was dismissed from Harvard for social violations. Im an army veteran, and currently in working in Ukraine to get experience and make money working with drones… but I want to do physics and I understand it’s largely locked until I resume and complete undergrad. My question is, from my understanding my veteran status can help me land roles as lab techs at national labs, but I’m just wondering if this will at all be meaningful in advancing a physics career? I imagine it’s potentially useful with undergrad admissions, but it doesn’t make sense to me to work for better admissions when I can instead work in a lucrative career field during that time. Basically, will having lab tech experience for a year meaningfully help towards a physics professor or researcher career path?

Thanks kind souls

Edit: Also for added reference, I want to work at CERN or IAS or a national lab as a particle physics researcher.

I first want to clarify the question you're asking. Are you asking: (1) Does lab tech experience per se provide value towards a future career in physics research?; or (2) Does lab tech experience provide equal or more value relative to your current drone work towards a future career in physics research?

Either way, the answers then depend on the specifics of the type of drone work you are currently doing, the type of lab tech work you will be doing, the particular national labs you will be working at (as a lab tech) ... as well as the income you are currently earning vs the projected income you will be earning as a lab tech. ETA: Are you planning a future career as a theoretical or experimental physicist?

 

[Choppy]

For what it's worth, what you're looking at in a career as an academic physicist...
4 years of undergrad (factor in any credit for your time at Harvard
4-7 year of graduate school
Multiple post-docs (likely another ~ 4 years)
Then you can apply for an academic position as an assistant professor, and start climbing that ladder.
Between (and even within) each of these stages are bottleneck gateways. Graduate schools only take the top undergraduates. Not everyone passes their candidacy exam. Post-doctoral positions in your niche area won't always be available the moment you're ready for them. Etc. And there are far more graduate students than there are academic positions, so the odds are stacked against you from the start.

I say that for context. You're asking about the possibility of a lab tech position prior to completing an undergraduate degree. These are difficult to come by if you don't have even an undergraduate degree and likely more so if you left an undergraduate program involuntarily. Such a position could help with admissions into a graduate program if you can swing one. But so can a fourth year thesis project. Or a summer research job. Or active involvement in some kind of competitive STEM project team.

If you've got a lucrative job in hand now, I would keep going with that. Build up a nest egg if you can that will help you through the student years where you won't have much, if any, of an income. The only big trick is to do something in the meanwhile that will help keep you sharp as a student... online courses for example. Then jump into the race when you're ready.