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Questions About Lab Technician Training

FayetheAspie

FayetheAspie

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I want be be able to work at an analytical laboratory as a lab technician and perhaps eventually a lab technologist. I am particularly interested in soil and water quality. Alternatively I would like to have one of those positions at a botanical research laboratory. The only schooling available locally seems to be medical lab technologies. Would this qualify me for working at the other kinds of laboratories? If not, how would I go about obtaining the necessary training? Moving is not currently an option.
 
I don't think that I would enjoy working at a hospital.
 
FayetheAspie said:
I don't think that I would enjoy working at a hospital.
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You might consider other venues common to medical lab technicians. Medical and diagnostic laboratories, and individual doctor's offices. Not all such jobs require being in a hospital.

You may find that non-medical lab technicians are not in demand so much in comparison. Where much more formal education may be required. Then again certain medical lab technician jobs may have similar requirements as well. It likely comes down to individual jobs available.

Look to what's actually in demand and requires lesser formal training and schooling.
 
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Another consideration would be going for an electronics field instead. I did also enjoy making simple electronic gadgets as a child (such as a simple alarm system for my room). If I went that route I have three different options locally. General electronics engineering, laser and photonics, or mechatronics. These are the only other degrees that I might find interesting.
 
You might use this (Occupational Outlook Handbook) as a tool to answering some of these questions:

Home

Also keep in mind that the public sector offers employment in such fields as well.
 
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Mary Terry said:
Is there environmental technician training where you live? I think such programs exist in the US.
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I don't think so. There is a place but it's like over an hour away I think and I don't have a driver's liscense. Also it is an expensive college. I need to be able to learn at a technical school or community college.
 
I don't know if your government is similar or not, here our largest researcher is the government, through it's scientific body the CSIRO. They're always advertising for scientists and technicians in all sorts of fields and they usually pay well too. If you lived here I'd suggest you contact their human resources department for information, being such a large corporation they more than likely do traineeships as well.

Lab Tech - CSIRO Jobs
 
If I did one of the electronics programs that are local what would likely be most interesting ( general electronics, mechatronics, or laser and photonics).
 
FayetheAspie said:
If I did one of the electronics programs that are local what would likely be most interesting ( general electronics, mechatronics, or laser and photonics).
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A mate's daughter got a traineeship in Aviation Electronics and she loved it, a combination of circuit design and programming.
 
FayetheAspie said:
I want be be able to work at an analytical laboratory as a lab technician and perhaps eventually a lab technologist. I am particularly interested in soil and water quality. Alternatively I would like to have one of those positions at a botanical research laboratory. The only schooling available locally seems to be medical lab technologies. Would this qualify me for working at the other kinds of laboratories? If not, how would I go about obtaining the necessary training? Moving is not currently an option.
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Generally speaking my experience has been that most folks that train for one lab tech program can usually transfer most of the skills to another lap tech field. The base skills are the same just the subject focus is different.

@jsilver256 While I am an Engineering Technologist running a public municipal Water Department I don't ever do anything in a lab setting. Closest I get is doing the weekly water samples that we send to a lab. But again to the point I made above I trained as an Environmental Technologist which is one of the Engineering Technologist focuses. The work that I do though would largely be considered Civil Tech. I didn't have the Civil Tech training but the base skills from Enviro Tech all transferred over. Instead of rivers and streams it's watermains and roads.

So my advice if you are interested in working in a lab but the only program near you is medical lab I'd do it. You'll be able to work in other lab related fields. And honestly once you get a bit of experience under your belt it won't matter at all what lab tech program you studied. I'm 13 years into my career now and nobody questions the fact I didn't study Civil Tech.
 
FayetheAspie said:
Another consideration would be going for an electronics field instead. I did also enjoy making simple electronic gadgets as a child (such as a simple alarm system for my room). If I went that route I have three different options locally. General electronics engineering, laser and photonics, or mechatronics. These are the only other degrees that I might find interesting.
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"Mechatronics" makes me think you'd be building Giant robots to fight alien threats. lol. I played far to much Mechwarrior growing up.
 
I shouldn't say that I don't do any testing myself. We do have handheld turbidity and chlorine residual meters, as well as several different hand help portable gas monitors for confined space entries. Gotta watch for the methane working a sewer job. But that really is about the extent of it. The lab does our weekly bacterial tests for E.Coli and Total Coliform. Then a couple times a year we get a full organic / inorganic analysis done and we do VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) sampling which is basically just BTEX (the big 4 the nobody wants to write out, ever) with a few other related compounds 4 times a year.

Fun fact, any drinking water system that uses surface water as the source has some chloroform in it. Minute background trace levels but it surprised me when I saw it in the results when I started. Long story short it's leaves falling into the water. Chlorophyl breaks down to chloroform.
 
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