Bachelors degree in Biology, what can you do with it?

I feel like like such an idiot right now. I have a BS in Biology. After I graduated, I followed a totally different path.
I know a friend of mine has a friend who also got her BS in biology and works in some company shaving pigs and working with animals, she feels like her BS in Bio was not needed.
I mean what job can I get now, right away with a bio degree? I don't have experience in research or some direct bio field. I wanted something that would be a good career path with potential to grow.
Now, I'm trying to finish an MLT program. I should have tried entering an MT program at least, but I chose the MLT program for various reasons, despite the good advice I got here on these forums. Everywhere I search, they want MTs not MLTs. I'm going to be an oddball, an MLT with a BS in Biology.
I feel like I screwed up and it's just getting worse and that most of my decisions just get worse because of desperation. I feel like schools are just there to take money.

www.ascp.org/FunctionalNavigation/certification/GetCertified/TechnologistCertification.aspx

According to this, you can sit for MT after one year of lab experience. Please check with your state.

Lynn in Melbourne, Florida said: www.ascp.org/FunctionalNavigation/certification/GetCertified/TechnologistCertification.aspx

According to this, you can sit for MT after one year of lab experience. Please check with your state.

Yeah, it's not the MLT itself, it's just that I felt that a BS in Biology could have provided other oppotunities, but I just feel like it went nowhere. But a lot of it is my fault, probably all of it. I blame schools because I felt like sometimes the people who are suppose to guide you (like academic couselours) don't know anything about the field.

Biology is such a large field. People in my class ended up in all kinds of industry (environmental, medical laboratories, pharmaceutical, universities lab, chemical companies, clinical research). But most go for graduate schools to get more specialized education.
I worked for a CRO after finishing college but the pay is not that great. But once you get experience, you can go to pharmaceutical companies that pay more. Three technicians in my group got a job at Abbott after they did a year or two at a CRO. If you can relocate, check out these big CROs (Covance, Charles River). For entry level they will train you in one of the field - toxicology (small animal, large animal, acute, reproductive, etc), clinical chemistry,necropsy,etc..
I am not a couselor, just sharing my experience. Hopefully, others will do the same. Good luck!

I feel your pain honey. I got a B.S. in Biological Sciences in 2003 and graduated with a year of laboratory experience in an environmental laboratory. I worked with analytical instruments and all that good stuff and still couldn't find anything to do. I didn't want to work in an environmental lab. I wanted to work in a pharmaceutical/clinical/toxicology setting and was screwed. I was angry at the advisors as well becausee I kept saying I really wanted to work with pharmacology/pharmaceutics and all they were concerned with was my class schedule and making sure I graduated. No career advice what so ever! Not even advice on what to do when I am done with undergrad-what to do next? I feel like my degree is worthless because I've had it for five years and worked in two academic labs post-bacc making crumbs....not enough for cookies all to end up in a post-bacc MT clinical program. What makes me even more pissed is my university had a MT program and I was told that getting a B.S. in Biology or Chemistry would be sufficient to work in a hospital lab. It is one "route" you could go I was told. Not that this was completely wrong, it's just that my advisor should have added the fact that I needed to do a post-bacc clinical hospital based program. I feel like years have been wasted and some avenues shouldn't have been walked. The flip side is that I did get the opportunity to work in pharmacology research and publish a paper! Ultimately I want to be a clinical pharmacist so I can teach, consult, educate and write clinical pharmacology inserts for drug info pamphlets. I wanted to do it in stair steps- medical laboratory, reasearch, then PharmD-simply because I'm a lab rat and I love the drugs:). So many people from my school returned for either a nursing degree or MT degree. One of my classmates did go the route you are going-go to CC MLT program post grad and got a job in TX with Abbott as an MT II.

Lynn in Melbourne, Florida said: Biology is such a large field. People in my class ended up in all kinds of industry (environmental, medical laboratories, pharmaceutical, universities lab, chemical companies, clinical research). But most go for graduate schools to get more specialized education.
I worked for a CRO after finishing college but the pay is not that great. But once you get experience, you can go to pharmaceutical companies that pay more. Three technicians in my group got a job at Abbott after they did a year or two at a CRO. If you can relocate, check out these big CROs (Covance, Charles River). For entry level they will train you in one of the field - toxicology (small animal, large animal, acute, reproductive, etc), clinical chemistry,necropsy,etc..
I am not a couselor, just sharing my experience. Hopefully, others will do the same. Good luck!

what do you do at the CRO? are you a CRA?

It was a preclinical CRO. I worked as a research associate for toxicology services, and then a regulatory report writer. I moved around because of my husband's job so now I have to look for another job and looking into clinical research.

I saw Walt Disney has numerous animal program internship openings right now. If I am a newly graduate, that is definitely a place I would like to work. I doubt they will hire me now!

Oh Ok..Good luck with your search. I've had people to contact me because somehow they got my resume from the internet or something stating they were CRO or recruiters for CRO. I believe it was scam because everytime I tried to return their calls or respond to an email, I get a generic voicemail message.

CRO in this case stand for a contract research organization. If you are serious about working for a CRO, I think the fastest way is to apply directly at their websites. Here is something I copied from Wikipedia. As you can see, there are lots of oppertunities within the industry.

-----A Contract Research Organization (CRO) is a service organization that provides support to the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. CROs offer clients a wide range of "outsourced" pharmaceutical research services to aid in the drug and medical device research & development process.[1] In the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations state that a CRO is "a person [i.e., a legal person, which may be a corporation] that assumes, as an independent contractor with the sponsor, one or more of the obligations of a sponsor, e.g., design of a protocol, selection or monitoring of investigations, evaluation of reports, and preparation of materials to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration." [21 CFR 312.3(b)]

Services offered by CROs include: product development, formulation and manufacturing; clinical trial management (preclinical through phase IV); clinical, medical and safety monitoring; preclinical, toxicology, and clinical laboratory services for processing trial samples; data management, biostatistics and medical writing services for preparation of an FDA New Drug Application (NDA), Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), or Biologics License Application (BLA); regulatory affairs support; and many other complementary services. CROs range from large, international full service organizations to small, niche specialty groups and can offer their clients the experience of moving a new drug or device from its conception to FDA marketing approval without the drug sponsor having to maintain a staff for these services.[2]

Lynn in Melbourne, Florida said: CRO in this case stand for a contract research organization. If you are serious about working for a CRO, I think the fastest way is to apply directly at their websites. Here is something I copied from Wikipedia. As you can see, there are lots of oppertunities within the industry.

-----A Contract Research Organization (CRO) is a service organization that provides support to the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. CROs offer clients a wide range of "outsourced" pharmaceutical research services to aid in the drug and medical device research & development process.[1] In the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations state that a CRO is "a person [i.e., a legal person, which may be a corporation] that assumes, as an independent contractor with the sponsor, one or more of the obligations of a sponsor, e.g., design of a protocol, selection or monitoring of investigations, evaluation of reports, and preparation of materials to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration." [21 CFR 312.3(b)]

Services offered by CROs include: product development, formulation and manufacturing; clinical trial management (preclinical through phase IV); clinical, medical and safety monitoring; preclinical, toxicology, and clinical laboratory services for processing trial samples; data management, biostatistics and medical writing services for preparation of an FDA New Drug Application (NDA), Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), or Biologics License Application (BLA); regulatory affairs support; and many other complementary services. CROs range from large, international full service organizations to small, niche specialty groups and can offer their clients the experience of moving a new drug or device from its conception to FDA marketing approval without the drug sponsor having to maintain a staff for these services.[2]

Yea the CRO I'm referring to claimed to be 'contract research organization'

I have found NOTHING with my BS in Biology, so I have been stuck with these little min wage jobs.
I was mislead in college and I was stupid enough to listen to my advisors who apparently knew nothing except leave me alone!!
I have tried several times to further my education but nothing and now I am out of student loans.
Sorry all just AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I GOT SCREWED
I got my degree in Oklahoma and I have had a couple companies tell me that they will not hire anyone with a degree from an Oklahoma school. I know they can't do that, they can't say this, but they did and so here I am.

AWWWW...sorry to hear that sharon; however, I feel your frustration. I've been there. As a result, I'm starting MT clinicals at a hospital based program in August and I'm paying out of pocket. I have gone back for a year myself post-bacc trying to 'find my way' so to speak b/c bio wasn't as good to me as I had expected it to be. I had jobs in the academia realm but unfortunately these jobs weren't paying all the bills but were taking up the bulk of my time. I was tired of the cat mouse, marco polo games. I knew that I loved the lab in a clinical aspect and partially research and I loved drugs (pharmacology). As a result, I'm taking online pharmacology classes this summer in a grad level program to test the waters. If all goes well then I'll get my masters in pharmacology.

Lynn in Melbourne, Florida said: Biology is such a large field. People in my class ended up in all kinds of industry (environmental, medical laboratories, pharmaceutical, universities lab, chemical companies, clinical research). But most go for graduate schools to get more specialized education.
I worked for a CRO after finishing college but the pay is not that great. But once you get experience, you can go to pharmaceutical companies that pay more. Three technicians in my group got a job at Abbott after they did a year or two at a CRO. If you can relocate, check out these big CROs (Covance, Charles River). For entry level they will train you in one of the field - toxicology (small animal, large animal, acute, reproductive, etc), clinical chemistry,necropsy,etc..
I am not a couselor, just sharing my experience. Hopefully, others will do the same. Good luck!

What position did you hold for your entry level a the CRO?

sab818 in Mississippi said: AWWWW...sorry to hear that sharon; however, I feel your frustration. I've been there. As a result, I'm starting MT clinicals at a hospital based program in August and I'm paying out of pocket. I have gone back for a year myself post-bacc trying to 'find my way' so to speak b/c bio wasn't as good to me as I had expected it to be. I had jobs in the academia realm but unfortunately these jobs weren't paying all the bills but were taking up the bulk of my time. I was tired of the cat mouse, marco polo games. I knew that I loved the lab in a clinical aspect and partially research and I loved drugs (pharmacology). As a result, I'm taking online pharmacology classes this summer in a grad level program to test the waters. If all goes well then I'll get my masters in pharmacology.

Hi
what school or program are you taking to get you masters in pharmacology online

Michigan State University. I just finished taking a Human pharmacology exam...it was a BEAST:). I'm taking that class and drug and tissue interactions this summer.

Leslie in Chicago, Illinois said: What position did you hold for your entry level a the CRO?

Research Associate.

Sharon Ruth in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma said: I got my degree in Oklahoma and I have had a couple companies tell me that they will not hire anyone with a degree from an Oklahoma school. I know they can't do that, they can't say this, but they did and so here I am.

Really? That's just odd and arbitrary. Did they tell you why?

These posts make me feel less alone. I graduated 2005 with a four year B.S in Biology and it has been difficult to find a direction for a job search. I was really lucky right out of school to get involved with an Environmental Engineering Firm monitoring air quality for a state contract. But, 2 years in the contract did not get renewed (loss of federal funding) and I made the bad choice of not signing on with GA DNR when they offered me a job.

Now, I am teaching high school biology, but I really want to get back into the environmental field. If anybody has any advice I would REALLY Appreciate it.

I am so in agreeance with everyone here, and you have totally lifter my spirits my allowing me to feel as though I am not the disfunctional one. I Received A BS in Biology and a BA in Chemistry in Dec 2008, and have yet to get a single interview in either field.....I have applied to hospitals, pharm companies, state jobs, jobs that I would hate to do (like substiotute teaching).....and nothing. I feel like the only way to make these degrees do ANYTHING for me will be to get a PhD.....I really wish at least one of my advisors would have told me the truth.

wow!! i am really shocked with all of these comments, i thought getting BS in biology my doors will be open to anything, i guess i thought wrong :( i do want to pursue DPT (doctor of physical therapy) program here in chicago, or any school that will take me, this is just an idea for you guys out there it's a 33 month program and you are set, but i understand you have to work while in school and that got me thinking of what i will be doing when out of school with bs in bio

Wow, even though it sucks, It's good to know that I'm not the only one out there who can't find a job with a BS in Biology! I graduated from Texas A&M and have applied to hospital jobs, mainly working in labs, and I can't even get an interview. Any suggestions on a type of job I could get without having to go through more schooling?? If something doesn't happen soon, I am considering nursing school or possibly radiologic technology, but both with take me approximately 2 more years...I would appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

There are alot of research training programs out there if you are interested in research as a biologist, if you are in sch, the better they got summer internships, and its better to apply them early here is one of the links for Johnson&johnson (sorry couldnt post the links- its prohibited)

I am perticularly insterested in Microbiology and epidemeology. I also found out that companies such as Genentech and Center of Disease Control want to train new graduates or undergraduates still in school but you got to watch out for their deadline for application into these programs

I also applied with the state of California to train as a public Helth Microbiologist (PHM) basicaly it also leads to a CLS - Clinical Lab Scientist Licensure, it pays well - $40/hr but of course it depends with different states

i would say keep your options open, the best thing in life is to have more than 1 plan...

goodluck to you all