I've made 33,000+ posts, I'm sure you can find a few more. Or maybe we should send Ben on a hunt to find a list of posts that I have made that you have agreed with to show his value to UofC as a research assistant.

I don't know why, but that bit had me burst out laughing.

Yep this. Your lack of experience is going to kill you. You need to volunteer, especially considering your research experience has absolutely nothing to do with what you want to get into. Molecular biology is hard. You need experience, nobody is going to pay you to learn what you could learn volunteering/in undergrad.

Hahaha I thought this sounded familiar

You are toast if you can't do the pcrs, etc. And no, the crap you did for lab class won't cut it. They are gonna want you to bang those out. Your only hope is asking to volunteer for a few months to learn these skills and how to do things the right way. You will also meet everyone. You could get hired aster that. The only way this arrangement will go down is by directly contacting them, our having your old pi do so. Good luck

I can afford to give you about $3.25 an hour if you want to transcribe audio focus groups for me.

Yeah...I mean on the one hand, I lack experience in a tough, competitive job market. On the other hand, they state experience is "preferred" and not "required". If I have no chance of getting the position, then why would they not just call experience "required"? That would save both myself time and themselves time and money.

Also, I have an above average GPA which may make up for it. Surely GPA has to mean something to the employer, especially in a university position.

Why don't you go to grad school? It is basically exactly the job you're looking for. I went for chemistry, not molecular biology, so this may vary, but once accepted we were guaranteed funding for at least two years. By then, you should have learned enough that a professor will pay you to keep working for them.

Dude, GPA is meaningless if you can't do the work. We wanted Techs in the lab that we did the opposite of babysitting, because you already have to do that for grad students in their first two years. In a MB/Genetics lab, you need (some of) the following skills: able to run DNA/RNA/protein gels/blots, do basic bacterial/yeast cloning, fluorescence microscopy, make buffers/solutions, handle whatever animal models the lab uses, etc. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

The lab next to mine hired two Techs out of college (we never did). Both went to Berkeley and had 2 years of undergrad research with big names there. One stayed for grad school and the other went to Northwestern. You need actual experience before anyone is going to pay you.

Damn, this thread is depressing.

Better just go and apply to McDonalds.

Being able to do cell culture is a HUGE one you left out. Need to know sterile technique, passaging cells, plating cells, treating cells, making cellular extracts all that too.

Yeah, I would strongly suggest trying to find someone who will let you volunteer in a lab for a few months picking up skills that the average applicant for these jobs learned as a first or second year in college. You're going to have a much easier time finding such a position at Depaul than at UChicago, though I honestly can't say how easy it would be at Depaul, either. These guys have tons of eager undergrads and a responsibility to train/teach/etc those undergrads, not randoms off the street.

First of all, it's not like I have NO research experience. I have two months. Second (and no one has answered this), if you guys are right (i.e. you need at least a year of research experience) then why do the jobs not require this? Why do they "only" prefer it?

fyp

Not every applicant for a given position is going to possess all of the skills required for that position. In fact, anyone who's not going to be bored to tears SHOULDN'T fulfill all of the requirements, and anyone who hires someone with that little room for growth is a fool.

Research experience in mollusk sorting. No research experience whatsoever in what you want to do. I wouldn't hire a tech in my lab based on your experience when other people applying would have the relevant experience. That should answer Q2. It's not required but it's strongly preferred.