Who will train me?
February 1, 2011 11:21 AM Subscribe
[career filter] I am looking to start a third career and looking into medical lab technician. I am having a hard time finding programs in Atlanta, Ga believe it or not.
Anyone know of who is offering this degree? I know it is usually an associates degree. I already have a masters but would go through the associates program if need be. I am just not having any luck getting a starting point for training. Any help would be appreciated. And any feedback on the career - I am in the preliminary stages of picking this 3rd career and exploring my options.
My Masters is in Sp Ed and I taught for 12 years and have been in IT/Project managerment in corp world for a while now. I am looking to do something completely different.
Anyone know of who is offering this degree? I know it is usually an associates degree. I already have a masters but would go through the associates program if need be. I am just not having any luck getting a starting point for training. Any help would be appreciated. And any feedback on the career - I am in the preliminary stages of picking this 3rd career and exploring my options.
My Masters is in Sp Ed and I taught for 12 years and have been in IT/Project managerment in corp world for a while now. I am looking to do something completely different.
Response by poster: Sadly no - some medical careers but no med lab tech curriculum.
posted by shaarog at 11:29 AM on February 1, 2011
posted by shaarog at 11:29 AM on February 1, 2011
I am about 2 hours from Atlanta, but we offer the training you are looking for. I also found this school closer to Atlanta. Other schools on this list may also offer an associates degree. It seems that many schools offering this training are for profit schools; I would be wary of those in terms of how good the training is, the cost, and how attractive a degree from those schools is to a potential employer. Someone out there may have information or experience that contradicts my concerns so I am not totally against for-profit colleges, just think they should be approached with caution, especially if there are other ways to get the education you want.
posted by TedW at 11:40 AM on February 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by TedW at 11:40 AM on February 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
I have a family member (now outside Atlanta but formerly here) who trains med techs. What do you have in mind? Something like this or just the lab technician stuff. If it would be helpful, me mail me & I can call my family :)
posted by pointystick at 11:41 AM on February 1, 2011
posted by pointystick at 11:41 AM on February 1, 2011
This is not an answer to your question, but have you considered that it might be difficult for you to get a job, even with a relevant degree? I am asking because I recently spoke to someone who made a similar decision in his forties – after spending years on earning an extra degree and loads of money on various certifications and short programs, he hasn't gotten a single call in the last two (!) years of looking for a job in the Seattle area, where there is a relative abundance of biotech jobs.
I work as a technician in a biomedical research lab, and have friends working in hospital core labs. There are just about zero employed techs that I know of who followed a non-traditional path: almost everyone is either fresh out of school, working in a lab for a couple of years before moving on to graduate or medical school. There are a few technicians-for-life or people who have worked their way up to lab managers, and they are typically PhD program drop-outs with a master's degree, but still people who've spend all of their adult life working in labs.
For reference, right after graduating with a relevant bachelor's and two years of paid lab experience (while in school), I was offered a starting salary of about $37K at an academic institution and about $50K at a private company. If you are considering the career switch because of money, consider that it might not be worth it the extra time and money spent training.
If you were a friend, I'd probably discourage you from going down that path unless you suddenly and miraculously discovered that you have a passion for medical science (and in that case you wouldn't aspire to be a tech anyway).
posted by halogen at 11:42 AM on February 1, 2011
I work as a technician in a biomedical research lab, and have friends working in hospital core labs. There are just about zero employed techs that I know of who followed a non-traditional path: almost everyone is either fresh out of school, working in a lab for a couple of years before moving on to graduate or medical school. There are a few technicians-for-life or people who have worked their way up to lab managers, and they are typically PhD program drop-outs with a master's degree, but still people who've spend all of their adult life working in labs.
For reference, right after graduating with a relevant bachelor's and two years of paid lab experience (while in school), I was offered a starting salary of about $37K at an academic institution and about $50K at a private company. If you are considering the career switch because of money, consider that it might not be worth it the extra time and money spent training.
If you were a friend, I'd probably discourage you from going down that path unless you suddenly and miraculously discovered that you have a passion for medical science (and in that case you wouldn't aspire to be a tech anyway).
posted by halogen at 11:42 AM on February 1, 2011
On preview, TedW is right on about the for profits. caution is key there.
posted by pointystick at 11:42 AM on February 1, 2011
posted by pointystick at 11:42 AM on February 1, 2011
Here is a list that might be helpful as well; you might try contacting the ASCLS for more information/suggestions.
posted by TedW at 11:44 AM on February 1, 2011
posted by TedW at 11:44 AM on February 1, 2011
Response by poster: You guys are wonderful.
I really appreciate the school info and will follow up. Also really appreciate the advice from halogen - just exaclty what I am looking for since I am in the initial stages of this search. The money would be 1/2 what I am making now and I realize that but it would be stupid to go into a lot of debt to aquire this degree and possibly not find a job.
Just tired of corp world and looking around.
Thanks again to all.
posted by shaarog at 12:04 PM on February 1, 2011
I really appreciate the school info and will follow up. Also really appreciate the advice from halogen - just exaclty what I am looking for since I am in the initial stages of this search. The money would be 1/2 what I am making now and I realize that but it would be stupid to go into a lot of debt to aquire this degree and possibly not find a job.
Just tired of corp world and looking around.
Thanks again to all.
posted by shaarog at 12:04 PM on February 1, 2011
If you are tired of the corporate world I don't think you will find the medical and health care bureaucracy exactly appealing.
posted by COD at 12:12 PM on February 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by COD at 12:12 PM on February 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
I work per diem as a lab tech, which I picked up over December so that I'd have a more flexible job while I'm in school. If you can pick up per diem somewhere (or casual), you can usually get trained on the job and eventually become part- or full-time - and that seems to be the way most of the techs in my spot did it.
I do work in a special lab - only blood gas analysis. Maybe if it's a full lab, doing full chems or CBCs or genetics, they'll require an AS. Interestingly, a lot of the folks in the lab I work in are in this as second careers or post-early-retirement jobs.
posted by cobaltnine at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2011
I do work in a special lab - only blood gas analysis. Maybe if it's a full lab, doing full chems or CBCs or genetics, they'll require an AS. Interestingly, a lot of the folks in the lab I work in are in this as second careers or post-early-retirement jobs.
posted by cobaltnine at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2011
This doesn't directly answer your question, but you could work as IT/project management in a non-corporate setting. If you are interested in health care or hospitals, IT folks are in strong demand right now. It would be beneficial if you know about or could quickly acquire some knowledge about IT security or meaningful use.
I love working in health care. Your experience with "bureaucracy" in that setting has a lot to do with the culture of the particular organization in which you work. Really, hospitals have to be pretty lean to survive nowadays, and there isn't a lot of time or money for making up pointless rules or supporting nonproductive positions.
tl;dr - your existing skills might be quite valuable in the health care setting without any additional training.
posted by jeoc at 4:49 PM on February 1, 2011
I love working in health care. Your experience with "bureaucracy" in that setting has a lot to do with the culture of the particular organization in which you work. Really, hospitals have to be pretty lean to survive nowadays, and there isn't a lot of time or money for making up pointless rules or supporting nonproductive positions.
tl;dr - your existing skills might be quite valuable in the health care setting without any additional training.
posted by jeoc at 4:49 PM on February 1, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jquinby at 11:24 AM on February 1, 2011