If you grew up dreaming of working in a lab, you’re not alone. It just looks cool, right? You have a quiet room with all the general laboratory supplies you need and a task. You may be testing something again and again, or you might be finding out what happens when you combine chemicals. In a lab, you could be looking at samples, working with hazardous waste, or studying the biology of a particular animal. There is no shortage of careers where you work in a lab. If you think lab life could be your calling, below are five careers that require you to work in a lab.
Chemist
Chemists are probably the most common career that takes place mostly in a lab. You can picture it now. A white-coated worker is pouring liquids from beaker to beaker. In high school, chemistry class was fun for a lot of us. If you like the idea of synthesizing chemicals, whether they’re gas or liquids. Chemistry is one of those careers that is hard work but rewarding work. It takes a decent amount of schooling to become a chemist, but if you go through the schooling and get the experience, you can find the right lab job for your calling.
Biologist
Another career that can take place in a lab is a biologist. Microbiologists spend a lot of time looking at samples and dealing with very small forms of life. There are many options when it comes to what exactly you specialize in, but if you are focused on a particular organism or genus, you will be able to narrow your pursuit. Biology is broad, but microbiology zooms in and magnifies life that we can’t even see. Biologists of all kinds can spend time in a lab. What are you interested in? When you choose a part of the field to focus on, you might just find your dream job.
Pharmacologist
Lab work is also included in pharmacology. Pharmacologists study the effects of drugs and develop new ones. A lot of this work has to do with synthesizing new drugs and modifying them. It’s different from a pharmacist. A pharmacist recommends doses, works with patients, and understands the drugs that they are fulfilling, but pharmacologists have a lot more to do with creating the drugs. How else would we create new effective drugs that people need? If you are fascinated by these substances and want to work to create new drugs that help people and mitigate side effects, you should think about becoming a pharmacologist.
Optical Technician
Jobs in the field of optical lenses are also performed in a lab setting. Lab technicians make lenses, cut them, and ensure the proper curvature. These workers made glasses, contact lenses, and other lenses. Others include telescope lenses, binoculars, optical instruments, and much more. You might not think of optical work as laboratory work, but that’s exactly what it is. They work in labs that focus on physical objects instead of chemicals or biological samples, but it is lab work, nonetheless. If you are interested in the way that lenses magnify and change the way things look through them, becoming an optical technician might be the way to go.
Virologist
Virologists and viral labs got a lot of attention during the pandemic. There is a theory that was dismissed at first that the COVID-19 virus originated in a viral lab. It is was seen as a conspiracy theory, but it’s possible for a virus like it to be created in the lab for study.
Virologists study viruses and even create new ones to understand how they work. How does a particular virus affect the human body? What will happen when it mutates? Virology is an important job, as we have seen in the last few years. Understanding viruses and how they work can change the world. It’s a calling for people who want to help tackle viral infections and make humans safer and healthier.
There are many jobs that take place in a laboratory. People think that labs are just for chemists, but this is far from the case. Whether you’re interested in biology, optical lenses, chemistry, or viruses in specific, there are plenty of vocations if you want to work in a lab. Lab work is both exciting and solitary. It takes a certain kind of person to work in a lab happily. Do you like working alone on something for hours? Do you like discovering new things and trying experiments to see what happens? If you like working intensely on something, lab work just might be what’s right for you.
