My Future in Biotechnology

Summer has been passing so fast! It’s just so easy to get caught up with the nine-to-five working schedule, and weeks just fly by. In some ways, its great: it means I am getting closer to going back to USC (moving into my first apartment yay!).

But at the same time, I’ve really been enjoying working in the real world. I’ve just learned so much, especially since I am working at a small start-up biotech company. There are some obvious challenges with a smaller company, but also so much opportunity to learn about a variety of fields. One of the best parts is just the large diversity of the company: there are scientists, analysts, engineers and people from all sorts of interesting science backgrounds.

Because of this, I’ve recently become more interested in looking at graduate programs, after a bachelor’s degree. The great thing about engineering is that you can jump directly into the workforce right after college, or you could apply to graduate school as a candidate with a versatile and difficult degree. Engineering teaches you to be a problem-solver, which means your skills are applicable almost everywhere! Recently, I’ve been interested in a combined M.D./Ph.D. program, possibly a few years after I graduate. This degree is great for someone interested in medical research as well as academia. Many of the graduates go onto become researching professors at universities, and that sounds like something I want to do eventually. I am confident that having a Chemical Engineering degree would give me a great background for this sort of career, but of course, I’m still up in the air about it.

So working in the “real world” has made me more aware of my career options, and what sort of degree would be appropriate for what I eventually want to do. And since, like I mentioned in my last blog, I can’t post any cute Instagrammed photos of eyeballs from my laboratory, I added some pictures of what I’ve been doing this summer besides working. Clearly, not much. My family got a free one-month subscription to Netflix, which is basically where the rest of my time has gone. I’ve almost watched the whole series of How I Met Your Mother (random fact: the Trojan Marching Band appears in one of the episodes as a school marching band!). Anyways, I’m looking forward to finishing up this summer working and getting back to USC to move in and see all my friends 🙂