I just need to vent. I'm so frustrated. I'm about to be a senior in highschool. I was offered a summer job last fall by a guy who knows my family, and also is a researcher at a local infectious disease research center. So, I've gone in for a tour, and interview, and a final meeting to go over what I'll be doing. I'm scheduled to begin next tTuesday. So today, I was trying to complete the last of the online training exercises I need to complete, covering chemical safety and such, and the last one asks for my university I'd number, since the center is part of the university. I'm a high schooler. I don'thave an ID number. So I asked what I was supposed to do. Turns out, the people I've been dealing with didn't know I'm a highschool student. They didn't realize I wasn't a university student. So yeah, I can't go to work yet. I don't know if I'll be able to work there at all. Which really sucks. I've been getting so hyped up and excited. It's the opportunity of a lifetime in a field I love. So yeah. I'm incredibly disappointed right now, but I guess there's nothing to be done. It was a miscommunication.
Sorry for that!! You'll find another good job!! Yea, sad but true. Communication is one of the most imortant things in life and world.
It sounds as though it would have been a research assistant job, which are always reserved for college students. Actually, they are often reserved for students with specific academic backgrounds or majors as well. I wonder why he would have offered you a job and not know this as a researcher. Though don't worry, if you are really interested in the sciences, you will have plenty of time for research. Sometimes even a bit too much. When you start dreaming about burning down a lab or shredding the data.....
Gen: That was actually why I thought of it as a unique, once in a lifetime experience. I know research assistants ware specialized and have taken at least some classes in a specific field. The guy who offered me the job/internship/whatever you want to call it is basically their top guy. He's who news stations call when they need a quote on a disease outbreak or what have you. So I didn't think to remind him that I'm still just a high school student. It never once crossed my mind. I thought he wouldn't offer unless everything would work out. So yeah, I don't know why he offered. My dad says because of my passion for science, but passion doesn't really count for much when you actually have to know and do things.
If you go to university and study science, you will get plenty of opportunities like this. It's nowhere close being ''once in a lifetime opportunity'' it's pretty much the routine opportunity for science students.
Would it be possible to do some voluntary work in the lab? Even if it's just simple stuff? I've had high school students 'shadow' me before and taught them some basic lab skills. We even had them doing some small experiments. You'd have to be fully supervised and I'm not sure if you'd be able to work with the infectious organisms, but at least you'd be able to get some more experience and get a feel for what it's like. Plus, it would be great thing to have on your CV if you're going to be applying for RA positions when you're at uni!
I was actually just expecting it to be a job shadowing thing. Yeah, I really doubt that they would have let me handle the actual viruses and bacteria and so on. From what I gathered, I would have been entering data into the computers, growing tissue cultures to be used by the real researchers, and so on. The opportunity would have been just resume building anyways. I certainly wouldn't have been paid. Hopefully I'll still be able to do something at the center, but I'll just have to wait and see.
Hi there! Sorry to hear that there seems to have been a mix-up, and the person who offered the job should have had all of the information about you, before making the offer. I can imagine that you are disappointed. It sounds like a great opportunity. On the bright side though, you have gained some confirmation about what you perhaps would love doing one day. Being excited about the opportunity, and already into it before you started it, are good signs.
Don't worry, I promise you that you'll have other opportunities when you're in college! Some may even be paid! I started in a lab during the summer after my 2nd year, and this summer (I just finished my 3rd), I've been getting paid to do what I used to do for free! Go to college, get good grades, apply to a bunch of labs, and good luck! In the meantime, find a summer job that pays.
