How to Become a Medical Scientist

Video Transcript

"This is an instrument which is a centrifuge which we can put tubes in and spin them at very high speeds to collect volumes. And the whole training and employment process is pretty structured for this. So I guess it depends on what you call my first job, the difference between training and a job. After I did my post doctoral training, I basically applied to this University, Vanderbilt University, and got a faculty position. So that's the logical thing to do after your post doctoral thing, is to look for a faculty position. And there's usually very few of them in your area in the country. And so you look around and there might be one or two or three at the very moment that you want to get that job. Sometimes you have to make the job. So I actually contacted people in my area. And if they know you're very promising and you're finishing ten years of training and you're ready to go, they might make the job for you essentially because they want to capture the opportunity to bring you into the university. Oftentimes people like me, who take their first job, I've been here now, I think thirteen years, essentially I'm in the same job. I've promoted up along the way, but I'm still here and I'm still doing the same kind of work. So a lot of times people like to get you at the entry point because you may stay for a long time. That helps the institution. So basically I knew people in my field and my boss knew folks here and they'd worked together for twenty years and they talked and you know I came down and I, essentially made a job for me, that fit me, but it you know was a faculty position. Now what they really did was allow me to raise my salary. So you know, they didn't really pay me per se, they allowed me to come here to raise money to pay myself. So the hiring process, making a job is really allowing someone to create their own job in a way. The first real job I'd say is called an instructor level position, and the university, this is typically a one year appointment. So the university calls you a faculty member. You're no longer a trainee. But there's no long term commitment to you. After a year, they could say well, it's not going so well, thanks for coming, and what are you going to do next year. But the idea is during that year, you apply for grants and if you get funding to pay for yourself beyond that year, then that seems promising, they may actually offer you a more permanent assistant professor job. And typically those have kind of a three year commitment from the institution. And then after that you just keep trying to raise money to pay your salary."