Research experience is usually overrated in terms of its importance to non-traditional premed postbac applicants. Depending on your story — your why medicine — you may not need research at all prior to starting medical school let alone a post-bac. I did get research experience prior to my postbac program and was quite surprised at how difficult it was to get a research position without any science background. After a postbac program, I figured out the secret to getting a solid research experience.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Do you need to get paid for this or are you willing to work for free? If you fall in the latter category, you will have an easier time.
- What sort of research are you interested in? Clinical research vs bench research vs data analytics research are very different even though they fall under the category of “research”.
- What skill sets do you have? You should be sure to convey this information to the position you are attempting to get to make yourself more appealing. For instance, if you have a lot of database entry experience and are interested in an analytics project, voilà.
- How much of a time commitment are you willing to make? If you are offering to work somewhere for 1 hr / week for a month, working with you may not be that appealing since it takes lots of effort and energy to train new personnel.
Some pointers:
- Remember that most physicians don’t actually do research, so just reaching out to doctors you have shadowed isn’t likely to get you anywhere.
- Physicians and scientists who have large research operations are more likely to want help so finding people who are researchers rather than just physicians is likely to be a better route.
How to find a researcher
- if you have friends/relatives that work in laboratories or who do research, ask them about opportunities in their institutions. Although we are allegedly living in a meritocratic system, frankly this is the easiest way to get a position. Especially if you’re willing to work for free. Cold calls/ emails can also be a good option if you have no personal connections. Remember, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. From personal experience, a good mentor working in a subject you don’t care about is much better than finding a research topic or project you do care about. Try to find research in which you are interested enough; you do not need to find your lifelong research project as a research volunteer.
What if I want to get paid?
Look for who has the money. After completing a postbac, I browsed NIH’s public database for physician researchers in the city I wanted to live/work in. Then I sent 80 cold emails, got 2-3 job interviews and 2 offers. You need to find people who have received large amounts of money (we’re talking millions of dollars) from the NIH. And it’s a numbers game, don’t be discouraged if the person you email first isn’t looking for anyone at the moment.
How to email people:
You should have some boilerplate text about your background and skills, but then have a paragraph where you describe why you’re interested in their research and how this relates to your future goals.
That’s it for now! Hope this helps! Good luck.
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