Recommended Work Experience Before Grad School?

[mac627]

Greetings!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read and (hopefully) help answer my question. Currently, I hold a B.S. in Environmental Science, and am planning to apply for a masters in either chemical engineering or materials science and engineering (depending on the school and/or program).

 

Right now, I work as a chemist at an environmental testing company. I started off in the prep lab, and now also help to run some of the instruments for analysis. As the title says, my question is about work experience before grad school. I am curious what type of jobs I should be looking for to show my committment and aptitude for a degree in engineering, considering my experience and education.

 

I am interested in studying and working with renewable energy technologies. I have a bit of research experience as an undergrad - one job as a lab tech in a wet lab, and another as a clinical research assistant (mostly using excel and SPSS and performing lit searches).

 

Any advice is welcome! I'm willing to postpone school to gain some more experience if that is necessary.

 

Thanks!

 

-Mac

[Hyraxes]

I'm sure there are people who are in a better position to offer you advice, but here are my two cents:

 

People often think about working for big names in their industry before grad school. Chances are, however, that with just a BS and not much experience, you'll get a rather low-level job with wrote responsibilities and not much flexibility or room to prove yourself. This is not particularly helpful for grad school prep.

 

The cleantech industry is FULL of startups. In fact I just left your area, where I worked in an incubator full of clean- and bio-tech startups. They're always looking for young talent willing to work long hours for little pay. You learn an absolute TON because you have to do so many different things when you're with a company of only a few people. Also the shit pay and shit hours are great preparation for grad life.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Hyraxes

[mac627]

Okay thanks. Really appreciate the insight and advice.