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Hello Jon, I hope the following answer your questions. I will post the answer here instead of emailing you back. - What kind of work do you do? Can you please describe your daily activity in sequence? Usually the morning routine when you get to the laboratory consist on doing quality control, and doing maintenance on analyzers. If you work in hospital, your busiest time will be the morning run, since most patients in hospital will have blood drawn in the morning, then you take a break after you finish doing the morning run and run specimen as they come in. - Is the job repetitive? If yes, why is it? In a way it is repetitive, the analyzers you use are the same everyday, but different problems do come up from day to day, for example quality control might fail, analyzer might break down, you will probably find the job most non-repetitive in blood bank and microbiology. - What kind of career path in the future is available to it? The most traditional career path for CLS would be technical supervisor, senior tech, lab director, quality assurance/control and consultant. I had also known CLS that pursue career path in forensic, hospital administration, education, and research. - Does hospital lay off scientists in favor of technicians? Depending on the state, if the state has licensure then there is usually requirement on how many CLS must be on a shift. Even in state licensure isn’t required most lab manager will still have enough CLS on staff to avoid liability having all CLT on duty. Usually technicians only perform in chemistry and hematology, since they are fairly automated, while blood bank and microbiology is usually staff by CLS. - Is there a certain quota of specimen you have to analyze? Do hospitals or lab require you to overwork by having large amount of samples? The amount of specimen I analyze depend on the amount of patients we have in hospital, there will be both good and bad day. Hospital lab usually doesn’t overwork staff intentionally, but I had heard reference laboratory is a different story. -When working, are you always busy? What do you spend the most of your time on? It really depend on the patient load of the hospital, I would say I am not always busy every single day. Depending on department, in chemistry you might find yourself spend most of your time in load, unloading specimen and calling the ward for critical result. In hematology you will probably be spending most time reading slide. - What is the most gruesome experience that a MT has to face? What is the negative aspect of being a MT? - What is the positive aspect of being a MT? - Would you recommend this job to a person? Do you think the education is worth it? - Does a master of CLS or a bachelor of CLS or a limited trainee program offer different benefits in term of employment or career advancement? Usually there is not difference between a BS CLS or MS CLS at entry level, the salary will be the same, a MS might help you later on your career in advancement. I would not recommend limited trainee program, since most laboratory want CLS that are generalist and can rotate in different sections of the laboratory, being a limited scientists might limit employment and advancement opportunity. - Is being specific in term of being microbiology, blood bank, molecular, immunology technologist and cytotechnologist relevant in term of employment or career advancement? Should I follow a specific track or general track (looking for programs that is general)? You can do blood bank, microbiology, molecular and immunology as a CLS, but cytotechnologist requires separate training, and I probably would not go into cytotechnology, with the HPV vaccine out and molecular testing of HPV being more common, the amount of pap smear will probably decrease and it might lead to a decrease of demand in cytotechnologist. That’s just my opinion, since it is still relative early to know the effect of HPV vaccine will have on the cytotechnology profession. Usually molecular and immunology fall under chemistry, unless you work in big research or academic medical center, where they will be separate department. I would say it is best to follow a general path early on before you decide to specialize. - After employment as a microbiology or blood bank or molecular or immunology technologist and cytotechnologist, is switching from one to the other possible? - Do you satisfy with the salary you are getting now in term of the amount of work you have to do? The average entry level salary for CLS in Los Angeles is around $30/hr.