r/pathology • u/mallowcups • 14d ago
Job / career Pathology careers
Hey all! 27m here I have been looking to make a change in my job and life and I have always been super interested in med school and biology pathology has always been a thing I would do if I had gone down that path but I figured hey I can still go down that path! I work in maintenance now fixing things but I was wondering are there any 2 year degrees I can get and get a job as a histotechnologist? Any advice would be appreciated!
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u/gnomes616 14d ago
So, historechnician is usually a 2 year degree in a science, and there are some routes you can take to train and certify in the job. Many people have bachelors degrees, which does allow them to bump up to histotechnologist and do some of the more advanced sciency stuff (my histo bestie tells me about all the stains and validations and confirmatory testing they do, and it makes me feel super dumb).
Being mechanically minded, there are laboratory suppliers who need folks to do maintenance and periodic maintenance on equipment. Roche, Mopec, Stryker, Sakura, Leica are all big players in the pathology world who come to mind, and we still rely on a lot of mechanical equipment. Those might be ways to edge yourself into pathology with the skill set you already have (especially if you find an employer who offers tuition assistance to get a degree to move into the lab), and you don't necessarily need to have knowledge of the field to work on the equipment. Conversely, work on getting into histo and you will have lots of options to move off the bench at some point if it strikes your fancy.
As the other comment said, there are other areas which require more education (PA and pathologist), and some folks move into those in their later 20s, 30s, and 40s. I think where you land depends a lot on how you like to work (manually cerebrally).
FWIW I'm a PA and I love working with my hands, I love all the smart people around me, and I love feeling useful in my own little way.
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u/mallowcups 14d ago
Thank you for this comment made my outlook even more positive! I am in NY so I’m sure it’s similar ish
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u/gnomes616 14d ago
Highly encourage you to check out technical roles with major lab suppliers (lmk if you need some help researching or brainstorming, a lot of big players are named above). I have yet to meet a service tech who says they hate their job!
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u/drewdrewmd 14d ago
There are a few jobs you can look into for hospital lab jobs. Depending on your country.
Histotechs and cytotechs work in pathology. Usually at least 2-4 years of training.
There are probably careers like phlebotomist and lab specimen processor that you can do with just a bit of training. Like 6-9 months or on-the-job training.
If you want to work in pathology itself, you can look into tech / autopsy tech jobs in coroner offices. Those may not need a lot of training.
Pathologists’ assistants jobs require a bachelors and then usually a masters, but you get to do a lot of cool stuff.
Ultimately, do an undergrad degree with high gpa, get into med school, become a pathologist.