Microbiology, I'm baaack!

When I shifted career directions from food microbiology to food chemistry in 2004, I had no idea how far that career trajectory would take me. Thanks to food chemistry, I've been to different countries, operated different analytical equipment, and tasted so many different varieties of rice. It even opened up the world of economics and consumer science to me, with trying to understand consumer behaviour the most fascinating of them all. 

After 18 years, however, I opted to change track again. The COVID-19 pandemic rages on, with surges ever so often when a new variant comes along. I have a son who has started to go to daycare and is figuring his way around his own social circle. It's the perfect time to head back into the workforce. I consider myself fortunate because on the week that I decided to look for a job, I stumbled upon a laboratory technician position at a public health laboratory. I sent in my application and proceeded with life, even forgetting about it (because in previous applications, I either don't hear from HR or if they do reach out, I learn that my interview has been cancelled because they've picked someone else). However, the public health laboratory did reach out and interviewed me! That, in itself, was already a thrill.

The interview itself went great. I had a good time chatting with Beatrix, the lab director, and Brandi, the lab tech who would supervise whoever they picked. After the interview, I went on with my life because I was already so used to not hearing back from HR. A few weeks later though, as I was approaching the Pacheco CA post office (with my son riding along; we had just driven my mom to her office), the lab's HR person contacted me, saying that I got the job! And it worked out well too because I got the part-time job (I could bring my son to the infant program in the morning, go to work, and pick him up in the afternoon).

A few days later, I started working happily as a lab tech (e.g., prepping media, doing water tests, accessioning samples and media when they are delivered) but the lab director was not convinced that I should be in this role. She decided to give me a bigger challenge: I was assigned to tuberculosis diagnostics. In this assignment, I was supposed to look at cultures growing for several weeks, prepare smears of bacterial colonies growing on the media onto glass slides, acid-fast stain the slides, and look at the smears under the microscope to determine if acid-fast bacteria were in the colonies I had smeared. This work took multiple days to complete because there were so many different colonies growing in the plates and test tubes. There were days that seemed overwhelming but through constant practice, I started becoming more efficient.

Just as I thought that I was getting the hang of this process, I learned that the microbiologist trainee who used to process the patients' specimens was leaving to go to the onsite classes for trainees. I had a few days to learn how to process the specimens on top of diagnostics! These tasks took most of the day by themselves and I wasn't sure how I'd do them all by myself every single day. It's a good thing the microbiologist (who's already licensed) made sure that I had all the support I needed.

As if the challenges were not tough enough, I was encouraged to apply for two other positions in the lab. I was shortlisted for both; got interviewed for both (I aced the first interview but didn't feel confident that I did well on the other one); was offered one of the jobs!

And so now, I am the assistant lab director. I still do the processing of specimens and the diagnostics. But once the lab is fully staffed, I can train whoever will take over those tasks so I can start performing more of my duties as an assistant director while doing my rotations in other lab sections (in preparation for my licensure exam).