Five years ago, I took a leap of faith and flew to Japan for a five month industry internship.
I thought going to college was the time I grew the most the fastest, but that dwarfed in comparison to my learning experiences in Japan. Personally and professionally.
Personal growth
Personally, I learned how to adapt to full-on culture shock (I talk more about this in an older post). Never visiting Asia before, not speaking Japanese, not even liking Japanese food (I am a class-A reforming picky-eater), I was entirely unprepared. That being said, it pushed me to try things I never thought myself capable of before.
I traveled all over Japan, visited South Korea and solo travelled to Singapore and Hong Kong. I fell in love with ramen, sushi, fish, and learned how to use chopsticks. I became friends with co-workers and girls in my dormitory and explored Japan with some of them.
It was very much sink-or-swim, throwing myself headlong into moving halfway around the world to test my social and adaptability skills, but I wouldn’t trade the opportunity for anything. Only when I look back now do I realize how much this experience defined my life. I gained confidence that I can move to new places, try new things, make new friends, and everything will work out.
Professional growth
Professionally, though, is where my entire mindset about research shifted. This was my first opportunity to conduct research full-time, in an industry setting, and more-or-less be in charge of my own project.
This research experience was by far the most valuable experience to prepare me for graduate school.
What I think made my graduate school application: independent research experience
I learned time management, project organization, trouble-shooting, notebook organization, project presentations. And while yes I did begin some of these skills in part-time academic research opportunities prior to this internship, I was pushed from an amateurs status to feeling competent handling my own research.
Main Takeaway: get research experience
Looking back on grad school applications, at the end of the day what seemed to matter most is your research experience. Sure, you can have a stellar GPA and have been president of 10 organizations, but if you don’t know how to pipette, or can’t demonstrate you know how to think through a scientific problem, most labs don’t want to train in grad students from the very start.
I worked in multiple labs in undergrad and did an internship at a biotech company, all of which showed I loved research & could think through science. But the research experience I was asked most about was my internship in Japan!
How to get research experience? Great question!
- Undergraduate Student Researcher
- I talk more about how to find these positions in an earlier post.
- Research technician/associate
- After graduating with your bachelor’s, these positions are available in academia and industry.
- Post-baccalaureate programs
- After graduating with your bachelor’s, certain training programs exist (one of the most prestigious is the NIH’s post-bacc).
- Master’s degree programs
- Often expensive but a great way to boost your GPA and gain research experience.
- Internship at a company
- Anything at a company is less compelling for graduate school because they will think you are industry not academia driven, but it is still great experience, especially if you do want to go into industry later.
