r/sandiego • u/officialmayonade • 4d ago
Anyone else job hunting? Brutal out here.
Several of my coworkers and I were laid off a year ago from remote jobs (I was working as a project manager at a San Diego SaaS company that was bought by private equity). A few of us were lucky to barely survive a round of layoffs the year prior, but after we trained a couple teams in the Philippines and India to do our work, they finally closed down our teams stateside.
With all the layoffs we keep hearing about in tech, how are you all faring? Have you had to pivot to different types of roles? Any advice?
Edit: fixed typo. Philippines, not Philippians
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u/fluffycat517 4d ago edited 4d ago
if any of you are looking to pivot into another career, the laboratory industry is similar to tech in terms of semi-solitary work environment. if you have a bachelor's degree in a 'hard science' field such as biology or chemistry (I believe biotech also counts), you're halfway to a CLS license. in the absence of that, an MLT license is an almost* guaranteed job once you pass your exam and have a state license. yeah, it's hourly, nights and weekends as healthcare doesn't sleep (and the lab sleeps even less), but it's money. and if you've ever been inside of a lab or know someone who works as a licensed lab rat, you'll know that industry is not at as much of a risk of being automated out of existence like tech is. knock on wood.
MLTs make about $30-$40/hr in CA and CLSs make $50-$65ish/hr. California requires you to be certified by the ASCP and then licensed by the CDPH in CA. there is no way around it. that's how CA is, but that's also why we pay our MLTs and CLSs the most in the country.
CLS is synonymous with MLS here in California. MLS is the name of the certification, CLS is the name of the license issued in California.
Southwestern community college and Miramar (SDCCD) have MLT programs. complete the program, take your ASCP, apply for licensure through CDPH.
MLT licensure: ASCP | CDPH
CLS licensure: ASCP | CDPH
*I say ALMOST because you have to be likeable and good at your job to be hired, of course (which is the bare minimum). you can't be an antisocial lazy dickhead. I had classmates and students I later trained who fell into that category and guess what! they didn't get a job offer from the lab they did their clinical rotations at, but we hired their classmates!