A Career in Medical Laboratory Science: One Student’s Journey

This blog post was written by Kate McKeown, a student in Mayo Clinic's medical laboratory science class of 2017.

When it came to choosing a future career, I was a member of the large crowd of undergraduate students who lacked a sense of direction. There were a few things that I didknow for certain: I loved science, and I loved helping people. Naturally, I desired to find a career that would combine these two passions, but what exactly that career would be was unclear. I was determined to investigate my options and confidently charged into my career search.

What followed was a lot of despairing trial and error.

I’ll spare you the details of my long, forlorn career quest and give you the abbreviated version. From completing my bachelor’s degree in microbiology to working as an EMT following college (and everything in between), my career exploration boiled down to a single realization: The career in which I would be happiest would be the career in which I got to: 1.) work in a laboratory and 2.) help people every day.