Histology Technician

As a Histology Technician, you’re responsible for the down-and-dirty work of looking through that microscope and identifying just what exactly is on the other side. As opposed to a Histologist, who is more senior and generally takes on more of a manger role, a Histology Technician is the marine of the histology world. You’re getting your hands dirty taking cross sections of samples, preparing slides, and staining tissue on the front lines of science.

Your typical day includes a lot of lab work. Slide preparation – especially staining, which is fairly complicated – is a huge part of your job and a major factor in your success. These slides are what illuminate the tiny cells that you’re working with, and allow Histologists or Doctors to interpret the data and results that they need.

Preparing these slides is very precise work. Being able to correctly dehydrate a sample, choose the correct stain (silver stain? Mallory’s trichrome? Haematoxylin?) and mounting the sample properly all contribute to accurate data collection.

A wrong move at any step in this slide preparation process can corrupt the data, so a successful Histology Technician is usually a very careful, calm, detail-oriented person. It doesn’t hurt if you look good in a lab coat, either.