I graduated with a double major in natural resources and wildlife conservation in 2023. I luckily found a position in my field right out of the gate but the position was eliminated in 2025 and as you may or may not know conservation and environmental jobs are being cut left and right. I decided to take a job in Microbiology and consistently work 5-10 hours of overtime every week and I'm trained in several departments and haven't gotten a raise for it.
Myself and my coworkers have been doing work outside of our departments for months and are being crosstrained weekly all with the promise of being promoted, but they also are saying there's more than just a checklist and being trained to do all these things to be promoted when confronted. Apparently we also cannot call out sick for an entire year and we must have a "good attitude". Mind you this is for Microbiologist 1, which isn't even a leadership position.
It feels like they are dangling a carrot in front of our faces to keep us doing extra work without the pay. Is it always like this? I tried to look at other laboratories to work for in the hopes the environment and work balance being better but the reviews always say overworked, underpaid with cultural issues/poor management.
Since I can't really find a job in the field I went to school with, this was going to be my other route but I'm just feeling so hopeless that it'll ever get better. Please give me your experience fellow lab techs/microbiologists!