Salary
Average Salary: $75,230
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $3,140,702
It depends. This is definitely one of those career fields where you'll have to work your way up. Often enough you can start doing entry-level research with just a bachelor's degree, but those positions will likely be on the lower end of the pay scale. Remember though, paying your dues builds character. A lot of famous scientists paid theirs in some seemingly ignoble positions. Einstein worked as a patent clerk in his early days and did a hefty amount of his scientific work on his own time. He was initially working to become a chemist. But one day something went horribly wrong with a formula he was working on for a new kind of experimental hair gel and there was a tragic explosion. That's why he looks like that in all his pictures. After that he switched to physics, where he is generally thought to have met with some success.
Anyway, as far as money goes, in 2013 the median pay for microbiologists was $75,230, with the low end of the scale being around $39k and the high end around $121k. There are opportunities for every educational level, but the really good stuff (like bigger paychecks) is pretty much the purview of PhDs. So a basic career path option is getting your B.S. in microbiology, trying to get picked up as a research assistant by a top-notch PhD, getting some good work experience and mentoring, then move into pursuing your doctorate.
There are positions for microbiologists in government and academia, of course, but generally the best money and toughest competition is in the private sector, although there are some reasonably lucrative positions in the Executive Branch, we're lead to understand.
Private sector microbiologists work in several different industries like research and development, pharmaceuticals, agricultural and chemical manufacturing, medicine, plastics, and we can only assume they’re partially responsible for developing those breeds of little rat-sized dogs trendy women have started carrying around in their purses. Maybe those things double as make up applicators. We're not sure what else they're for.