Cytogenetic Newbie. Salary: $48,998 

After getting your one year lab experience and passing your certification, you're now a full-time cytogenetic tech. To celebrate your first day on the job, you wear a headache-inducing Hawaiian shirt. Even though it's mostly hidden under your lab coat, your boss complains that it's blinding him and forbids you from wearing one ever again. So much for first impressions.

Cytogenetic Technologist. Salary: $55,044 

You're in the groove. With a few years of experience under your belt, you're no longer making rookie mistakes like wearing loud shirts. Nowadays you only wear loud socks. Nobody can bust you over your socks, right?

Cytogenetic Technologist, Ten Years In. Salary: $59,000 

In some ways, you've seen it all, but the medical innovations just keep coming. Your fortune cookie said it was important to keep moving forward, so you're keeping up with the latest advancements in the field—and fighting to bring casual Fridays to the lab.

Cytogenetic Technologist Supervisor. Salary: $68,405 

There's a new kid in the lab and you've been assigned to show her the ropes. You remember your first days, with those crazy shirts and that starry-eyed ambition. The shirts are no longer in your work life, but the starry eyes? Yeah, you still have those.

Lead Cytogenetic Technologist. Salary: $74,524 

All your wisdom and experience makes you the perfect candidate to run the cytogenetics lab you've called home all these years, so when you're offered the chance you leap on it. You promise the staff that the lab will continue to strive for precision and excellence...and that, at long last, they're free to wear obnoxious duds under their lab coats.