Grad Student Operator Perspective

Why I Became an Operator

I'm in year 4 of my PhD. My stipend is $32,000/year—not enough for the Bay Area. I was looking for side income that actually used my skills.

Traditional options sucked:

• Tutoring: $30/hour but scheduling headaches
• Consulting: Requires reputation I don't have yet
• Food delivery: Doesn't use my training

Litmus let me monetize skills I already have and equipment I already access. I run experiments for others during gaps in my own research.

Getting Verified

The verification process took about a week:

1. Identity verification: Standard ID check
2. Institutional affiliation: Student ID and lab membership letter
3. PI approval: Advisor signed a form confirming I could do external work during approved hours
4. Competency assessment: Described my experience and provided references to papers I'd contributed to

Once approved, I could see jobs matching my verified skills.

A Typical Job

Request: Test whether a plant extract has antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli

Protocol: Standard MIC broth microdilution (template I've run dozens of times)

Timeline:

• Day 0: Claimed job
• Day 1: Received materials
• Day 2: Prepared stock solutions, started overnight cultures
• Day 3: Set up MIC plates, incubated
• Day 4: Read results, photographed plates, analyzed data
• Day 5: Submitted results

Payment: $180 (after platform fee) **Time invested**: ~4 hours actual work, spread across 3 days **Effective rate**:$45/hour

Income Breakdown (Last Month)

Average job: $65 Average time per job: 2-3 hours Monthly time invested: ~40 hours

What Makes a Good Job

✅ Good jobs:

• Clear protocols (templates are best)
• Reasonable timelines (>1 week)
• Materials provided or standard reagents
• Specific acceptance criteria
• Fair budget for the work

❌ Jobs I skip:

• Vague protocols ("test if this works")
• Rushed timelines (<3 days)
• Weird requests that seem off
• Budgets way below market rate
• Anything outside my competency

The Economics

For a $200 job (requester pays):

• Platform fee (20%): $40
• I receive: $160

My costs:

• Materials (if I'm sourcing): $30-50 typically
• Consumables (plates, tips, etc.): ~$10
• My time: 3 hours

Net: $100-120 for 3 hours =$33-40/hour

For jobs where requester provides materials, I keep more.

My Stats

Tips for New Operators

1. Start with templates you know: Don't claim custom protocols until you're comfortable
2. Communicate early: If something's unclear, ask before starting
3. Document everything: Photos take 30 seconds and save hours of dispute resolution
4. Be honest about timelines: Requesters prefer honesty over optimistic promises
5. Quality over quantity: Your reputation score matters

The Bigger Picture

I'm contributing to science I couldn't do alone. Some of these experiments are genuinely interesting—people testing traditional remedies, AI companies validating predictions, hobbyists with creative hypotheses.

The money helps, but there's also something satisfying about helping democratize lab access. Not everyone has a PhD program to get them into a BSL-2 facility. Litmus lets curious people participate in real science.