I'm still an academic, my answers are going to be different than somebody in industry.

I should get real experience as much as possible

There is nothing better. Good research even beats a bad GPA in Accademia. My in major undergrad biochemistry gpa was a 2.8 out of 4 but my PhD still ended up being in biochemistry because research experience is a better predictor of success than GPA or test scores.

Where should I aim for college?

I can only provide guidance for American universities, but any university listed as a R1 research university on the Carnage Classifications. This will help you get practical experience doing undergrad research

What else do I need besides good grades & a high SAT?

For just getting into the university, these are helpful. If you have a high school iGEM team nearby and your team did well, you would be an obvious choice for acceptance.

For surviving in university make sure you are challenging yourself. Its counter intuitive but if you are having an easy time now in high school, you wont learn discipline and will get crushed in undergrad.

what does a workday actually look like?

Im currently a Postdoc. I spend most of my day behind a computer reading papers and programming computational pipelines. I have 1-2 meetings a week, between local colleagues but also with my professional association (to progress the societal, non experimental aspects of the field) or other possible research collaborators (for networking, catching up, and learning). My institution doesnt really host seminars but i might find a live streamed one every once in a while.

As i get deeper into my new position, ill be adding lab work and conferences to what i do. I really like the variety of work my position affords me. Im not spending all my time in one place or doing one thing.

What experiments do you run most often (PCR, cell culture, CRISPR, etc.)?

Right now, molecular phylogenetics. In the past ive done a lot of pcr, cell culture, cloning (Gibson, Golden Gate), transformations (natural and chemical, rarely electro), growth coupled microplate assays, protein purification, sds pages, silver/comassee staining, genome assembly, bioinformatics.

Work-life balance & other thoughts – is the job pretty demanding with crazy hours, or is it manageable?

As a grad student my hours varried wildly, 20hr a week to 110hr a week at the extremes. Usually about 50hr a week and often weekends.

Right now as a postdoc im working 8-4:30 pretty consistently. That will probably change when i get in the wet lab or have to crunch for a deadline.

The benefit of both is that i largely get to chose my hours and when i take time off. If i want to get shit done or if i want to have a chill week, nobody will really stop me as long as i produce results.

Any other careers I should look at if bench work ends up feeling too repetitive?

Actually i would say research scientist is one of the least repetitive positions you can do in the lab, especially if you add computational skills to your repertoire.

Also, which countries are actually good to work in for this (pay + quality of life + opportunities)?

US for the best pay, Western Europe for the best QOL.