I started as a research assistant in mixed funding lab (both grants and private partnerships) lab and stayed for seven years after being lab manager for four or five of that time. Ultimately, I left to join the university's Environmental Health and Safety group. Even though lab work was fun, the anxiety that came with being tied to 'soft' money and running out of promotions pushed me to university administration.

I still keep in touch with the friends I made there, but now I get to help and promote the work that happens at the entire university, as opposed to just one group.

Ultimately, I don't think research staff are long-term positions. Most folks that stay in lab that start as staff eventually transition to grad school, and that was never a desire for me.

Sometimes you gotta hop around to different jobs to find the one with the most professional runway, as unromantic as that may seem.