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No one here is a med tech! I have no one to share stool stories with 
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Aug 23, 2011 07:08
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My protein better extract tonight.
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Aug 23, 2011 07:13
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We love stool stories! Tell them anyway.  Appachai - I got your PM, and I saw the formulations position. The experience requested matches my academic background, but I'd be lying if I said I felt like I was a strong "experienced" candidate for it since I've been in solid-dose small molecule work for the last four years. I appreciate the link to the opening, though!!  So - does anyone here work out in California, particularly the Bay area? How the gently caress do you people pay your rent? I had an offer at $61K (less than my current) in a town where the average rent was over $2200 a month. What the gently caress, California?
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Aug 23, 2011 14:41
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Sundae posted:So - does anyone here work out in California, particularly the Bay area? How the gently caress do you people pay your rent? I had an offer at $61K (less than my current) in a town where the average rent was over $2200 a month. What the gently caress, California?
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Aug 23, 2011 16:26
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Wolfy posted:Live in the suburbs and commute. That's honestly how people make it out here unless they have some baller rear end job. Ouch. I'll stick with ignoring (most of) California, I think. Any place that makes the NYC metro area look cheap isn't worth the move.
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Aug 23, 2011 16:39
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Sundae posted:Ouch. I'll stick with ignoring (most of) California, I think. Any place that makes the NYC metro area look cheap isn't worth the move.
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Aug 23, 2011 17:01
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Sundae posted:We love stool stories! Tell them anyway. Might as well try. if you get the job you have to let me in to the new gym they are building over there. As a postdoc in San Diego I can tell you it's much cheaper than 2200 a month for an apartment here. You can find a one bedroom fairly close to the beach(~1mi) for around 900/mo. Appachai fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Aug 23, 2011 |
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Aug 23, 2011 19:06
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ONE TIME a few months ago, a nurse sent a stool sample (which was in a grey tub- about the size of a butter tub) wrapped up in latex gloves. I really hate when they do that. Anyways, I took the glove wrapped specimen out of the ziplock bag so that I could confirm that the label on the grey tub matched the label on the requisition. As I pushed one glove to the side, I noticed that the gloves were covering up yet another ziplock bag, which actually contained the grey tub--and the bag was full of loose stool. More cursing ensued until I discovered that the nurse had forgotten to label the grey tub! Hooray! Now I was quite excited to see how the story would end. If a specimen is not labeled, we call the nurse and tell them that they can either come down to the lab and re-label the specimen, or they can recollect. In a situation like this, nurses generally choose to recollect because it's poop and not something difficult to attain, like CSF. So I called up the nurse, and after some waffling she told me she wanted to come up to the micro lab and re-label the specimen. I was shocked because I figured she must know the condition of the specimen, but I gave her the directions to our lab nonetheless. I re-affixed the gloves and set the specimen in the hood because I was not about to clean it up for her. It is very common for them to send a leaking stool specimen to us, and we always have to just grit our teeth and deal with it. About 15 minutes later, a nurse comes through the doors, asking where the stool was. Imagine my surprise when it is a male nurse instead of the female I had been speaking to! I pointed to the hood and showed him where the alcohol wipes, gauze, and gloves were while he just stood there dumbstruck. As he reaches for the gloves, he mutters "I'm going to get that nurse."
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Aug 23, 2011 19:31
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tishthedish posted:No one here is a med tech! I have no one to share stool stories with Share stories anyway! I'm halfway through the med tech program at UTA/Tarleton State.
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Aug 23, 2011 23:18
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I have some stool stories, but I also have general crazy lab stuff. There's a coworker I have named Nancy who can be a real bitch. I have only been at the hospital a year now, so even though she is just one of the part-time weekenders, she thinks she can boss me around. I stood up for myself which led to a talk between me and Nancy in the lab manager's office. We basically agreed to disagree. No hugs, no handshakes. Well I just let things go for awhile until Nancy was back to her old antics. This time, instead of informing the managers, I took matters into my own hands. I took all the stool specimens from the table so I could set them up in the hood myself. We take the stool from grey tubs or sterile cups and put some into these 5mL tubes that have a twisty top that we used for C diff testing. There were quite a few stool specimens that were liquidy where I could fill the 5mL tubes up to the very very top. I would screw the cap on as hard as I could. I knew that Nancy was going to be doing the C diff testing the next day. I wasn't there to witness the magic, but the tech who worked with Nancy that day said that it was definitely worth the effort.
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Aug 24, 2011 07:23
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Sundae posted:
Well, I have done research out here around SF for the last 5+ years, and for one it sounds like 61k is a low ball offer. Was it from some tiny company or an academic lab? From lurking this thread it sounds like you have a higher equivalent position than I do, and more experience than I do, but I am getting above 70k. It really depends on what your ideal living condition would be. Many young professionals have roommates (not in the same room like a dorm, sharing a 2 bedroom house or whatever). If you demand your own place you could probably find something around $1300ish (I am guessing, I have not looked) for a studio. Where would you be working? If you are on the east bay there are many relatively cheap areas there, if you are in SF or the peninsula, something like San Bruno or South San Francisco are 5 minutes from SF and signicantly cheaper. The south bay is cheaper as well if you are around San Jose. However, I do have tons of coworkers who make similar amounts of money as I do who live in SF proper, some with roommates, some without, so it is not like it is impossible if that is something you really want. For the last few years, here is where I have lived: 2007ish - South San Francisco in a 2 bed 1 bath house ~ 1,000 sqft, was $1600/2 for roommate, now it is probably about $2000 2009ish - San Mateo 2 bed 2 bath, $1900/2 2010ish - Millbrae, 2 bed 2 bath, $2000/2 Millbrae and South San Francisco are ~ 10 miles from downtown SF, San Mateo was maybe 22 miles. PM me if you have any more specific questions. Pain of Mind fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Aug 24, 2011 |
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Aug 24, 2011 22:30
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You are receiving this broadcast as a dream...We are transmitting from the year one nine... nine nine ...You are receiving this broadcast in order t
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It was a mid-size pharma company (5-10K employee range). I'm getting above 70K myself right now (making myself about the lowest-paid person in my department  ), but that's about to end due to the layoffs.Peninsula area, and roommates not a possibility as I'm married, wife works from home (children's book illustrations), and we have two pets. Due to the wife working from home, we need a reasonable amount of space for her to set up her art. Honestly, I'm very inclined to still write off the area, because what you guys call cheap for a studio is on-par with a luxury 1BR in the Boston area, where I'd be able to grab $70K+ and still have plenty of companies to pick from if my new one goes under. It's just not worth paying that much of my salary on living expenses. I'm still holding out for one in Indianapolis I applied for. $600 for 1400ft^2 2BRs with ~$85K salary point? I'll take it.
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Aug 25, 2011 00:03
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Well I just spent three hours of my workday showing off my lab for a recruitment video. Sandiegoons please to send me your CVs if you are a technical badass with a bachelor's or a post-doc+3 yrs. Really thick skin for corporate bullshit mandatory. Fortunately I will handle most of it as your lab manager. Bastard Tetris fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Aug 27, 2011 |
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Aug 27, 2011 09:07
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tishthedish posted:I have some stool stories, but I also have general crazy lab stuff. Post more stories...less about stools?  Any tips for the ASCP cert.?
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Aug 28, 2011 14:30
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Well, looks like I will be having an interview at Emerald Biostructures pretty soon. Anyone ever worked for/with them?
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Aug 30, 2011 01:56
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Gnome Shoebuilder posted:Post more stories...less about stools? Definitely start studying for the test starting at least six months before you plan to take it. If you do that, spend 30min-1 hour a day reviewing. I got the flashcards by Polansky thinking they were like the elementary school flashcards, but they are really index cards crammed with information at like 6 font. Not very helpful. What WAS extremely helpful was labce. com. It's $55 for a year subscription, and you take full length (100 questions) tests. They have a large question bank, so it's worth the price. They track your scores along the way so you can see how your doing. You can also see average scores of other people so you can compare yourself. On the actual test day, I pretty much thought I failed. The general consensus is that if you think you are failing, you are probably passing. This is because the questions get harder as you answer more correctly in a row. Thanks for the mindfuck, ASCP!  Obviously, I passed, but I needed a few drinks that night.Is it just me or do doctors really suck at microbiology? I called a doctor for a critical value notification today, and let him know that I saw gram positive cocci, gram positive rods, and gram negative rods in his patient's gram stain (retroperitoneal drainage). The doctors are supposed to "read back" the report, and he said "okay so that's gram positive, gram positive rods, gram negative rods, and.....you said.....cocci." "Well, yes, the cocci are gram positive. Also gram positive rods. And gram negative rods. Many white blood cells." When they sound that retarded, I generally repeat everything because I know they are about to turn around and order antibiotics for the patient. Nevertheless, did he really not know that gram positive is an adjective and not a noun? 
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Aug 30, 2011 07:42
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Resume help? (cross-posted from the meeting interviewers thread) I recently moved to Minneapolis and am looking for a job, ideally R&D but will work QC and hope for an internal hire for 1-3 years before I seriously consider going back to school for a PhD to improve my chances. I am a recent graduate. If anyone wants to critique my resume, I would very much appreciate it. http://minus.com/mZExtduEK (sorry I'm not good at picking hosting, you'll have to right click -> view image to get it big enough to read) Here is an example cover letter to critique, I do write one for each application of course. I only use buzzwords such as GLP if they are used in the job description. To Whom It May Concern: I am an Inorganic/Analytical Chemist applying for an Analytical Chemist position. I am seeking the opportunity to use and develop my skills in an advanced technical environment offering a variety of challenges and both independent and collaborative work. I have proven oral and written communication skills and can effectively collaborate with technical and non-technical groups. I have a broad skill set from academic research including independent goal-setting, planning, and problem-solving skills. I have recent experience working with thin film materials, with extremely high purity requirements demanding a correspondingly high level of care and adherence to GLP and cGMP. I received a Master’s in Chemistry from <redacted> Until my recent move, I worked as a senior lab tech at <redacted>. I had mastered the analytical techniques used and was relied upon to operate the lab independently for periods of up to two weeks. Duties included regular calibration and operation of a variety of instruments, troubleshooting OOS samples, and lab maintenance. In addition, my organization and communication skills allowed me to balance the needs of cross-functional groups within the company. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely,
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Aug 31, 2011 04:23
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I'm not in the sciences directly, just a programmer who writes workflow code for you types, but that cover letter is pretty dull. Remember, the cover letter is just to get you past HR, and HR is generally not going to know much about the actual work itself. Generally I write a cover letter for each job I apply for that is customized for that position. I'll detail my qualifications per their job advertisement (they ask for X and I have it, I'll make sure I list X prominently). I also try to punch up the level of energy in the text itself. Reading that makes my eyes want to glaze over. Something like "I feel I'm a great fit for your organization because of my extensive experience calibrating instruments, performing lab maintenance, etc. etc." adds a bit of punch and makes the HR person want to keep reading. It helps to think like you are in marketing or sales and try to mimic their way of talking about a product (in this case you). Don't go over the top, but you're trying to sell yourself to the HR person to make sure your resume doesn't get thrown in the trash on the first pass. Your technical skills don't even come into play until your resume gets into the hands of someone from your field.
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Aug 31, 2011 14:10
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teardrop posted:Resume help? (cross-posted from the meeting interviewers thread)
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Aug 31, 2011 15:43
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Thank you for the interest. I do write new cover letters for each position and reference the desired qualifications and job duties. It's a very good point that the initial reader is probably not a scientist and I could do a better job hooking them. That's 10-11 months. My job was not as challenging as I hoped for and I was hired with the implication that I'd be promoted soon. In part due to the disaster in Japan flooding us with reassigned scientists from a closed division, that would not have happened for a long time. My gf wanted to go to grad school far away, and I decided to give notice and move together rather than move separately. In retrospect, perhaps I should have done the latter until I had a new job to avoid exactly that question. Good news, I got 2 interview requests this morning! I must have gotten some karma moving by posting or something. Bad news is that neither is R&D, but it's a foot in the door. Resume tips still very much appreciated. teardrop fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Aug 31, 2011 |
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Aug 31, 2011 16:17
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Bastard Tetris posted:send me your CVs if you are a technical badass with a bachelor's or a post-doc+3 yrs. If you don't mind sharing, what sort of post doc experience do you like to see? Do you prefer postdocs from industry or academia, do you want them to know the techniques already?
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Aug 31, 2011 23:10
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There is an infuriating article about working in a lab in this week's Nature. Here's a few choice bits: quote:But these members of neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa's laboratory are accustomed to being the last out of the building. In a lab where the boss calls you at 6 a.m., schedules Friday evening lab meetings that can stretch past 10 p.m., and routinely expects you to work over Christmas, sticking it out until midnight on a holiday weekend is nothing unusual. quote:Quiñones-Hinojosa is gregarious and charming, with an infectious energy and a habit of advertising his humility. But he also knows how intimidating he can be to the people who work for him, and he's not afraid to capitalize on that. In 2007, just two years after he started at Hopkins, he rounded a corner in the cafeteria and saw his lab members sitting at a table, talking and laughing. When they caught sight of him, he says, they stopped, stood up, and went straight back to the lab. What an rear end in a top hat.
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Aug 31, 2011 23:50
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That bit with his lab in the cafeteria is telling. It means they all think he is an rear end in a top hat are deathly afraid of him.
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Sep 1, 2011 00:13
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Sounds about right for a Hopkins lab. That place has a particularly masochistic culture, even down to the undergraduate level where people cutthroat each other and literally sleep in the library which is open 24/7. Also, that guy's life story is kind of amazing, he was featured on ABC's Hopkins documentary. Dude came into the country as an illegal migrant farm worker who didn't speak any English and is now a loving professor of neurosurgery at the most prestigious hospital in the world. I'd be intimidated too. edit: Goddamn, bringing in a cancer patient to lab meetings is a particularly nasty mindfuck
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Sep 1, 2011 00:16
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plester1 posted:Sounds about right for a Hopkins lab. That place has a particularly masochistic culture, even down to the undergraduate level where people cutthroat each other and literally sleep in the library which is open 24/7. There are more than one way to skin a cat; there are labs out there where the PI is hard working but not a total rear end in a top hat. They are very productive and are in top institutions/ivy league. Hopkins is a top institution but certainly not the most prestigious out there. PI's can be tough and work their people, but when he comes around and people stop laughing and get up to go, that really says something.
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Sep 1, 2011 00:57
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Oh, I totally agree. I didn't mean to downplay how lovely that lab seems, I just understand it from seeing it firsthand
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Sep 1, 2011 01:16
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Appachai posted:There is an infuriating article about working in a lab in this week's Nature. I'm sure the cancer patients love hearing about how these folks have no lives and never get to see their own families.
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Sep 1, 2011 02:27
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 This kitten will die in 6 months unless you work 22 hour days in lab.
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Sep 1, 2011 02:43
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My lab manager is a total bitch; she doesn't come into the lab that much and doesn't ever try to talk to us on a non-work level. The one time she helped in the lab was "ice day" back in January where half the lab called in. (Texans can't drive in ice) People kept trying to take pictures of her on their cell phones while she was working. She made everyone she saw doing it erase the picture. 
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Sep 1, 2011 06:28
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Appachai posted:What an rear end in a top hat. Jesus Christ. I hate the idea that scientists should be expected to work ridiculous hours. I really enjoy doing science and I like working in a lab, but it's still a job. There are way more important things in life than work. And taking a cancer patient to lab meetings is just bad. Lab meetings should be an informal way of getting acquainted with your colleagues' work and a forum for asking naïve questions. Having a cancer patient present is definitely going to put a dampener on anyone asking questions for fear of looking stupid.
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Sep 1, 2011 12:25
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Scientastic posted:Jesus Christ. I hate the idea that scientists should be expected to work ridiculous hours. I really enjoy doing science and I like working in a lab, but it's still a job. There are way more important things in life than work. What's worse is the general attitude of this scientist. He feels that because he's so loving brilliant that he can treat his "inferiors" like poo poo and no one will do anything about it. I've known too many with attitudes like that, and they can all get hosed.
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Sep 1, 2011 13:38
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Yeah, I've met a few scientists like that. I think the worst thing is the way they suck up to their superiors, but treat everyone else like absolute shite. In other exciting news, today I got a bill from the university for £90, to pay to matriculate for my unfunded write-up year. I knew it was coming, but paying it did rather stick in my craw.
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Sep 1, 2011 16:37
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I sometimes fantasize about punching people like that. Hard. The best thing about being laid off starting in late September is that I effectively have a free pass to do whatever the hell I like at work now... like, for example, skip Wednesday and go to a Yanks vs Sox game at Fenway Park instead. (Yanks lost, and I had to listen to 35,000 smug idiots singing Sweet Caroline. )Is there anyone in this thread who works in manufacturing technology / manufacture-oriented process engineering? Got any stories or information about your jobs? I'd love to hear it since I'm interviewing for a engineer position at a manufacturing site in Indiana.
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Sep 1, 2011 17:05
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What area of manufacturing? I worked as a process engineer for API scale-up - mainly bringing processes into pilot plants and kilo labs, but I did rotate into the operations group for a few months, and I spent some time at our manufacturing sites. I can probably answer some general questions, and take a good stab at others, as I've worked with a lot of people that used to work in manufacturing groups.
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Sep 1, 2011 22:39
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Epitope posted:If you don't mind sharing, what sort of post doc experience do you like to see? Do you prefer postdocs from industry or academia, do you want them to know the techniques already? Both are pretty welcome (we're partnered with UC Berkeley and UIUC), knowing the techniques beforehand will be nice but I'm not sure that it's mandatory, but with the amount of people we're interviewing I think it might as well be. Atomic Force Microscopy will be a big plus for analytical. I think we're also looking at metabolomics, synthetic biologist post-docs, and molecular bio folks. We're also looking for scale-up and process engineers. And I wish we could be looking for some folks in my lab, but noooooo HR wants to keep headcount down :/ Edit: That PI from the last page is a loving rear end in a top hat, I hope his patients saved by his miracle cures realize what a cocksucker he is
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Sep 2, 2011 08:25
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Bastard Tetris posted:Both are pretty welcome (we're partnered with UC Berkeley and UIUC), knowing the techniques beforehand will be nice but I'm not sure that it's mandatory, but with the amount of people we're interviewing I think it might as well be. Atomic Force Microscopy will be a big plus for analytical. I think we're also looking at metabolomics, synthetic biologist post-docs, and molecular bio folks. Good to know, thanks. I'm talking about a high-throughput screening project with a potential postdoc advisor. It is fun to talk about but I expect the work itself may be tedious- running robots and/or being a robot.
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Sep 3, 2011 20:23
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I guess I count as a med tech? I work in Histology though which I've always felt was sort of the bastard stepchild of the clinical lab. I started as a lab assistant ("Take the urine sample from THIS person and hand it to THAT person") and then one day they told me there was an opening in the Histology lab. I still don't know if this was the best day of my life or the loving worst. Jesus Christ, the two moronic cunts who worked there made me so goddamn miserable I actually wanted to kill myself a few times. Or them. Or them and then myself. But that was almost ten years ago and for the past four I've been supervising a small reference histology lab (specialize in derm specimens, so I spend all day cutting up bits of human skin and toenails, fun!). We just got bought by a much larger company though and part of the deal was taking on a new Path who, as far as I can tell, has all manner of OCD and other personality disorders. I'm seriously a little surprised that his list of instructions didn't include "a lab staff member must follow me into the bathroom and wipe my rear end for me whenever necessary". I'm thinking about starting my own lab. One with absolutely NO DOCTORS EVER.
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Sep 5, 2011 03:02
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Recently graduated fool with a masters in chemistry here, while I'm trapped at home interpreting NMR data for my thesis I am looking for work. Apparently the great state of New York has next to no jobs for anyone in chemistry. I was hoping someone here can recommend some greener pastures hopefully on the eastern part of the US. Also is it remotely possible to use my NMR experience or should I just get ready to move from NMR jockey to MS jockey?
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Sep 5, 2011 19:09
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Recently graduated fool with a masters in chemistry here, while I'm trapped at home interpreting NMR data for my thesis I am looking for work. Apparently the great state of New York has next to no jobs for anyone in chemistry. I was hoping someone here can recommend some greener pastures hopefully on the eastern part of the US. Also is it remotely possible to use my NMR experience or should I just get ready to move from NMR jockey to MS jockey? You might want to look for things in fragment based screening. It's fairly popular in pharma right now. Look into companies in Boston and the research triangle area of North Carolina.
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Sep 5, 2011 19:56
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Recently graduated fool with a masters in chemistry here, while I'm trapped at home interpreting NMR data for my thesis I am looking for work. Apparently the great state of New York has next to no jobs for anyone in chemistry. I was hoping someone here can recommend some greener pastures hopefully on the eastern part of the US. Also is it remotely possible to use my NMR experience or should I just get ready to move from NMR jockey to MS jockey? Did you check out the Hudson Valley area? See the list here: http://www.hvedc.com/webpages/industry_clusters_bio.aspx
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Sep 5, 2011 21:49
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