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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? Check the Ithaca area for academic chemistry work as well as (usually poorly-paid) positions at small start-ups in the Ithaca area. Also, check out the BMS site in Syracuse and Forest Labs out on Long Island. Alternatively, Boehringer Ingleheim (I almost certainly misspelled that) in Connecticut is almost entirely made up of fairly competent ex-Pfizer layoff victims (to the point where PFE employees at Groton call it "Pfizer West"). You've also got the entirety of Research Triangle Park in North Carolina if you're okay with going that far, Wilson NC if you're applying in NC anyway, and the Philadelphia suburbs as well for several pharma companies. If you can stop yourself from dying of shame, NJ has a decent amount of chemistry stuff as well, particularly in the pharma field. Boston area is absolutely stuffed as well. Edit: In particular for Boston, Vertex Pharma is recruiting chemists as of last week. I don't know if they've got entry-level positions (benchtop chem is not my field), but I definitely remember seeing a lot of things for analytical chemistry on their job page.
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Sep 6, 2011 02:11
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So a few weeks ago one of my employees (she's a part time extra job type, older than me with more experience and makes more money than I do at her other job) said that I should totally start my own histology lab business where I just take specimens from people who are doing research and charge them for producing slides. She said she knows someone else who is doing this and making like 500K a year with 80 blocks a day. So I got all excited about the idea and then yesterday I was talking to her about it again and she says she talked to her husband (who is a clinical pathologist apparently) and he said it's not really worth it. Does anyone here have any clue as to whether or not it's actually not worth it, or is it not worth it for rich doctors who won't get out of bed for less than a couple million a year, or what? I'm REALLY good at what I do but I loving hate working in a clinical setting with insane pathologists who treat people like loving dirt all day. Plus it's killing me that my boss makes $100+ on every slide I cut and I'm getting pennies. Half pennies. It's probably a terrible idea, isn't it? It has to be because it would make me happy.
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Sep 11, 2011 16:05
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So this is random and possibly a little too involved but is there any chance some of you guys could explain to me how your labs work? I come from a non-science background and working in the LIMS industry leaves me a little befuddled at times. So basically I guess what would be considered a sort of lab "audit". Where do your samples come from? What types of materials are you normally working with? Do you have a concrete method of taking ownership and auditing what happens to the sample while in the lab? What tests do you normally perform on your samples? Is all of this done manually? Do you record your results on paper, ELN, paper and then transcribed to a LIMS/LIS/CDS/ELN/whatever? What are audit trails like on tests? Are the results checked and approved by managers? What happens when a sample doesn't fall within specification limits? How are your results and data communicated to the business side? Things like that, particularly in non-pharma qc/qa labs as those are the ones I'm most experienced in. Feel free to include any steps I left out! Hah.
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Sep 20, 2011 04:19
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I used to work at a food safety laboratory, certified in cGMP and ISO 17025. It was a hellhole to say the least.Lyon posted:So this is random and possibly a little too involved but is there any chance some of you guys could explain to me how your labs work? I come from a non-science background and working in the LIMS industry leaves me a little befuddled at times. Basically a lab audit consists of an uninformed client "auditor" coming in and meeting with the Quality Manager while they take turns jerking each other off and ignoring obvious mistakes in the Quality Manual. Then they eat pastries and drink coffee while thanking each other for their time. Oh, and they check the expiration dates on various bottles of random poo poo, since most auditors don't have a background in science. quote:Where do your samples come from? What types of materials are you normally working with? Do you have a concrete method of taking ownership and auditing what happens to the sample while in the lab? Hahahahahahahahahahaha, you must be kidding me! An organized method of tracking samples and assigning ownership of samples? Ownership of samples is only delegated when something bad happens, otherwise some perfunctory paperwork is filled out and signed by untrained interns after the fact. Also the person doing shipping and receiving gets fired for not adding to company profits, so everyone is responsible for knowing when something comes in for them. quote:What tests do you normally perform on your samples? Is all of this done manually? Do you record your results on paper, ELN, paper and then transcribed to a LIMS/LIS/CDS/ELN/whatever? What are audit trails like on tests? Are the results checked and approved by managers? What happens when a sample doesn't fall within specification limits? I won't get into the tests, but if the results aren't what the owner wanted he is called on the phone and he yells at you for being stupid. Results are taken down on paper, copied and filed away. This whole sort of electronic storage thing cost money without immediately producing profits in the mind of the owner, so there's no way he'd do that. It would cut into the amount of fine art he can buy! quote:How are your results and data communicated to the business side? The VP of sales will oftentimes communicate unconfirmed results to the client in an effort to up-sell them for higher priced tests. He also likes to interfere with the work of the technicians, despite there being clear walls between sales and the work being done. quote:Things like that, particularly in non-pharma qc/qa labs as those are the ones I'm most experienced in. Feel free to include any steps I left out! Hah. I'm so loving glad I got out of there! Let me know if I can clarify anything! Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Sep 20, 2011 |
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Sep 20, 2011 13:13
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So I just got a job offer from a company that wants me to work on some membrane protein as well as non membrane protein targets for crystallography. When I went on the interview everyone was really nice and all but I feel like they're missing an important piece of equipment for doing the membrane protein work: an ultracentrifuge. They're currently putting together an offer letter and I was thinking about asking them to buy one as a part of my offer. Is that unreasonable?
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Sep 20, 2011 15:39
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Appachai posted:So I just got a job offer from a company that wants me to work on some membrane protein as well as non membrane protein targets for crystallography. When I went on the interview everyone was really nice and all but I feel like they're missing an important piece of equipment for doing the membrane protein work: an ultracentrifuge. Honestly, I think it's a bad idea to ask for it as a condition of your offer. My reasoning is as follows: #1 - Are you absolutely certain they didn't have an ultracentrifuge? (It isn't just in a different lab? Just missed it maybe?) Foot-in-mouth is always embarrassing. #2 - My experience with capital purchases is that the accounting process to get fund approval is ridiculously huge, and it may take months and months and months just to get approval, let alone get a piece of equipment in. My former employer has $50B+ revenue annually, and it took me literally three years to get $500K for updating to a tablet press less than twenty years old. (Hopefully whoever comes after me likes it when we get it in a year.) The person drafting your offer may also have no authority to do it, and have to say no. (Limited-scope HR officer, for example.) #3 - If they're a small company with less red-tape idiocy, you may very well price yourself out of a job by increasing the attached cost to your employment to higher than a a competing candidate. That's just my opinion, of course. I also haven't worked in crystallography and have no idea how hellish they're making your job if they don't actually have one / won't get you one. 
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Sep 20, 2011 16:13
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Sundae posted:Honestly, I think it's a bad idea to ask for it as a condition of your offer. My reasoning is as follows: quote:#2 - My experience with capital purchases is that the accounting process to get fund approval is ridiculously huge, and it may take months and months and months just to get approval, let alone get a piece of equipment in. My former employer has $50B+ revenue annually, and it took me literally three years to get $500K for updating to a tablet press less than twenty years old. (Hopefully whoever comes after me likes it when we get it in a year.) The person drafting your offer may also have no authority to do it, and have to say no. (Limited-scope HR officer, for example.) quote:#3 - If they're a small company with less red-tape idiocy, you may very well price yourself out of a job by increasing the attached cost to your employment to higher than a a competing candidate. It is a small company so I worry about this, but I would think that they would just say it's too much rather than discarding my application. They already wasted a couple thousand dollars just during my interview process for flights, etc so I don't know how quick they would be to just give me the boot like that.
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Sep 20, 2011 17:07
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Appachai posted:...and he said "we'll buy whatever equipment we need to to get things done". Not many membrane proteins have been crystallized without isolating the membrane fraction... That statement from him absolutely changes things. Go for it.
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Sep 20, 2011 17:59
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More than anything I just worry that I'll get there and they'll expect me to do a project without the equipment. Also does anyone have any advice on asking your current boss to match another offer? The position in Seattle is great but I like living in San Diego a lot. Plus my family is all in Socal. I need to phrase it in a way that doesn't make me sound like an rear end.
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Sep 21, 2011 03:20
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Appachai posted:More than anything I just worry that I'll get there and they'll expect me to do a project without the equipment. It's your boss that's the rear end to be honest. They should be compensating you enough that offers like these are simply ignored. Look just say, "I'm happy here but I'd be stupid to ignore this offer, what can you do?"
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Sep 21, 2011 04:13
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Appachai posted:I was thinking about asking them to buy one as a part of my offer. A new faculty here got it in his contract that he "must have access to an ultra." We joked about sabotaging the ancient departmental ones so they'd finally get some that aren't barely limping alone.
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Sep 21, 2011 18:55
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Oh god, undergrad lab demonstration season starting next week  PS I'm still on my phd, thanks for the support
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Sep 21, 2011 21:12
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Appachai posted:More than anything I just worry that I'll get there and they'll expect me to do a project without the equipment. Get it in writing before doing anything. My old advisor was promised many things by the department but most were never signed into a document as proof. Once he joined they basically said "welp, it isn't in writing and we don't remember ever promising, so tough luck". So yeah, get it legally written down.
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Sep 21, 2011 23:44
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Do any of you guys work in a manufacturing environment or in any related engineering role? I would like to pick at your brains a bit over PM, if possible, regarding the working environment of one particular site I recently visited. I just interviewed at a streamlined Lean manufacturing facility, and I have some significant worries about the working environment. However, I've not been working in manufacturing before, so I don't have a frame of reference for how typical the site was.
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Sep 24, 2011 20:01
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I am currently do process development for a manufacturing facility (Clinical/Commercial, GMP, Lean, 5S, whatever else you can think of). We are a relatively small company (less than 200) so after I develop a process I usually head into the manufacturing plant and oversee the full-scale operation. Feel free to shoot some PMs my way.
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Sep 26, 2011 18:41
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Awesome. Sent you a PM! Thanks!
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Sep 26, 2011 19:09
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Here's a situation I'm sure none of you have ever heard of before: I recently graduated with a BS and can't find work. I know, it's just me, but I thought I'd see if any of you have advice just in case. In all seriousness, my degree is Environmental Science and I'd really like to find work in Atlanta in a lab. Water, soil, air, toxic sludge, whatever. Being able to do field work would actually be a plus for me, since I also sort of enjoy mucking around. I've applied to everything I can find that's even a little related and isn't some supervisory position requiring a Masters and 5+ years of experience, but haven't heard anything from anyone. I'd really prefer outright rejection. About how long after submitting a resume (everything I've seen has been over the internet) should I assume they're never going to respond? Is there any point in going after colleges? I ask because I've talked to a few professors from Emory and GA Tech and they all seem to agree that the chances of someone outside the college getting a low-level lab position is basically nil. Right now my goal is Eastern Research Group, which is my most recently-submitted application. Has anybody heard of/had contact with them? Though their position opening description is pretty vague, it looks like exactly the sort of entry-level position that would be good for me and their business seems to fit right into the sort of thing I'd like to do. Another plus is that they have branches all over the East coast and I think I'd like to move somewhere north within the next few years, so maybe I'd be able to remain within the company or something?
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Sep 27, 2011 04:15
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Zenzirouj posted:Here's a situation I'm sure none of you have ever heard of before: I recently graduated with a BS and can't find work. I know, it's just me, but I thought I'd see if any of you have advice just in case. I have a BS in biology, and I just moved to a different state and got a job as a technician in a lab at the local university. I think that the reason that I got this job was partly due to being very persistent with the PI. I sent my resume in via a hiring website, and then also attached it to a separate email I wrote to the PI explaining my interest. When she didn't email back after a couple weeks, I emailed again, saying I was still interested, and she got back to me at that point. What I'm trying to say is that you need to be proactive and initiate contact, not just wait around while your resume sits in limbo. Also, I think that you should definitely try applying to universities and colleges. Plenty of labs are looking for full time techs, especially if you have relevant research experience.
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Sep 27, 2011 05:47
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Zenzirouj posted:Right now my goal is Eastern Research Group, which is my most recently-submitted application. Has anybody heard of/had contact with them? Though their position opening description is pretty vague, it looks like exactly the sort of entry-level position that would be good for me and their business seems to fit right into the sort of thing I'd like to do. Another plus is that they have branches all over the East coast and I think I'd like to move somewhere north within the next few years, so maybe I'd be able to remain within the company or something? Go after anyone you can, it's a tough crowd out there and you're going to get a ton of rejections simply because your BS degree isn't in the specific area of study the lab you happen to be applying to does. Sure, you could be trained in a few hours as to what needs to be done, but most employers are loving stupid and expect everyone to be "running on day one", even though no one does. I'm hesitant to even suggest this because I know what it's like, but find a sketchy lab with high turn over. They always need people and once you have a year or two of experience employers won't care that you don't have a BS in Microbiological Applied Food Safety Sciences or whatever bullshit they're scamming the government for. It sucks, but we're here to laugh at your stories and look up the names of regulatory agencies when you feel like turning them in. Also, visit the resume dude on SA, there's no way in gently caress I'd be working in aerospace without him. My group had a rather widely reported delivery today 
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Sep 27, 2011 06:59
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Solkanar512 posted:I'm hesitant to even suggest this because I know what it's like, but find a sketchy lab with high turn over. They always need people and once you have a year or two of experience employers won't care that you don't have a BS in Microbiological Applied Food Safety Sciences or whatever bullshit they're scamming the government
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Sep 27, 2011 15:19
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Ignore these people and do a PhD. Sure, the money's shite, but after three years, you'll be a DOCTOR!
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Sep 27, 2011 17:31
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Scientastic posted:Ignore these people and do a PhD. Sure, the money's shite, but after three years, you'll be a DOCTOR! Oh please, don't fill his head with lies. Most people get it done in two years.
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Sep 27, 2011 17:42
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seacat posted:Bingo. Some of the best advice ITT - if you're a new grad having trouble getting work, find a company with a lovely rep and target them, and hang with them for a year or two. Even if it's completely unrelated to environmental testing. That year of experience will open a surprising amount of doors for you - arguably more than your degree did. Dont be discouraged - right now about 0% of new grads are getting the positions they want right out of school. You have to prove your lab dronin' skills first. One thing I'd like to add. If you don't have much work experience, and are under 25, don't be afraid of doing a year or two with AmeriCorps. I did 10 restoring salmon streams and dealing with invasive species. If you're lucky you can do something related to your degree. Otherwise you get money for your student debts, work experience and a few more open doors. It's better than retail or being unemployed.
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Sep 27, 2011 18:54
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Vladimir Putin posted:Oh please, don't fill his head with lies. Most people get it done in two years. I hope it's not just two years. I plan on using mine as residency time toward a permanent visa.  (Nah, that's just my backup plan if I continue to be unemployed.) Also, no matter where you end up or who you work for, make damned certain you don't alienate your more experienced co-workers (or often your less experienced ones either). The science world is very, very small in any given field; your co-workers know far more people outside your company than you likely think they do, especially if it's a high-turnover lab. I have effectively bypassed the HR department at at least six companies in the last two weeks thanks to co-worker connections. Having someone able to e-mail your resume to a real person at a company you want to work for, possibly even with a positive recommendation along the way, is priceless.
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Sep 27, 2011 19:20
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tishthedish posted: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. At least yours isn't in the lab very often, ours has her desk right in the middle of it. Since the shift I work on is all generalists and is short because they never hire anyone, on a rare occasion she'll stay and cover hematology. What that means is she continues to do her paper work while we do all of her work and ours. Have you gotten to the point where you can tell if a stool has C diff or not before you run it?
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Oct 3, 2011 18:30
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Sundae posted:Also, no matter where you end up or who you work for, make damned certain you don't alienate your more experienced co-workers (or often your less experienced ones either). The science world is very, very small in any given field; your co-workers know far more people outside your company than you likely think they do, especially if it's a high-turnover lab. What's weirder is when people you've never met at other companies know who you are, and already have an opinion about how good you are.
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Oct 4, 2011 12:06
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Merou posted:At least yours isn't in the lab very often, ours has her desk right in the middle of it. Since the shift I work on is all generalists and is short because they never hire anyone, on a rare occasion she'll stay and cover hematology. What that means is she continues to do her paper work while we do all of her work and ours. I think everyone would quit if my lab manager sat in the middle of our lab. Everyone is just so uneasy around her. I've seen just about every type of poo there is. The ones that really piss me off (and make me very sick to my stomach) are the hard ones. Um, if the stools are coming out like concrete, the patient does not have C diff. It would be awesome if doctors understood that. I have predicted a few, but there's so many green, completely liquid stools at my hospital. In a run of 40, there might be one or two positives, and it's usually one of the green liquid ones. Yay poop. We just got a new test in, for malaria. I sat in the one hour inservice to learn how to do it, only to hear that we get like 3 samples a year. So it's basically something I'll have to re-teach myself every time I do it.  CAP came yesterday! Everyone suddenly had to go to lunch though so the few of us techs who were left had to answer all of their questions. 
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Oct 4, 2011 22:46
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I am amazed at the interview luck I'm having so far. I've had three phone interviews, two on-site, and a job offer (rejected it) in less than two weeks after getting terminated from my old job. Awesome. quote:What's weirder is when people you've never met at other companies know who you are, and already have an opinion about how good you are. I don't know why this reminded me, but a life-lesson for anyone in lab sciences regarding how small a world it is: Don't use weak references / name-drop unless you're certain the guy you name-dropped loves you. I had an interview five years ago with a lab at Harvard, and I name-dropped a guy from CSHL that I interned under, vaguely (dotted-line boss). He was in the same field as the lab I was applying for a position in, so I figured why not? The prof I was interviewing with not only knew who he was, but he had him on speed dial thanks to the amounts of correspondence they did. He checked the reference right then and there, and the guy didn't remember me.
Sundae fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Oct 5, 2011 |
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Oct 5, 2011 01:41
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tishthedish posted:I think everyone would quit if my lab manager sat in the middle of our lab. Everyone is just so uneasy around her. I don't even WORK in micro and I can tell if someone doesn't have butt problems. The only micro shift we have is day, evening at night are all generalist. So we do everything but read plates and QC work. I still see the poops and they've ordered stuff like O&P and cultures and FWBCs and its obvious all these are going to be negative man, its a solid goddamn turd. I know some places do it for all inpatients, but I don't think we do. In any case, I just got an interview for a micro job at a larger hospital so my days as a generalist may finally be at a close. I know some people are into doing everything but its a serious pain in the rear end. Its a lot harder to know everything about every discipline than you'd think, especially when they put you in charge 6 months after you graduate. 
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Oct 5, 2011 19:34
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Vladimir Putin posted:Oh please, don't fill his head with lies. Most people get it done in two years. You forgot to tell him about the excellent pay and great work:life balance.
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Oct 6, 2011 00:01
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polyfractal posted:You forgot to tell him about the excellent pay and great work:life balance. This gets better and better! Since I can just skate on through a masters into a PhD and get all the easy money, what does crippling debt matter!!
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Oct 6, 2011 06:27
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Are any of you guys working in the Cambridge MA area? I've got a strong chance of another job offer coming soon from a company there in the next week or two, but they've already indicated that relocation assistance is out of the question. Anything I ought to know about the rental market that would make it easier to get moved in, should the offer be suitable? (Do I need a realtor to actually get to see any apartments? Any particularly good sites, or are the typical craigslist / apartments.com things sufficient?) Any information would be awesome. quote:This gets better and better! Since I can just skate on through a masters into a PhD and get all the easy money, what does crippling debt matter!! You should consider taking all that crippling debt and lumping it into a private consolidation loan for lower monthly payments! 
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Oct 6, 2011 17:27
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I don't know how it works in America, but I got paid to do my PhD, it was tax-free and I didn't incur any debt from it. Admittedly, I now work in a bakery to pay my way through writing up, but that's TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.
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Oct 6, 2011 17:56
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Scientastic posted:I don't know how it works in America, but I got paid to do my PhD, it was tax-free and I didn't incur any debt from it. It (mostly) works that way here too. If you get a PhD offer without a stipend, you call it a "rejection" instead. The stipends, however, are taxable income and may, depending on the field, not actually provide a livable income here. The absolute highest stipend I was offered was $28K for nine months plus $1,300 per month for summer research continuation in upstate New York, and the absolute lowest I was offered was $17,900 for twelve months in Boston. I have heard of significantly lower offers for people in social sciences, but I don't have any experiences with that to judge from. Quite often you have to pay for your master's degree, though. That ran me about $35K total (all food, housing, etc), but that was also just one year.
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Oct 6, 2011 18:41
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If there are any BS/MS mol bio/biochem people interested in lab jobs you can apply at the company I'm about to move to work for in WA. It looks like they have three positions open.quote:Research Associate quote:Research Associate / Senior Research Associate quote:Senior Research Associate - Crystallography Appachai fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Oct 6, 2011 |
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Oct 6, 2011 19:17
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It probably would have been worth noting that the company is located in Washington. On an island. So just about as far away as is possible for most of us, probably. Almost literally so for me, at least within the continental states.
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Oct 6, 2011 23:11
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Zenzirouj posted:It probably would have been worth noting that the company is located in Washington. On an island. So just about as far away as is possible for most of us, probably. Almost literally so for me, at least within the continental states. I'm going to live in Seattle and commute ~30min on the ferry. The ferry costs are reimbursed as well. There are plenty of biotech companies in worse places like kalamazoo and the woodlands in TX.
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Oct 6, 2011 23:24
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Appachai posted:I'm going to live in Seattle and commute ~30min on the ferry. The ferry costs are reimbursed as well. There are plenty of biotech companies in worse places like kalamazoo and the woodlands in TX. Oh sure, it's a helpful post, I just mean that it's nice to know right off the bat how feasible the location will be.
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Oct 6, 2011 23:29
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Appachai posted:I'm going to live in Seattle and commute ~30min on the ferry. The ferry costs are reimbursed as well. There are plenty of biotech companies in worse places like kalamazoo and the woodlands in TX. Why in the heck did they set up there instead of Seattle or Bothell? In any case, thanks for posting that, because I'm sure there are plenty of folks here that would love to hear about those openings!
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Oct 6, 2011 23:48
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Sundae posted:I am amazed at the interview luck I'm having so far. I've had three phone interviews, two on-site, and a job offer (rejected it) in less than two weeks after getting terminated from my old job. This is badass and I"m glad to hear it. I just have to ask, were you expecting this sort of response? You stuck around your former company for a long time.
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Oct 6, 2011 23:50
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