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Solkanar512 posted:Yeah, there was a QC/QA position at Formula Corp in Auburn, WA where I had two very long interviews up to the CEO/Owner of the company, and they couldn't even be bothered to give me a loving call. I'm sorry, but if you make it to the interview stage (especially a second interview), you deserve a call saying, "no thanks" for your troubles. I know what you mean. There's a part of me that is happy to not take that job for other reasons. This job I have now is pretty dang good, too. I just think they should have given me the freakin decency to respond to emails or phone calls. I'm a big boy, I can handle a 'no'. Why can't they just put their grown up shoes on and act like adults.
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Jun 23, 2013 07:31
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It's burgin' time! 
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gently caress all you who denigrate the man who wants to learn techniques. Do you know how many "volunteer" applicants i get that dont give a gently caress and just want it as a check box for their med school applications? If you're in a biochem/molecular bio lab, you can't just learn techniques by reading the manual. There's some major voodoo poo poo that goes on with some techniques that you can't learn from a book. No wonder science in the US is on a downward spiral, nobody will loving teach you anything in industry. Volunteer in my (academic) lab and show a real interest in the science, and i'll show you how to do mammalian cell culture, harvest and grow neuronal cultures from loving baby mouse brains, western blot, immunocytochemistry, ELISA, whatever you want. Eugenics fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 23:18
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Eugenics posted:gently caress all you who denigrate the man who wants to learn techniques. Do you know how many "volunteer" applicants i get that dont give a gently caress and just want it as a check box for their med school applications? If you're in a biochem/molecular bio lab, you can't just learn techniques by reading the manual. There's some major voodoo poo poo that goes on with some techniques that you can't learn from a book. No wonder science in the US is on a downward spiral, nobody will loving teach you anything in industry. That's pretty loving badass that you're willing to teach volunteers that sort of thing. If I weren't so drat busy at work, the idea of doing basic bench work as a volunteer sounds kind of fun. I do miss putting on a lab coat, the high visibility coat they gave me for the flight line just isn't the same (though it keeps me warm!). Sundae, how's the new job going? ETA: Volunteering stops being cool when it's used to displace paid employees, even when they're subsidized students. Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jul 3, 2013 |
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Jul 3, 2013 22:11
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Solkanar512 posted:That's pretty loving badass that you're willing to teach volunteers that sort of thing. If I weren't so drat busy at work, the idea of doing basic bench work as a volunteer sounds kind of fun. I do miss putting on a lab coat, the high visibility coat they gave me for the flight line just isn't the same (though it keeps me warm!). Stuck in a hotel waiting for it to start. July 8th.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:31
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Vladimir Putin posted:I'm not a hiring manager but I've seen he process. Typically people are just too busy to notify anybody. Having to interview people just takes up a lot of time and really isn't most peoples' main jobs. I think it's normal not to call if you don't get the job. The people who do make contact to tell you they are not hiring you are the ones that are super nice. In my position I cannot notify a candidate until the other person is on boarded as there is a chance things will fall through and we will need backup candidates. In fact Ive been informed not to notify candidates of anything as that is an HR function. Guess what HR pretty much never does. I usually send people updates from a personal email account. Im sure that makes us look like quite a professional outfit.
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Jul 4, 2013 00:01
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Man, the job market for Biology BS(BSc) grads is pretty rough. My best friend/former co-worker's medical laboratory, over the last 3 years, over half of the supervisor positions vacated have been downgraded to regular technologist positions. Half of the regular technologist positions that have been vacated have been axed as well. Does anyone here have any tips or connections on trying to find work in Alberta, Canada? I'm living in and from BC, but trying to find work specifically there to gain residency in the province. My friends in related fields living there haven't been able to find anything, either. Even with pretty good grades, 2 years of co-op and research posters and references and other volunteering experience prior to that, I'm finding this to be somewhat of a nightmare. I echo that no one wants to train people to even the slightest degree, even though to do their diligence they will train them anyways to make sure it's done properly and not take a single line on a resume as truth. I am overqualified for lab assistant jobs but underqualified for everything else. And, do employers in Biology/Life Sciences actually use skype and phone interviews commonly, for this level of position, or am I wasting my time applying? I've followed this thread for years, reading about the woeful state of Big Pharma from Sundae's stories and other great ones. e: My studies/work experience focus were in Cell Biology/Microbiology/Histology/Cancer biology. rhazes fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Jul 5, 2013 |
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Jul 5, 2013 16:38
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rhazes posted:Man, the job market for Biology BS(BSc) grads is pretty rough. My best friend/former co-worker's medical laboratory, over the last 3 years, over half of the supervisor positions vacated have been downgraded to regular technologist positions. Half of the regular technologist positions that have been vacated have been axed as well. Take a look at the Clinical Genetics program at BCIT. Currently there aren't many positions open in BC, but I know that the labs in Alberta may be in need of workers. They've recently went on a hiring spree.
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Jul 9, 2013 03:32
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So I've been actively seeking and applying to jobs in a fixed region of the country since February, and I'm starting to see several postings that are just repeats of what I've seen previously (so I'll see a lab job, apply, maybe hear back from them, and then next month the exact same listing is posted again as if new). What does it mean when companies do this? Why do they do it? If they keep posting the same listing over and over, do I have any hope of hearing back from them?
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Jul 10, 2013 05:04
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Anyone know what the median salary range would be for an associate scientist? Have an offer from a company but I have another interview today for a machinery postilion that I am honestly more excited for. Tired of lab work and test tubes for now :/ Also if anyones in the northeast part of Ohio looking for a job PM me and I'll pass it along 
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Jul 10, 2013 06:47
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C-Euro posted:So I've been actively seeking and applying to jobs in a fixed region of the country since February, and I'm starting to see several postings that are just repeats of what I've seen previously (so I'll see a lab job, apply, maybe hear back from them, and then next month the exact same listing is posted again as if new). What does it mean when companies do this? Why do they do it? If they keep posting the same listing over and over, do I have any hope of hearing back from them? Nothing good to be honest. Either they're suffering from extreme Goldilocks syndrome where no candidate is good enough to warm a chair, or their turnover is just that high.
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Jul 10, 2013 15:54
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Gemakk posted:Take a look at the Clinical Genetics program at BCIT. Currently there aren't many positions open in BC, but I know that the labs in Alberta may be in need of workers. They've recently went on a hiring spree. Ugh, I am not intending to go back to school, considering a large purpose of moving to Alberta is to be a resident of that province to get into school I actually want to go into At least I've found a few lab assistant jobs to apply to, that sadly pay a fair bit more than lab tech jobs in BC. The job market in Vancouver is absolutely pitiful, considering the cost of living.
rhazes fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 18:12
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UCS Hellmaker posted:Anyone know what the median salary range would be for an associate scientist? Have an offer from a company but I have another interview today for a machinery postilion that I am honestly more excited for. Tired of lab work and test tubes for now :/ Check glassdoor for "Research Associate" in your area
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Jul 11, 2013 02:18
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Not exactly a HUGE accomplishment, but I figured out how to change the inline filters and fix a leak on the IC the other day. 
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Jul 12, 2013 01:27
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Solkanar512 posted:Nothing good to be honest. Either they're suffering from extreme Goldilocks syndrome where no candidate is good enough to warm a chair, or their turnover is just that high. Well for some places, it's even faster than that- I'll see the same ad once every week or every other week. That might not matter though, because I landed an interview for next week It's for an ICP-MS operator position, but I'm not sure why they want to interview me because I have no experience with the technique. Are there any good resources online to read up on it, besides just going to Wikipedia?
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Jul 12, 2013 |
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Jul 12, 2013 02:33
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C-Euro posted:Well for some places, it's even faster than that- I'll see the same ad once every week or every other week. You should bone up on your ICP-MS concepts a little but honestly you're much better off preparing good solid questions for the interview, making sure you can go over everything on your resume, and researching the company and position as much as possible. You're just not going to be able to learn a new instrument well enough to impress on an interview without getting your hands on it and working on it for at least a few months. Comedy answer: find out what ICP model they use, make up a company and e-mail address, call Perkin Elmer or whoever and get them to e-mail you the manual. Sometimes you can get them without even a serial number 
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Jul 12, 2013 03:25
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We've had the gremlins hit our lab recently. After a brown-out style power failure caused by a drunk 4th of July driver leading to a complete crash and massive surge as the production facilities went back online, I've spent an entire week getting my lab back online. We lost a GC-FID, the data-processing computer on the HPLCs, an ELSD detector and a couple other small electronic devices. In addition, our mobile applications lab (a giant pump/mixing device) and our TGA also went down. Getting everything troubleshot and back on-line has been a tremendous PITA, especially as my team members are sidelined waiting to be able to do their jobs. I've replaced a thermo-couple, 2 circuit board power supplies, re-installed several pieces of software, and tinkered around for 45 hours this week. With under $1k in parts and 1 week, I probably saved $15-20k in service calls. Can't complain too much, though. We've had over a year of run-good. It always seems to go all at once, though. Y'know? Anyone else got power outage horror stories?
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Jul 13, 2013 01:12
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Dik Hz posted:Anyone else got power outage horror stories? Fortunately, no. Yours sounds like a nightmare. The only thing I know is that the lab gets really dark if the power goes out. In other news, learned how to change out a guard column on the HPLC today. It's making more sense these days how pressure effects timing on the peaks for these things now. I kept the old guard column to cut open and look at, too. Just for fun.
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Jul 13, 2013 03:45
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I heart bacon posted:Fortunately, no. Yours sounds like a nightmare. The only thing I know is that the lab gets really dark if the power goes out. Depending on how long that guard column has been in service, you're in for a shock. I have seen some crazy poo poo with guard cartridges/columns. One cartridge was in such bad shape it practically disintegrated when I opened up the casing. Funny - I wouldn't think that the quality of the guard would affect retention times (at least not significantly - I suppose depending on how precise you need it. I separate things on the order of minutes). Definitely does affect pressure, though - I've seen triple the back pressure with a clogged guard. I'm trying to institute general column maintenance in our group (labelling columns and guards with the date of last change/backflush) so that things don't slide so bad that we destroy a column through negligence.
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Jul 13, 2013 22:47
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We changed this one when pressure went from the mid 800 psi level to a bit under 1100. I think this one is relatively new, since it didn't have a guard column when I first started this job back in April. We don't edit peaks either and instead go off of calibration. The HPLCs are networked to allow importing of the data into our software, also. Gonna be mixing standards tomorrow. 
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Jul 14, 2013 02:42
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Dik Hz posted:We've had the gremlins hit our lab recently. Do you guys not use surge protectors or was it just that big of a surge?
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Jul 14, 2013 22:28
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I think some of you other lab rats should start posting pictures of lab equipment. 
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Jul 15, 2013 04:02
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I heart bacon posted:I think some of you other lab rats should start posting pictures of lab equipment. Does this count?  Dik Hz posted:Anyone else got power outage horror stories? Power outages were always a serious problem because with the area we were in. Always tons of fall/spring windstorms with lots of rain, a giant lake nearby and trees everywhere. But hey, since we were in a converted insurance building, no big deal, right? We even had a natural gas generator back up system! Well, it turns out that the backup system was maybe a third to half the size it needed to be. So while our -80 freezers were ok, nothing else was. And since this was a converted office building, we maxed out the electrical circuits when everything was simply maintaining temperature. And note that it was all pretty much incubators, refrigerators and freezers - things that always stay on. When there was a power outage, we had to be sure to turn everything on one at a time, let it get down to the right temperature, and then turn on the next piece of equipment and so on. It wasn't uncommon to find a fridge somewhere filled with samples that hadn't been turned back on in several days. The best part about all this poo poo is that I could go up to the head of quality and say to him, "we're having a windstorm this weekend, we should prepare for the power to go out" and I was right in every case except for one. EDIT: Of course, this poo poo doesn't really matter because they have a site a few miles down the road that auditors never see where all the real work gets done anyway. Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Jul 15, 2013 |
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Jul 15, 2013 14:02
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seacat posted:Do you guys not use surge protectors or was it just that big of a surge? Maybe it's just me, but everything I have that cost more than ten grand gets put onto an online UPS plugged into our buildings backup power supply. Nothing like coming back into lab after my apartment's power was down for 2 hours and seeing that my three-day timelapse experiment is chugging along nicely. Maybe that is because I have a blind spot and refuse to pay for service contracts.
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Jul 15, 2013 14:17
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Solkanar512 posted:Does this count? Very cool. What are the orange things hanging there? Almost looks like they're counterweights to something the way they're hooked up to the pulleys.
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Jul 16, 2013 01:11
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I heart bacon posted:Very cool. What are the orange things hanging there? Almost looks like they're counterweights to something the way they're hooked up to the pulleys. That's pretty much what they are. My understanding is that the setup allows for the weight to be spread out across the wing to better simulate forces in flight.
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Jul 16, 2013 01:50
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Dik Hz posted:
A few of our departments just moved to a braaand new building. Everybody is humming along for a few weeks, until over the weekend the power goes out and somebody i guess didn't plug their -80 freezer into the outlet that has a backup generator on it. 5 years worth of human tissue samples gone overnight. oops
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Jul 16, 2013 05:34
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Eugenics posted:A few of our departments just moved to a braaand new building. Everybody is humming along for a few weeks, until over the weekend the power goes out and somebody i guess didn't plug their -80 freezer into the outlet that has a backup generator on it. 5 years worth of human tissue samples gone overnight. oops Same sort of deal here, except the outlet they told us was a backup outlet.... wasn't. Good luck that there were people here on a Saturday and that the power kicked back on before the freezer could completely warm up.
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Jul 16, 2013 15:40
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Solkanar512 posted:That's pretty much what they are. My understanding is that the setup allows for the weight to be spread out across the wing to better simulate forces in flight. Oh very cool! Are they performing stress tests? That would be awesome to performance test aircraft.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:34
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I heart bacon posted:Oh very cool! Are they performing stress tests? That would be awesome to performance test aircraft. Nah, this was a few years ago. The area is being used to assemble planes now. It's crazy how versatile that space is.
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Jul 17, 2013 01:33
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seacat posted:Do you guys not use surge protectors or was it just that big of a surge? I've already designed my new lab, but we're stalled with wastewater permitting issues. I have included power conditioning gear in it and requested a unique panel for my lab, the analytical lab. I can't wait.
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Jul 17, 2013 01:36
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Does anyone here have anything to say about Aerotek? They called me this morning after pulling my resume off of CareerBuilder and they want to interview me later this week. I Google'd them and there are some nasty reviews of them, but quite a few are "they didn't find me a job!  " so I don't know if that's bad luck or lack of ability on their part. This is in the Chicago area, if it matters.
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Jul 22, 2013 16:50
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Solkanar512 posted:Sundae, how's the new job going? Two weeks in, I'm pretty far over my head. Oops.  Training for the role is non-existent (including navigating internal company structure, figuring out contacts, etc), and I've basically been thrown in the deep end to figure out how to be the team lead for pretty much every function in the description. I'm working on R&D, consent decree remediation, site-to-site product transfer/revalidation, training operators, writing change controls / SOPs / handling RCA and evaluating on-going technical development of the rest of the team, all of whom are contractors. I've worked on this sort of stuff before, but I've done it at other companies with different systems. There's an adjustment period while you acclimate yourself to a company's workflows and learn contacts. Eventually I'll be able to do all of those things, no problem, but right now I don't even have names of people in other departments or a list of the procedures/SOPs. I'm not technically allowed to do 3/4 of what they're doing without training. I have to ghost-write documents because I haven't had the internal formal training for CC writing yet (it's only offered once a month), and this lack of internal training is considered my fault. It's also my fault that the NC/CAPA I've inherited is in terrible shape and is going to likely get pulled by auditors in a month. Last (and least), as an example of what I'm dealing with. I received an e-mail invite on my second day of work for a meeting with two directors. The location was conveniently listed as (Common First Name)'s Office. Responding and asking which person this was, however, was apparently the wrong question. Severe lack of initiative by asking, need to be better prepared for challenges, have to hit the ground running, blah blah. All that for asking, "Hey, I'm new here. Which (NAME) is this so I can grab her office location from the directory?" If I can make it three or four months to settle in and learn the company, I'll do fine. They may fire me before that, though.
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Jul 22, 2013 18:22
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Sundae posted:Two weeks in, I'm pretty far over my head. Oops. Ok, I totally understand the issue with not knowing anyone or where to even look because this is a huge loving company, but the first they they tell us here is don't be afraid to ask questions. I really hope this is just a rough start rather than long term indications. Christ, those compliance issues sound like a real pain though. Nothing like auditors crawling through your NC/CAPA paperwork, even on the best of days.
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Jul 22, 2013 19:02
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Sundae posted:
These guys are just asking for small problems to fester and blow up huge one day with that sort of attitude.
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Jul 22, 2013 19:14
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Solkanar512 posted:Ok, I totally understand the issue with not knowing anyone or where to even look because this is a huge loving company, but the first they they tell us here is don't be afraid to ask questions. I really hope this is just a rough start rather than long term indications. Yeah, I'm holding my breath for it to just be a "oh poo poo we're in such a hurry" thing rather than an actual problem. It's too soon to tell, but it definitely raises a few red flags with me. We'll see how it goes. I do have to give it credit for one thing so far, though: no overnight on-call stuff. Hooray, I get to sleep again! 
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Jul 22, 2013 20:28
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C-Euro posted:Does anyone here have anything to say about Aerotek? They called me this morning after pulling my resume off of CareerBuilder and they want to interview me later this week. I Google'd them and there are some nasty reviews of them, but quite a few are "they didn't find me a job! I used them for a single 6 month contract maybe 7 years ago or so. It was actually a really good job (though no benefits since it was through aerotek) at a good to work for company, and then the company hired me full time. Of course, then it laid everyone off 6 months later, but that's biotech/pharma. It was somewhat stressful nearing the end of the contract, because I did not know I was going to be hired full time until month 5. I still get calls from my recruiter maybe once every year or two, just to check in if I am looking for something. Now I have enough experience to pretty quickly find a job on my own, I am not that interested in looking for contract stuff unless I am pretty desperate sometime in the future. If you have little experience/skills I don't see the harm, it could get your foot in the door and build up your resume. Pain of Mind fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 16:32
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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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Pain of Mind posted:I used them for a single 6 month contract maybe 7 years ago or so. It was actually a really good job (though no benefits since it was through aerotek) at a good to work for company, and then the company hired me full time. Of course, then it laid everyone off 6 months later, but that's biotech/pharma. It was somewhat stressful nearing the end of the contract, because I did not know I was going to be hired full time until month 5. I still get calls from my recruiter maybe once every year or two, just to check in if I am looking for something. Now I have enough experience to pretty quickly find a job on my own, I am not that interested in looking for contract stuff unless I am pretty desperate sometime in the future. If you have little experience/skills I don't see the harm, it could get your foot in the door and build up your resume. This is exactly the problem I'm having so that's comforting to hear. I'm actually leaving to speak with them in about an hour (and just got a rejection from the ICP-MS operator spot I mentioned earlier) so I'm glad to see that someone had success with them before. E: My recruiter was a no-show  She got stuck in traffic so I talked to her partner, who was super-nice and dedicated to finding work for me. My recruiter called later to check with me and I guess her partner went to her and said "you have to find this guy a job", so fingers crossed.
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 16:50
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C-Euro posted:This is exactly the problem I'm having so that's comforting to hear. I'm actually leaving to speak with them in about an hour (and just got a rejection from the ICP-MS operator spot I mentioned earlier) so I'm glad to see that someone had success with them before. Yeah, this seems like a decent alternative to the "work in a lovely lab" routine to be honest.
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Jul 25, 2013 19:28
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I'm at a crossroads deciding where my career/life is going, but excluding E/N stuff it boils down to one question: In pharma/biotech companies, what roles are there for biologists? I used to believe that there's lots of pharma jobs for biologists from "popular" fields (cancer, immunology), but actually there seems to be much more for chemists (formulation, analytics, QC), pharmacists (PK/PD, formulation) or bioprocess engineers (manufacturing) - "pure" biologist roles seem to be split cleanly into either "lab monkey" (where a PhD would put you into the overqualified pile) or "distinguished lab head" (where a PhD is not nearly enough). Is that true? I'm wondering if and where in a typical company structure you'd find biologists that do not fit these 2 types. Essentially, I'm trying to decide whether getting a bio PhD (molecular immunology or cancer biology) would practically keep me from getting into industry forever. plasmoduck fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Aug 1, 2013 |
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Aug 1, 2013 03:06
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What does being a lab monkey mean?
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Aug 1, 2013 03:22
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