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Lyon posted:I'm bored so if anyone has any questions about Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) I'd love to occupy some time answering them. I work at one of the 'Tier 1' LIMS companies as a technical trainer. What's the going rates cheapest, a typical mid-range, and most expensive packages you offer? We have a makeshift LIMS out of a bunch of excel sheets. It works pretty well for a small (at this time) QC lab but I've never dicked around with a real LIMS system. I would love something that generates COAs for me.
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Dec 19, 2013 23:01
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seacat posted:What's the going rates cheapest, a typical mid-range, and most expensive packages you offer? We have a makeshift LIMS out of a bunch of excel sheets. It works pretty well for a small (at this time) QC lab but I've never dicked around with a real LIMS system. I would love something that generates COAs for me. You can set up Excel to generate CoAs if you're probably just making them with Word or something. We do it for one special product that we analyze maybe once a month. Bonus points for it stinking up the lab in the moisture analyzer.
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Dec 19, 2013 23:42
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seacat posted:What's the going rates cheapest, a typical mid-range, and most expensive packages you offer? We have a makeshift LIMS out of a bunch of excel sheets. It works pretty well for a small (at this time) QC lab but I've never dicked around with a real LIMS system. I would love something that generates COAs for me. Our enterprise system is on the pricier side but we have a new hosted, locked down, basic system coming out soon which should be pretty cheap. For our enterprise system you're looking at about $5k/user (before any pricing negotiations anyway) for the OOB software not including the add-on purchasable modules and then however much in services to get the system configured for your specific workflow. Pricing hasn't been worked out yet for the new hosted system but it will be cheaper and much faster to implement since we don't really allow major configuration/customization, you have to adapt to us basically. Our price is pretty much standard for the major LIMS companies but there are hundreds of LIMS vendors so pricing runs a wide gamut. Basically with the big players you're paying for the experience and the fact that we aren't going anywhere so you won't have to worry about your LIMS not being supported.
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Dec 20, 2013 00:13
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Sundae posted:Rumors have started flying about a reorganization at my company. I cannot thing of a worse idea than loving with corporate structure while you're still in consent decree. It's such a bad idea that it must be true. It's official now. R&D reorganization by end of 1Q2014.  Always a good sign when your boss tells you, "If I'd known they were changing as many parts of our department as they're saying they might, I'd never have hired your position." Renting an apartment is A Good Thing(tm).
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Dec 20, 2013 19:09
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Amazing, at least you'll know quickly. Our last reorg dragged out over 9 months, them was delayed 3 months past the planned final announcement date for my department.
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Dec 20, 2013 20:29
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Well, they fired 2 of the 2 salespeople we had at my company (a CRO) today. No notice, no severance. Merry Christmas to all. I guess they are planning to have us PhDs do the selling next year.
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Dec 21, 2013 06:14
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I figure this is probably a good place to bitch, so here it goes. Lately my job has gone from being a place that I liked going to and even jumped on the chance to pick up extra shifts to a job I can't wait to leave. We used to mostly focus on fermentation and running HPLCs and a handful of other samples through the process. Now we do all these (which I like) and now we also run samples for operators. They do all theirs every 2 hours during a shift. These are all boring rear end samples that take up what was available for extra time learning equipment and preventive maintenance on that equipment. Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot to learn from pouring syrup into a cup and running it on a Perten and that will also look awesome on a resume and open TONS of doors for me in the future.  The best part is that now the people I'm running these samples for have even more time to watch youtube.
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Jan 6, 2014 02:44
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It's burgin' time! 
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Analytical slave checking in. Have been working for a company for a little over two years now, I can now say I utterly regret becoming a chemist after being here. This gem however was what made me decide i choose poorly. When the bid for a particular project was done we agreed to develop many qualified methods for production support, this particular project is no where near needing qualified methods and for us to qualify things is a total pain in the rear end. each method (for my technique) takes about 40 hours for us other groups its closer to 10. About half way through I found out why were doing all this extra work. One of the guys in another group complained that it wasn't fair he had to qualify all his methods so we should too. He got the ear of the gal who writes all of the bids and got her to toss them in. The people who need to do the work (my group) were never consulted about this so now I'm trying to get test methods done while the PM is screaming about how we're using up all the allocated time because bid writer never asked how much time it would actually take she just said "it's a qualification they are all the same time!". We're going to loose money on this and because I've been trapped on this project were behind on 20 other projects cus there's only one person available for these ones. Suddenly using my degree for kindling seems like a much better use. Shrieking Muppet fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jan 14, 2014 |
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Jan 14, 2014 03:20
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Analytical slave checking in. Sounds like it is time to update your resume and be ready to look for another job. Things like projects taking way longer than management assumes they will take are bad news. edit: Not trying to say you are in some way to blame, just that it is better to be prepared. johnny sack fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Jan 14, 2014 |
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Jan 14, 2014 05:42
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johnny sack posted:Sounds like it is time to update your resume and be ready to look for another job. Things like projects taking way longer than management assumes they will take are bad news. Yeah been working on this already found a place that looks interesting although after this first job my hopes are not very high that it will be any better elsewhere. I also forgot the best part of the stupid i mentioned earlier, when part of the production team told this to me they said "jackass is making a power play" my reply was a mixture of dumbfounded look and to say "that's not a power play that's a grown man having a temper tantrum."
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Jan 14, 2014 12:48
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My glove box just got replaced with loving vinyl. It's one of the grosser things I've stuck my hands in and now my fingers smell like all hell. I haven't had to wear those things since working in an institutional kitchen in high school. Can anyone else commiserate?
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Jan 14, 2014 21:59
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So as I frantically continue to look for jobs related to NMR all I find are jobs that want PhDs. All I have is an MS, should I just accept that continuing in NMR is a lost cause and look into becoming another mindless QA drone?
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Jan 15, 2014 03:59
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Ezekiel_980 posted:So as I frantically continue to look for jobs related to NMR all I find are jobs that want PhDs. All I have is an MS, should I just accept that continuing in NMR is a lost cause and look into becoming another mindless QA drone? Yes, it's a lost cause. I had this problem when I came out of undergrad having done undergrad research project in NMR. They only want PhDs. The only companies that are rich enough to do NMR and make a profit are rich enough to have their pick of PhDs even for the technician level, who have been overproduced for years if not decades. I guess you can look into spending four more years in school for a PhD if you're willing to take a 1/10 change for a job. It kind of sounds like you're presenting a false dilemma though. There are many more choices than the two you present. Also are you sure you know the difference between QC and QA?
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Jan 15, 2014 04:24
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seacat posted:Yes, it's a lost cause. I had this problem when I came out of undergrad having done undergrad research project in NMR. They only want PhDs. The only companies that are rich enough to do NMR and make a profit are rich enough to have their pick of PhDs even for the technician level, who have been overproduced for years if not decades. I guess you can look into spending four more years in school for a PhD if you're willing to take a 1/10 change for a job. How depressing, and yes meant to say QC but I wasn't I'm putting more than a second of thought into what I was writing. Phd isnt happening market is hopelessly overloaded and after my masters i said gently caress school, if i get a phd it will be to teach and I'm not that desperate yet. I have a masters but from what I can tell its a totally useless degree and most jobs I see that I'm qualified for want a BS/BA and those are QC analyst type jobs where if its like our QC group ill run KF/UV/some simple test 8 hours a day 7 days a week. What else should I look into that's not just over glorified factory work?
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Jan 15, 2014 04:58
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You're most likely going to be a lab drone for a while. Just suck it up and endure. Hopefully you'll do well enough to move onto something better in a few years. I wouldn't get a PhD, either, unless you absolutely want the academia life.
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Jan 15, 2014 16:44
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I've been contentedly chugging away as a research tech in a core lab for the past six years, and within the past three months everything's dried up. I'm giving serious thoughts to looking for new work since I'm pretty sure I'm the most expendable one in my lab. The grant I'm paid off of is good through August, so that's something. I've been mostly doing large scale E. coli transformations and growth/DNA purification, and while I've been trying to branch out to learning other things (tissue culture, sequencing) my coworkers are all extremely territorial and only occasionally willing to teach. So that's been fun.
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Jan 21, 2014 16:58
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Riddle me this lab jockeys: you have a 10 year old instrument that needs a new optical bench and a replacement instrument is $2,000 cheaper than fixing the old one. What do you do?
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Jan 21, 2014 20:16
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Riddle me this lab jockeys: you have a 10 year old instrument that needs a new optical bench and a replacement instrument is $2,000 cheaper than fixing the old one. Buy a broken one off of eBay/DoveBid and make an unpaid intern fix it, duh.
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Jan 21, 2014 20:51
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Send it to budgetary committee, reject both the fix and the new purchase as too expensive, and then outsource the testing to a contract lab for more than both options added together!
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Jan 21, 2014 22:24
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Sundae posted:Send it to budgetary committee, reject both the fix and the new purchase as too expensive, and then outsource the testing to a contract lab for more than both options added together! Any chance that committee would also involve some paid consultants? I bet you a shiny new donkey that it does! 
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Jan 22, 2014 03:24
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Riddle me this lab jockeys: you have a 10 year old instrument that needs a new optical bench and a replacement instrument is $2,000 cheaper than fixing the old one. Fix the old one of course, New always cost most money! Question to the fellow lab slaves, what is on the lab radio if you are fortunate enough to get one? After all of last month begin subjected to Christmas music, this month it seems we are getting to listen to pop music like ke$ha and Lady Gaga all day, I think the QC group who controls the radio has collectively lost it.
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Jan 22, 2014 04:26
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Fix the old one of course, New always cost most money! NPR and BBC World Service. It's the only loving way I stayed sane.
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Jan 22, 2014 04:40
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Question to the fellow lab slaves, what is on the lab radio if you are fortunate enough to get one? After all of last month begin subjected to Christmas music, this month it seems we are getting to listen to pop music like ke$ha and Lady Gaga all day, I think the QC group who controls the radio has collectively lost it. I bring headphones and listen to podcasts and audiobooks. I'm lucky in that nobody in my lab gives a crap that I sometimes start giggling for no apparent reason.
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Jan 22, 2014 20:05
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Fix the old one of course, New always cost most money! At my work, it's typically the Classic Rock station. This is generally acceptable by most people in the lab, but it sucks really bad when we have the radio loud for a good song, and then something lovely like Pat Benatar or "We Built This City (on Rock n Roll)" come on. About once per week someone will change the radio to the local "metal" station. This station plays either new metal, scream-o type poo poo, or terrible old songs from bands like Disturbed and System of a Down, and all of it is 100% awful, in my old-school-death-metal-loving opinion. 
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Jan 26, 2014 21:29
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At one place I worked there was just an ipod docking station, and it was basically first come first serve, though people did try to not hog it. Crappy Filipino pop, GWAR, whatever, just depended on who got there first. There was usually a pretty mixed crew of people working in the lab, but as far as I know no one ever complained about offensive music. Another place just used a computer for spotify with the same first come first serve rule. Whenever there are radio stations they seem to trend rock or top 40.
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Jan 27, 2014 07:23
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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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johnny sack posted:Classic Rock I worked in an office for a little while by a guy that always had the classic rock station playing and then after that in a shop where they played it through the whole shop. Both times were crappy stations that played the same playlists on repeat and only 2 or 3 songs by any band on the list. It made me just hate those stations and everything about them. At my next job, one of my coworkers turned the radio on and the only station he could pick up was the local lovely classic rock station. I may or may not have reacted with "Oh dear GOD make it stop!  "These days it's mostly whatever I want since I get the lab to myself. Grooveshark is just a little bit of terrific. The other day was a Rage Against the Machine kind of day.
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Jan 28, 2014 03:20
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I had a much longer, gorier version of this written up but I've decided to spare you all with the more succinct version- I've been a temp in this company's QC/QA lab since the end of September with three other people, and around Halloween the four of us interviewed for two permanent positions (but we were told that all four of us would be able to stay for the foreseeable future). After being told a decision would be made by Thanksgiving, we don't hear anything until after the new year, when one of the two positions goes to someone that isn't me. I feel like I'm the most qualified candidate so while part of me says "of course another person is going to get hired, there's two spots" I feel a little slighted for not being their first choice. No timeline is given for the second position. At the same time, the longer I have to wait to hear a hiring decision the less I want the job. I got a Master's in chemistry in June and while I am doing the most chemistry-like work of anyone in our lab on a daily basis, i.e. actual testing on instruments, it really isn't chemistry and I don't feel like I'm developing as a chemist or even as an employee. My supervisor (who I get along with pretty well) told me specifically that I need to do more cross-training in order to become a better candidate, but I can't jump off testing without it coming to a screeching halt and none of the things I'd train on (apart from stuff like GC) have any appeal to me. One of the requirements listed in the original job posting was "does not feel as if quality work is beneath them" but after what I've seen on this job I think it might be beneath me, most of it is inventory and paperwork and poo poo I didn't go to grad school to learn but that's probably most every quality department. FWIW I'm also one of two people in my department with a degree higher than a Bachelor's (the woman they did hire has a Master's as well, to be fair to her), and other people in the department at my same level bemoan the lack of actual chemistry as well. However, I really like the company culture in general and am really interested in what goes on in their various R&D labs, so I really want a position in one of those. When I interviewed here I spoke to their "science" VP who used to oversee our department (he's still here but we're no longer under his surveillance), and when he asked me where I saw myself if I stayed there full-time I told him I wanted to be in R&D within a few years, which he seemed receptive to. Then again the other knock from my supervisor against me in the hiring process was that they thought I'd be a flight risk so maybe I shouldn't have said that? Part of me wants to go to said VP and say "I like it here, but I feel like my growth is stunted while in quality, what can we do about this?", because while I'm a temp I'm not an actual employee there. Then again I'm also worried that if VP is still part of the hiring process me saying these things would be a great way for them to not hire me there, and then as a temp I'm at their mercy for how long they "need" me. I'm young enough and my life is flexible enough where I can take career risks like this, and with prior industry experience I would be able to find a new job much more quickly than the 3-6 months it took to find this. Then again I could come across really lovely if I don't say these things perfectly, or at least like an arrogant prick like I am right now, and lose a good reference for later. And part of me is wondering how much this statement applies to me- DemeaninDemon posted:You're most likely going to be a lab drone for a while. Just suck it up and endure. Hopefully you'll do well enough to move onto something better in a few years. Do you all have any insight you could share on my conundrum? Anyone ever been in a similar spot with their QC job? This is my first real job so the first time I've ever really had to think about these things. C-Euro fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Jan 28, 2014 |
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Jan 28, 2014 04:56
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Sure, I accidentally found myself in QC/QA, and it opened up a poo poo ton of opportunities for me. You learn a few certifications and suddenly you can go work anywhere else that makes something. Sure, you're no longer a research scientist, but until companies start giving a poo poo about R and D, you shouldn't shut doors. Incidentally, you generally can't go to school for QC/QA. And it's not as easy as it looks when you have a three letter agency crawling up your rear end.
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Jan 28, 2014 05:23
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Solkanar512 posted:Sure, I accidentally found myself in QC/QA, and it opened up a poo poo ton of opportunities for me. You learn a few certifications and suddenly you can go work anywhere else that makes something. Yeah, that's all true. I wouldn't be trying to shut doors since I want to stay with that company, I just want a position where I can actually use my degree on a daily basis. One woman here has a chemistry Bachelor's and all she does is audit and safety paperwork; she loves it but I feel like I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I (seemingly) ignored my education like that. Another guy had three years of HPLC work at a big local pharma company before coming here, but all he does now is babysit our production schedule to make sure things flow through the lab and go out on time. He's absolutely miserable and I don't want to get stuck the way he seems to be stuck. Maybe getting halfway through a PhD program has given me the wrong worldview on the matter or an overly cynical one, but I feel like I should be doing more with my education. From where I'm standing it doesn't seem like a long career in this QC/QA environment helps me move above and beyond QC/QA other than from a generic "prior industry experience" qualifier. I don't know, it's my first real job so I'm probably wrong, and there are opportunities to learn new things when I'm not stuck dragging the entire testing regime on my own (which is most days). C-Euro fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Jan 29, 2014 05:29
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C-Euro posted:Maybe getting halfway through a PhD program has given me the wrong worldview on the matter, I was thinking this on your last post. Grad school drills into you that original research is the only thing worth a drat. Sounds like you're adapting to the different outlook in industry. Shedding the academy's worldview, finding out what's possible in industry while in the trenches, and identifying what you actually want out of life, sounds challenging.
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Jan 29, 2014 06:31
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Any of you going to Pittcon this year? I'll be there all week so if anyone wants to get a drink/organize a meetup let me know.
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Feb 24, 2014 16:41
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Lyon posted:Any of you going to Pittcon this year? I'll be there all week so if anyone wants to get a drink/organize a meetup let me know. I'll be there this year - I'm a fourth year PhD student. Drinks would be cool.
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Feb 24, 2014 20:56
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I live in Chicago 
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Feb 25, 2014 13:20
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1024x768 posted:I'll be there this year - I'm a fourth year PhD student. Drinks would be cool. majestic12 posted:I live in Chicago I'll definitely have some company and customer obligations (I'll be there as a software vendor) but once I get my schedule sorted out we can plan some sort of happy hour or something. I'll be staying at the Hyatt Regency connected to the conference center but I'm pretty sure every night will end up in downtown Chicago at some point.
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Feb 25, 2014 18:51
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What are people's thought on the new Plos data policy? The theorists in my group seem pretty ambivalent; whereas those who spend their days collecting data are pretty irate. As best I can tell, it creates some pretty perverse disincentives to producing hard-to-collect data sets.quote:Data are any and all of the digital materials that are collected and analyzed in the pursuit of scientific advances. In line with Open Access to research articles themselves, PLOS strongly believes that to best foster scientific progress, the underlying data should be made freely available for researchers to use, wherever this is legal and ethical. More here.
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Feb 25, 2014 18:53
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I like it in theory, but I'm a computational person and my experimentalist colleagues are cranky too. The big question is just how 'raw' we're talking. How likely is it that someone competent to do their own complete reanalysis is going to use someone else's dataset, collected under conditions that reflect the quirks of the other lab? Outside of deliberate exercises in reproducibility, I'm not sure I see it happening that often. Usually what you want is processed and interpreted data, because you want to take advantage of the other lab's expertise in doing the processing and interpretation in order to use the results for your own purposes. Experimentalists who tabulate calculated values and put them in ugly tables in their PDF supplements are appreciated by the theorists who then want to predict the data, but having them as a CSV in a separate repository would be handy, especially if the repository has some metadata that allows discovery of similar datasets. But all the original, unprocessed data, straight off the instrument? Yuck.
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Feb 26, 2014 08:27
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Is there a good way to break in to entry level QC/QA work? I have a BS in Biochemistry and one Biology, and have worked in different labs ranging from strait chemical purification, protein research and discovery, and embryos(gently caress working with those again). I have spent a lot of time checking lab equipment/stocks/and other assorted lab things to make sure they were up to standard but that is about as far as I have gotten. Are there any certifications I should look into getting? Thanks.
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Mar 6, 2014 02:04
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Unknownmass posted:Is there a good way to break in to entry level QC/QA work? I have a BS in Biochemistry and one Biology, and have worked in different labs ranging from strait chemical purification, protein research and discovery, and embryos(gently caress working with those again). I have spent a lot of time checking lab equipment/stocks/and other assorted lab things to make sure they were up to standard but that is about as far as I have gotten. Are there any certifications I should look into getting? Thanks. If you've done/are seeking lab work you're probably looking at QC (QC and QA although both quality functions are very different). There's no certs or classes that are generally open to people that aren't currently working. Typically you get them as part of employer mandated training. They really wouldn't help you at this stage in your career anyway. Your lab experience is great, however working in a cGMP lab environment is very different from working in an academic lab and its just not something that can really be taught. I would emphasize any experience you have with standardization and equipment calibration. With your bio background you'd probably most suited to starting as a microbiology lab tech screening for APC, Y&M, pathogens, etc. I would try to orient your resume towards that. The pay is generally way crappier than chemistry, and the hours can suck (think W-Sun or third shift) but sometimes that's what you need to get your foot in the door. After your first couple of years you typically move into better things like full fledged microbioligist positions (since you have a degree, well 2 degrees). Why do you want to work in quality/manufacturing? (Just out of curiosity).
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Mar 6, 2014 03:06
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seacat posted:Why do you want to work in quality/manufacturing? (Just out of curiosity). Thanks for all the info. I really enjoy science work and learning new things but my last lab job working with embryo research just killed any motivation I have research orientated labs. I live in a very biotech heavy place so I have been looking for other science work in industry. The little QC work I have done and watched seemed pretty interesting and all though tedious and repetitive, I was not turned off. Also a friend landed a job as a QC for a brewery and her job is pretty much perfect.
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Mar 6, 2014 03:18
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Unknownmass posted:Thanks for all the info. I really enjoy science work and learning new things but my last lab job working with embryo research just killed any motivation I have research orientated labs. I live in a very biotech heavy place so I have been looking for other science work in industry. The little QC work I have done and watched seemed pretty interesting and all though tedious and repetitive, I was not turned off. Also a friend landed a job as a QC for a brewery and her job is pretty much perfect. I have very similar experience to you, and seacat is right. You need to work in that cGMP/ISO environment and begin to understand the philosophy of a QMS. Metrology doesn't hurt either. I got my start at a food safety lab doing calibration and regulatory record keeping work. As you allude to above, quality experience is transferable once you have the experience. I now work in aerospace. What part of the world are you in if I might ask? Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 06:03
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