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Amateur Sketch posted:Has anyone else had to deal with lab renovations? I was the lab point of contact for a pretty substantial renovation of our lab space a few years ago. Expect dealing with the project management people from university facilities to be your major headache -- far beyond moving or dealing with the GC. If you're drawing up plans, just remember that the lab probably won't be renovated again for 30 years, so don't over-design it for the equipment you have today. You can never have too many network ports, outlets, vacuum ports, etc. Also, if you ever have animals in the lab, make sure your Comparative Medicine department signs off on the materials before construction. Ours got really upset by our choice of ceiling tile.
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Sep 17, 2014 13:53
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It looks like we're getting a GC for the lab now. Should be there in about a month. Also, has anyone ever used a self filtering HPLC vial? I was sent a few to try out.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:20
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It's burgin' time! 
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I heart bacon posted:It looks like we're getting a GC for the lab now. Should be there in about a month. The Whatman syringeless vials? they kick serious rear end. For the suppliers we were using, they were even cheaper than the syringe/filter/vial/cap combo. Speeds stuff up so much if you have tons of samples and they fit most GCs too. Only thing is, if you have stuff that's hard to filter through a 0.45 um it'll really work your fingers so you might have to do a pre-filter with a syringe or even a centrifuge. They also sell an absurdly overpriced compressor thing that does 6 vials at a time. Also if you have a billion samples you might get tired (I never ran into this problem, I guess I have good grip strength, but some of my chemists sure did)
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Oct 22, 2014 16:48
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I heart bacon posted:It looks like we're getting a GC for the lab now. Should be there in about a month. Which GC did you get and why? I'm probably buying one when my CapEx funds are released Q1 2015. I'd love any feedback. My operators hate our Perkin Elmer GC-MS 520, so I'm thinking of going Agilent.
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Oct 22, 2014 23:07
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seacat posted:The Whatman syringeless vials? they kick serious rear end. For the suppliers we were using, they were even cheaper than the syringe/filter/vial/cap combo. Speeds stuff up so much if you have tons of samples and they fit most GCs too. Our supplier is usually midland sci. I was at the lab manager conference a week ago and liked what whatman showed us. I'm sure they won't work very well with some corn mash samples though. A centrifuge and transfer pipette to them would be great though. For GC, we're getting a shimadzu. Mostly because of price and that's what my boss said so. Also, it should hook up to our HPLC PC too. If you go Agilent, I hear they are pretty good. I love chromeleon software vs empower.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:39
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Would anyone here that is/was part of the hiring process mind giving my resume a once over? I've never actually had one before. I started in my company basically as a dock worker and worked my way into the lab, so there really was no reason for one. Any thoughts good or bad, would be greatly appreciated. I can be contacted by PM or at sa.Farside@gmail.com Previous post as a reminder. Farside posted:I want to to look for a new job, however I have no idea as to what to call myself on my resume. On the company org chart I am listed as 'Filler' which means jack poo poo to anybody outside of my company.
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Nov 3, 2014 04:52
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I had a good day yesterday with our Waters rep. My counterpart showed up and we spent a few hours going over our machines and learning as much as possible about it. She asked some great questions I haven't even thought about either. It also turned out that a goon like me could still learn a thing or two about these machines. 
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Nov 20, 2014 00:41
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I heart bacon posted:I had a good day yesterday with our Waters rep. My counterpart showed up and we spent a few hours going over our machines and learning as much as possible about it. She asked some great questions I haven't even thought about either. It also turned out that a goon like me could still learn a thing or two about these machines. What was the instrument? A lot of people itt have (probably rightfully) complained a lot about Waters but I absolutely love our service rep in DFW area. He really did show me like 80% of the "hard" stuff I know about the e2695 line. I used that knowledge to OQPQ all the HPLCs we had and saved like 15K You can always learn more, and being the guy that can fix it can give you accolades. Seriously, except the assholes, good field service reps love to train people on their instruments , how to pull them apart, diagnose quirks, etc. Gives the lab staff an opportunity to save thousands so that nobody has to get called out.
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Nov 20, 2014 01:57
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seacat posted:What was the instrument? A lot of people itt have (probably rightfully) complained a lot about Waters but I absolutely love our service rep in DFW area. He really did show me like 80% of the "hard" stuff I know about the e2695 line. I used that knowledge to OQPQ all the HPLCs we had and saved like 15K I would have to look it up back in the field. We have two machines. Both are completely separate injectors, pumps, column heaters, and detectors. One is truly old school and uses 1ml vials in a carousel and the other uses a 2ml vials in trays. He showed us tricks like putting your fingers on the plungers on the pumps while watching pressures to see which pump is pushing during a pressure fluctuation. He also verified some of what I suspected when a sample would cause interference with the next sample. This has been something we've seen when after certain samples a check standard would fail because of that interference. I'm waiting on my bestest buddy counterpart to email me samples (I'm out of the lab today and tomorrow) and give you guys some examples of this. This guy has been a wealth of new knowledge and also a load of support for what we see in the field. Hopefully I can share more soon. Edit: To include that this is ethanol production, too. Just in case anyone was curious. I heart bacon fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 02:17
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Job opening! We are looking to hire a Raman service engineer / application scientist. You'd be part of a small service team and do stuff like on-site and remote/phone support for current customers, install/calibrate/train users on new systems, provide analysis for submitted samples, and help run demos and workshops. Out of town travel will be around 30-50% depending on workload. Background in chemistry, physics, or materials science is most common. MS/PhD preferred, but not required (I have a chemistry BS) We're located in the NW suburbs of Chicago You can apply directly from the posting (https://x) or PM me and I will direct you to the right people. Best part is you'd sit next to me, and my mom says I'm cool majestic12 fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Feb 22, 2015 |
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Nov 25, 2014 21:20
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Is it possible to get hired in a lab type job with just an AS degree? I can pick one of those up from my community college next semester in chemistry and would love to just get some experience in a lab but I'm not sure if they only take people with a BS. I'm just curious if any of you know people at your company who don't have a BS degree. I mainly want the experience while I finish my bs in chemistry. I want to know if its even worth getting and trying to apply for positions even if they say they want a BS.
Dr. Pancakes fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 18:38
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You could get hired for a production analytical release testing bench job with an AS, but I wouldn't recommend it. You will be absolutely miserable, work ungodly hours/rotating shifts, have no path of promotion, and get paid jack poo poo for it all.
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Dec 3, 2014 18:43
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Our analytical techs only need an AS, and we have a couple technicians in our development group that just have AS. It's pretty boring work though. You are just running samples, or doing basic work like making buffers and maintaining equipment.
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Dec 3, 2014 20:31
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Has anyone here gotten an HTL certification through the ASCP? One more question, crossposted from the quick Med School thread, but has anyone here looked at/completed a pathologist assistant program? Currently I'm looking at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago. Asked in the other thread but it fell on deaf ears, apparently.
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Dec 3, 2014 21:56
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Dr. Pancakes posted:Is it possible to get hired in a lab type job with just an AS degree? I can pick one of those up from my community college next semester in chemistry and would love to just get some experience in a lab but I'm not sure if they only take people with a BS. I'm just curious if any of you know people at your company who don't have a BS degree. I mainly want the experience while I finish my bs in chemistry. I want to know if its even worth getting and trying to apply for positions even if they say they want a BS. Yeah, it's not unreasonable. You definitely won't get hired anywhere in any level of pharma even as a pH meter monkey, but I know/have met tons of people in cosmetics, food, and environmental, working in the lab with an AA, and some without any sort of science ed at all. You'll make crap for money, like tops out at 17 bucks an hour with no OT allowed in my company, the work is pretty tedious and you won't get to do anything interesting like instrumental analysis, and chances for promotion, raises etc are very low. "Technician" is the keyword to use when job searching as opposed to chemist (BS+) or scientist (MS at the very least, usually a PhD). You can sometimes backdoor your way into the lab starting as a QA tech doing line inspections and such, sometimes. Its a good idea to see if lab work is really for you. Please remember though the difference between manufacturing quality labs, analytical labs, and academic research labs it's like night & day. Have you given some thought to what you want to do in the long term? BS Chem degrees are very valuable in my opinion as opposed to like bio degrees I get tons of those.
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Dec 4, 2014 00:42
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seacat posted:Yeah, it's not unreasonable. You definitely won't get hired anywhere in any level of pharma even as a pH meter monkey, but I know/have met tons of people in cosmetics, food, and environmental, working in the lab with an AA, and some without any sort of science ed at all. Well there isn't a lot of pharma work in my area and I'm not interested in that field anyways, though the other areas you mentioned are available. I am interested in analytical type labs particularly working more with instrumentation down the road, but for now I'll take anything. I also want to see what its like, and honestly it can't be that much worse then my previous work of 12 hour shifts in a crematory. Plus my work right now as a part time tutor pays low so its not an issue for me. It's encouraging to know that it's possible to get started even without a BS degree.
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Dec 4, 2014 03:28
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I got started without a degree but both of my jobs were from close friends vouching for me. Without those I wouldn't have even had my resume looked at from both places I was hired. Now I'm a Histology Technician working as a contractor for the NIH and its an amazing job.
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Dec 4, 2014 13:13
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Cbear posted:Now I'm a Histology Technician working as a contractor for the NIH and its an amazing job. Oohh, care to give me more details on your career right now? Like I said before I'm en route to my HTL certification and may be going down the same path you have already trod, it seems.
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Dec 4, 2014 21:01
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Johnny Truant posted:Oohh, care to give me more details on your career right now? Like I said before I'm en route to my HTL certification and may be going down the same path you have already trod, it seems. I think were actually on the same path. I basically will have a decent supervisor position once I get the certification. Do you already have experience in a histology lab?
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Dec 4, 2014 22:18
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Cbear posted:I think were actually on the same path. I basically will have a decent supervisor position once I get the certification. Yup, been working in my current lab for a year and some change. I'm going route 2 to get the certification, what about you? By "contractor for the NIH," do you mean you are basically contracted out to different labs, or are you stationary? If you want to swap emails/LinkedIns/whatever just shoot me a PM.
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Dec 4, 2014 23:47
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I don't mind shooting the poo poo here unless people get annoyed or you want more specific email. I'll be going the route with experience. Already have 3 1/2 years of histo work so good to go on that part. I'm stationary. I just mean contracting because our building is 95% contractors, 5% government. That said its loving great. I work for the NIAID branch of NIH. I'm honestly not sure how much I can discuss. I'll just say I work in a BSL-4 lab so you can probably guess what I work with then.
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Dec 5, 2014 05:01
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Cbear posted:I don't mind shooting the poo poo here unless people get annoyed or you want more specific email. BSL-4, phreow. The most that we've had in our lab was BSL-3, when we used to get rare cases of CJD. I'm in an Alzheimer's research center so 99% of my work has been with brains. I love it. How'd you get into working for the NIH, if you don't mind extrapolating? I'm looking right now at other histology technician jobs, primarily in clinical neurology settings, although I've got to get a more specific game-plan together for the coming year because I'm aiming to get accepted into a pathologist assistant program ASAP. I've thought about applying at MSN or RapidTemps because my friend mentioned it, but if I do that I'd probably have to delay trying to get into a graduate program as a PA. Decisions, decisions.
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Dec 5, 2014 16:23
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Seriously folks, please feel free to use this space to talk shop, that's what it's here for.
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Dec 6, 2014 08:03
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I got into the NIH from a former tech I worked with. She got a job, then I followed her. She vouched then I crushed the interview. My advice would be to figure out your end goal. Figure out where you want to be in 15 years and aim for that. My friend who got me the job decided she isn't happy as a tech or even a supervisor so off to med school she goes. I know I'm never going to med school so I'm aiming differently. PA is cool. I honestly hadnt gave it much thought! I may go ahead and do PhD and try to be an "implementer". Where I work that's where you actually make the study plans, that seems really awesome to me. Especially when dealing with select agents. Its a really sweet job though. I'm hoping to get the opportunity to go to Africa to help there. The NIH has a nice footprint there and itd be awesome to contribute.
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Dec 6, 2014 13:29
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seacat posted:Yeah, it's not unreasonable. You definitely won't get hired anywhere in any level of pharma even as a pH meter monkey, but I know/have met tons of people in cosmetics, food, and environmental, working in the lab with an AA, and some without any sort of science ed at all. I'm in a similar boat. I don't have a degree, but I now have close to 7 years in industry. Started off in operations and moved around. I filled in for lab at the last plant and was hire lab tech at this one. I have been at this place for over a year and a half and learned a lot about these machines and a whole lot about fermentation. Getting to school while being on shift and living in the middle of nowhere isn't easy either.
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Dec 7, 2014 03:48
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I'm curious who else here is in Pharmaceuticals? I'm out of the lab, probably for good and my job is now to spy on you all.
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Dec 8, 2014 13:41
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Saros posted:I'm curious who else here is in Pharmaceuticals? I'm out of the lab, probably for good and my job is now to spy on you all. Imagine tears streaming down my face as I slowly raise my hand. I've been out of the lab for about three years now, same sort of thing. No more doing what I'm good at (formulation development), and instead I'm paid to sit in meetings and spout buzzwords at the appropriate times. Apparently this strange activity is called "a strategic role" in the organization. Sundae fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 15:52
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Saros posted:I'm curious who else here is in Pharmaceuticals? I'm out of the lab, probably for good and my job is now to spy on you all. I've been out of the lab for as long as Sundae here, but that's because I jumped ship and the industry in the Seattle area has dried up like crazy. Gilead closed up shop, Dendreon declared bankruptcy and so one. Novo Nordisk is still around and there's still cancer research and food safety (DO NOT WORK THERE HOLY loving poo poo DON'T DO IT) but that's about it.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:05
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I'm kinda curious who you guys work for. I also have been out of the lab for over three years and after quitting my last job (pharma patents) and moving across the world I considered trying to get back into the practical side of science/pharma but ultimately gave up because holy poo poo is the pay all sorts of terrible and the job security is a joke. Now I just have to know everything about infectious disease drugs and 'spy' on all the companies developing them. Business intelligence ahoy, aka ask me about Ebola and how gleefully the big guys are looking it as an opportunity to undermine the registration process.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:15
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I worked for PFE, LLY and JNJ. Job security and benefits are a total joke, but I can't fault the pay.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:17
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I'm also out of lab work at a pharma company, large NJ pharma that's not Merck or J&J in my case. I now work on the business side of the pilot plants. Managing quality systems, writing procedural docs, continuous improvement, etc. Been getting more involved with external manufacturing these days. Edit: I weirdly enjoy my job, although I have the usual cynicism about pharma in general. My hours are awesome now, pay is good, and my work isn't too stressful. To be fair though, my basis of comparison on workload is my wife who is in investment banking. gninjagnome fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 16:27
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The Rats are in charge - Escape from Laboratory Chat!
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Dec 8, 2014 16:40
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Saros posted:I'm kinda curious who you guys work for. I also have been out of the lab for over three years and after quitting my last job (pharma patents) and moving across the world I considered trying to get back into the practical side of science/pharma but ultimately gave up because holy poo poo is the pay all sorts of terrible and the job security is a joke. That sounds like really interesting work actually. I took my QA experience to a, uh, "large manufacturing facility" north of Seattle and now I do process improvement and data analysis.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:51
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Yeah it's generally an interesting area to work in if it does make you somewhat cynical of the way the industry operates. I joined at an interesting time as it's been really fascinating watching and trying to keep up with the Ebola frenzy over the last few months, suddenly everybody and their dog has gone and screened all their random fridges full of compounds and found a bunch of 'candidates' and can't wait to tell the whole drat world about it. Plus the company (Citeline if you're curious, if you work for a top 20 pharma company you have a subscription to our stuff) is pretty chill about working from home as well as being prepared to sponsor me to work in their US offices for a year or two in the future which is nice because it's about the only western country I can't really do that in.
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Dec 8, 2014 17:56
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I just want to know how you folks get anything done when you're constantly being bought and sold like currency. The cycle I kept seeing was this: 1. Be a hot shot in a group responsible for a hot drug. 2. Get bought out for huge bucks. 3. Get cozy in your new digs. 4. Take your old folks (and maybe some new ones) and leave to start your own company again. 5. Repeat. I knew a guy growing up who did this and he was part of the team that worked on a drug you see advertised on TV.
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Dec 8, 2014 19:12
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That cycle just happened again today. Cubist is being bought by Merck, swallowing one of the companies my old PFE buddies fled to after the layoffs.
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Dec 8, 2014 19:27
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Sundae posted:That cycle just happened again today. Cubist is being bought by Merck, swallowing one of the companies my old PFE buddies fled to after the layoffs. We had someone leave last month to go to Cubist, wonder how hes making out now?
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Dec 9, 2014 00:23
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Saros posted:I'm kinda curious who you guys work for. I also have been out of the lab for over three years and after quitting my last job (pharma patents) and moving across the world I considered trying to get back into the practical side of science/pharma but ultimately gave up because holy poo poo is the pay all sorts of terrible and the job security is a joke. I would very much like to hear about this.
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Dec 9, 2014 09:27
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Solkanar512 posted:I've been out of the lab for as long as Sundae here, but that's because I jumped ship and the industry in the Seattle area has dried up like crazy. Gilead closed up shop, Dendreon declared bankruptcy and so one. Novo Nordisk is still around and there's still cancer research and food safety (DO NOT WORK THERE HOLY loving poo poo DON'T DO IT) but that's about it. What did you jump to? I'm in Seattle and unemployed for months, so I'm trying to get into the world of the database.
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Dec 9, 2014 12:35
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PokeJoe posted:What did you jump to? I'm in Seattle and unemployed for months, so I'm trying to get into the world of the database. I ended up at a large aerospace manufacturing facility north of Seattle. Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 05:16
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