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Sundae posted:Get used to a lot of pfuckery with the letter PF in e-mails and HR releases. I might live in Pflugerville. That's the actual name. There's already an excess of pfuckery here.
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Jul 9, 2015 16:50
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It's one of those weeks where I do 3 or 4 major tasks and then the boss (and every yahoo who just feels I should do work for them) criticises me for not getting another task done. Latest pain is setting up a federated login for a set of web services and software that we have floating in the cloud. Because bioinformaticians know all about security, networking and login protocols, right? It's especially disheartening when I read blogs and articles from seasoned IT professionals saying "this is really complex and hard to get right ..."
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Jul 22, 2015 15:19
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^^^^ oh god gently caress these people, "computer guy" has not been a jack of all trades skillset since the 60s Whoa holy gently caress, I haven't been here in ages and this turned into PFE chat. Does anyone have any experience with Lilly? I have a pretty distinct feeling they're going to try and poach me in a few months, based on their expansion locally. I currently work in clinical genomics/diagnostics, so pharma may be a step down in stability, but they will probably be waving a few carrots.
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Jul 30, 2015 08:32
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I have a few co-workers that went Lily, and they like it well enough. When I do talk to them, the biggest issue seems to be having to live in Indiana. Oh - and I learned from a co-worker that PFE was trying to poach that as part of the guy's pitch he actually said to not worry about any potential layoffs, because they have to give a year's notice due to some UK law they have to follow, so you'll have plenty of time to find a new job. I guess you may as well own the reputation if you got it.
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Jul 30, 2015 11:05
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Oddly enough, I recently interviewed with Lilly. So I can only tell you about the interview procedure, but very polite, organised, cordial and professional. Everyone at the site seemed to be happy and interested (no armies of pale droogs dragging their weary arse to work resentfully), Lilly seemed to have put in some effort about pleasing their people (e.g. subsidized cafeteria, pleasant physical work environment, good renumeration, staff shuttle bus around the clock). Lots of people eager to tell me that they enjoyed working there. Had a good attitude to technology: willing to spend and try new things, also willing to dump them if they weren't suitable. Obviously this is just what I've seen in the interview process and I shouldn't be so surprised, but I've been to so many other places when people just seemed to hate their job & the employer was doing the least they could. So it was really pleasant. Only drawbacks would be an extended interview / recruitment process (stretching over months), a possible excess of meetings and headquarters having to sign off on a lot of things. So I'd be positive about it. nonathlon fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Jul 30, 2015 |
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Jul 30, 2015 12:49
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Bastard Tetris posted:^^^^ oh god gently caress these people, "computer guy" has not been a jack of all trades skillset since the 60s Nope, in the world of bioinformatics, your chief skill is "doing things with computers". Software, hardware, any computer, anywhere in the world. We work with a third-party database, run by a third-party, hosted offsite, etc. and I'm constantly getting requests that I "fix it". I explain I have no more access privileges than anyone else with an account but people are constantly asking me to: remind them of their password, reboot it, change the database structure / add a field, fix the reporting tools. One time after I explained this, they just mailed the request to my line manager asking him to "make me do this". Seems like a good opportunity to ask this: For a large (5000+) multisite observational trial, we need to keep track of the samples that have been collected from each subject, where they are being held, aliquots being taken and shipped etc. Any suggestions for a FOSS or similar solution? It was suggested that I write a custom one but there's no time for this and I wouldn't want to do it if there was. nonathlon fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Jul 30, 2015 |
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Jul 30, 2015 12:55
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Not sure if Spotfire could help you but pm me and I'll see if I can hook you up with the relevant bioinformatics people to see if that sort of boxed solution is right for you. You can totally go the homebrew route but thathas an expiration date and from the people I've worked with it is a lot easier to do sample tracking and lims right early on as opposed to cobbling together various homebrew solutions until you have a real crisis on your hands. Granted, finance doesn't always see it that way. So you gotta work within the realm of the possible.
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Jul 31, 2015 02:22
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Just a reminder that if anyone ever needs a LIMS I'll be happy to sell you one  . Also saying the word LIMS will always summon me to this thread like Beetlejuice hahhhhh.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:19
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I'm ridiculously angry that my company went and bought a MODA system for the micro department last year (going online in month or two) and then QC decided they needed LIMS so we're buying and setting that up as well. It would have been cheaper and simpler and quicker just to do LIMS from the start. 
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Jul 31, 2015 16:39
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I wonder if you're a customer of ours... we resell MODA to a lot of our pharmaceutical customers. Although if you were a customer of ours we probably would have gone in the other direction and sold LIMS first and then MODA.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:47
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Lyon posted:I wonder if you're a customer of ours... we resell MODA to a lot of our pharmaceutical customers. Although if you were a customer of ours we probably would have gone in the other direction and sold LIMS first and then MODA. Well as I understand it the senior micro manager had previous experience with MODA and got that pushed through upper management quickly. Then QC caught wind of it and raised a stink and got approval for LIMS. At least there is only one point of contact that has to be made between the two systems. Until manufacturing decides it needs some electronic system as well. Then IT will lose their minds
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Jul 31, 2015 17:18
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outlier posted:Nope, in the world of bioinformatics, your chief skill is "doing things with computers". Software, hardware, any computer, anywhere in the world. Gross, that's really outside your scope. Hope the line manager pushed back. Thanks for the good words (and lack of red flags) about Lilly, it's in town so Indiana won't be a thing.
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Aug 5, 2015 16:59
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Bastard Tetris posted:^^^^ oh god gently caress these people, "computer guy" has not been a jack of all trades skillset since the 60s Oh hey - sorry, I missed this post. Long story short, Lilly in any laboratory role is pretty damned good. I worked at Lilly for about two years. If you're in a laboratory role, they're fantastic. If you're in manufacturing-facing roles (engineering, process excellence, etc), you can expect extremely long work hours and summer/winter hell-weeks during the company shutdowns. The manufacturing groups do not adhere to the company's holiday schedule and do not take the Christmas Week closure that the R&D facilities / HQ observes. Instead, these are major shutdown work weeks and you will be expected to be present every day except Christmas and New Year's, with (depending on how badly your area is impacted by the shutdown), an expectation that no vacation time will be honored during that period. That being said... they are a fairly straight-forward, low drama company. The R&D labs are relatively diverse for the area and aren't as problematic as the manufacturing sites in terms of cultural differences (my 'muslim food' cultural sensitivity training story was from Lilly, FYI, but it was in manufacturing). They take good care of their employees, have fantastic on-site amenities, and very decent benefits for the region. Your health insurance will likely be limited to High Deductible plans (mine was a choice of two HDHPs with no other options, in engineering), but the company has a very generous employer contribution to the deductible that carries over from year to year. Your 401(k) options are average, with an above-average match. The general work environment (outside of manufacturing) is quite pleasant. Safety is a high priority and they actually follow through with it. The pay is slightly below par compared to comparable big pharma companies, but the low cost of the Indianapolis area makes up for it. Additionally, they did not (at least during my two years there) skimp on the promised bonuses. Both years, a greater than expected bonus was delivered, complete with a statement in one year that while revenues were down, they were down due to patent expiry and not due to productivity issues, and that since productivity had been great, 33% bonus increases were applied. All in all, if you live in Indiana or are willing to relocate to the area, Lilly is not a bad fit provided you stay away from the manufacturing lines. If you have family in the Indy area, even then it might be okay because you don't get stuck with no way to see your family due to manufacturing schedules. (This was the largest reason I quit and came to my current hellhole -- the winter shutdowns meant that I could never see my family at Christmas for as long as I worked there.) Sundae fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 17:16
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Woooooo I have an interview on Monday at a company that makes quite unusual gene therapy products. I luckily have a few years experience running clinical trials with an almost identical therapy - but at a hospital site rather than from the industry side. I'm a bit nervous because as far as I can tell pharma companies value industry experience way more than technical and therapy knowledge. Any hints and tips for pharma industry interviews? All I've done in the past ~15 years is health service ones.
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Aug 7, 2015 13:31
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My company is way into behavioral interviews - look up the STAR interview model. Make sure you have a bunch of examples for common interview scenarios - resolving interpersonal conflicts, breaking bad news, working with new people, overcoming a technical hurdle, etc.
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Aug 7, 2015 14:22
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Agreed. STAR interview model and examples of how YOU PERSONALLY performed. You want a clear, short, easily-accessible explanation of the problem / situation, what you did to alleviate the problem in easily-followed steps, and then what the final outcome / benefit was from your actions. If the scenario you're giving an example from is a negative example (tell me about a time you failed to ________), you should have key learning points to discuss as well. Pharma loves that poo poo.
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Aug 7, 2015 15:25
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That's awesome, thanks.
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Aug 7, 2015 16:01
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Sundae posted:Agreed. STAR interview model and examples of how YOU PERSONALLY performed. A thousand times this. Take ownership of your work. I know for some people (me included), there is a tendency to use "we" a lot, especially for team projects. Be clear YOU did X, Y or Z. I don't know how many times I've been at review meetings where there was some version of "Well, I liked the way X was handled, but based on his answer, I'm not sure what the candidates specific contribution was. I think it was Y and Z, but I'm not sure." Get enough of those types of comments, and you'll be passed over. Also, anticipate the same question over and over again - try to have different examples for each one. It's not always a deal breaker, but your not doing your self any favors the interview team sees that you used the same situation over and over across a day of interviews. gninjagnome fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Aug 7, 2015 |
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Aug 7, 2015 16:03
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Yeah, I'm guilty of using "we" a lot - because that's how work gets done, as a team. But some interviewers get super-agitated about it and start demanding to know how much of the work was personally yours. On the interview front, I'm super-pissed off now. Had a very promising interview just over two weeks ago: a whole day on site, give a presentation, get interrogated by distant staff members over teleconference for 4 hours. I thought it went well as they were interested in what I had to say, many of them wished me good luck, the day ended with promises to set up the next meeting. The HR rep said a decision would be made in a week ... and then silence. Of my last 5 interviews, 4 have gone like this. I prep a talk, give up a day at work to spend chatting up and being interrogated by all sorts of people, and then it's not worth 5 minutes of their time to send a "sorry but you weren't successful" email. These are senior positions, leading a team of people and they can't be bothered. (Grr: they called back today. This thing has gone on for months, they contacted me initially and assured me constantly that my lack of skill in neuroscience wouldn't be an issue, as I had all the other skills. What lost me the job? My lack of skill in neuroscience. It's like something out of Kafka. Crap like this and the ridiculous constant job-hunting makes me want to throw in science and just go and work in finance. At least I'd be well-paid for putting up with this bullshit.) nonathlon fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Aug 10, 2015 |
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Aug 10, 2015 09:15
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I think the interview went well, not that you can really tell, of course. It was very straightforward and the didn't ask any strange questions, just wanted to explore my experience with these therapies. I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the recruiter, she is really unimpressive and I'm hoping can't ruin my chances somehow. She sent me to the wrong building, I could see she had cut + pasted my CV (that I spent quite a bit of time on) into their poo poo document, then we met up after she misdirected me again for her to grill me about my lowest possible salary. Anyway back to work and obsessively checking my emails for an outcome.
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Aug 11, 2015 10:01
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Someone once told me that scientific job-hunting is a real crapshoot. You can lose out (and sometimes win) on the most random of things. Funding falls through at last moment? Shift in research priorities? Recruiter mangles your qualifications? The hottest, smartest person in your field decides they want that job? The person you're replacing decides not to leave? One of the interviewers is having a bad day? All a crapshoot. Example: I once sat in on my supervisor winnowing down a stack of applications. He looked at one and said: "The University of X - are they any good?" I replied that they were regarded as a solid department in the field. "Huh." He stared at the application. "Knew a guy from there once. Didn't like him." He paused for a moment longer then dropped the application in the reject pile. So you see, you can get rejected because someone doesn't like someone who once worked at the same place as you. Best to take it as a consolation: it's not completely you, it's often them.
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Aug 11, 2015 10:27
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Well apparently it did go well, I am down to the last 2 applicants and have a phone interview with someone from the US office tomorrow as the final step 
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Aug 13, 2015 07:46
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Hiring people is horrible. I really hate it. Everyone is lying and just wants to work at genentech
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Aug 14, 2015 03:26
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Appachai posted:Hiring people is horrible. I really hate it. Everyone is lying and just wants to work at genentech Well yeah - but on the other hand, the hiring manager wants to work at Genentech too, so maybe it all balances out! 
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Aug 14, 2015 14:51
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Appachai posted:Hiring people is horrible. I really hate it. Everyone is lying and just wants to work at genentech On this note, how is genentech? My last job everyone who used to work there said it was way too full of bad politics and pigeon holing you in a specific job, but they might have been biased.
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Aug 14, 2015 15:11
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Spikes32 posted:On this note, how is genentech? My last job everyone who used to work there said it was way too full of bad politics and pigeon holing you in a specific job, but they might have been biased. Not sure. Genentech has this reputation as a super awesome pharma/biotech Mecca. I don't know many people who are there, but from those I do know, I've heard everything from "it's still heaven on earth" to "Roche ruined everything." Bad politics is par for the course at any large company, and pigeon-holing is the Way of the Future (tm), so those are probably true. Also, it has a ton of ex-Wyeth and ex-Pfizerites, so there's probably residual bitterness too.
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Aug 14, 2015 16:14
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I know a bunch of people who used to work there, and from what I have heard the experience of working there has gone downhill since they got acquired by Roche. It might still be better than average, but the company I was at was getting 30 Genentech resumes a week. I also heard that there are a lot of career dead-ends there, where you can end up in a relatively low level position with no room for advancement. All second hand information, and it is obviously biased because I only work with people who left Genentech, which probably trends negative . It definitely was the company everyone wanted to work for before Roche acquired them though.
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Aug 14, 2015 22:43
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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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My company has open positions for business analysts, project managers, and one technical training specialist. We sell laboratory information management systems (LIMS) so if you're looking to jump from the lab to a software company we might be a good fit. Pay depends on experience but I'm guessing probably 60-90k would be a decent guess at the range. No idea on any real specifics though. We used to hire people from anywhere but there has recently been an emphasis on hiring in the NJ/NY/PA area rather than fully remote locations. However if you are interested I will gladly submit resumes even if you are remote and we can see how our CEO is feeling this week. PM me if you have any questions or want to submit a resume.
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Aug 14, 2015 22:57
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Spikes32 posted:On this note, how is genentech? My last job everyone who used to work there said it was way too full of bad politics and pigeon holing you in a specific job, but they might have been biased. I don't know, I work at a startup that was bought by roche in mountain view. We're close to genentech so people assume that we go and have lunch in their cafeteria. I know a few people that work there, they all say it's office politics hell.
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Aug 15, 2015 07:18
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Spikes32 posted:On this note, how is genentech? My last job everyone who used to work there said it was way too full of bad politics and pigeon holing you in a specific job, but they might have been biased. I once had a long conversation with an ex-Genetech immunologist. She claimed that it was regular event for drugs and regimes that showed no demonstrable effect to be sent back to the lab dudes with a comment like "it's okay, we re-analysed the data and they do work - have another look!"
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Aug 15, 2015 21:29
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I don't suppose anyone here would know what I might be working on as a calibration tech for a medical company. They list physical/dimensional as the primary focus but my experience mostly lies in stuff that will keep F-15s flying, not medical equipment.
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Aug 17, 2015 05:31
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A Kpro posted:I don't suppose anyone here would know what I might be working on as a calibration tech for a medical company. They list physical/dimensional as the primary focus but my experience mostly lies in stuff that will keep F-15s flying, not medical equipment. I'm just talking about of my rear end here, but I would guess calibration work with scales and pipettors.
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Aug 17, 2015 14:38
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knox_harrington posted:Well apparently it did go well, I am down to the last 2 applicants and have a phone interview with someone from the US office tomorrow as the final step Umm, so actually this turned out not to be the final step and I have a third interview with one of the doctors at the company. It's a long process! Luckily I am now dealing with them directly rather than through the recruiter so that's a plus.
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Aug 17, 2015 20:09
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Solkanar512 posted:I'm just talking about of my rear end here, but I would guess calibration work with scales and pipettors. First thought I had too.
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Aug 18, 2015 03:09
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Dik Hz posted:First thought I had too. Well I talked to them today. Lots of pressure gauges, humidity measuring devices, and temperature. But then they said they supported like 20000 items. That seems absurdly high for a medical company.
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Aug 18, 2015 23:34
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A Kpro posted:But then they said they supported like 20000 items. That seems absurdly high for a medical company. Never underestimate specialized needs. You might have 5 lines of humidity meters and each one comes in 6-10 variants supporting different units, ranges, precision, with or without temperature, arbitrary price points, certification for various regulatory requirements....
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Aug 19, 2015 03:14
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Just crosposting from the jobs thread about some roles opening where I work. Post here or PM me and I can give you an internal referral. (For full disclosure I do get a referral bonus if you are hired). It's a pretty sweet job, interesting and relaxed work with a lot of room for progression. Open to Bioscience graduates too if you have a decent background/understanding of clinical trials. Can't really comment on the pay etc for US based roles as i'm based in London and it's different systems. The description is pretty generic I know. Basically you're working for 'trialtrove' a database which maintains info about a good portion of the clinical trials in the world. Its about 40% editorial and oversight of the database, 30% responding to questions by our clients (Pharma/CRO/regulatory mostly) and 30% producing/working on analytics projects for our wonderful paying customers. Check out https://citeline.com/ for some more info on the products we make. Most people have a bioscience/clinical background but it's not 100% necessary. quote:Job Title: Analyst Saros fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Aug 19, 2015 |
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Aug 19, 2015 13:43
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I've been stuck as an autoclave bitch for a year and a half now. The company I work for seems to be outright opposed to training me for career advancement despite getting really good performance reviews and being way ahead of the promotion curve for my position. Usually the line I get is "those jobs are really tough, are you sure you aren't happy staying here?" With basically nothing more than 1.5 years of working in a GLP environment doing mindless sanitation procedures (no degree), is there anything I can even reasonably try for or am I just in an unfortunate dead end?
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Aug 20, 2015 06:54
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Zerstorung posted:I've been stuck as an autoclave bitch for a year and a half now. The company I work for seems to be outright opposed to training me for career advancement despite getting really good performance reviews and being way ahead of the promotion curve for my position. Usually the line I get is "those jobs are really tough, are you sure you aren't happy staying here?" Zerstorung posted:being way ahead of the promotion curve for my position
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Aug 20, 2015 16:33
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That moment where your IT department says they restored all your accessioned freezer sample databases only to find out that they restored everything... but only up to four months ago. Oh, and the restoration was spotty so they recommend a full audit on all our samples. 
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