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Mourne posted:So production didn't immediately blame QC for "bad testing" on low yield results and then spend 3 weeks arguing over whose deviation this is? Sounds like you work for a very progressive company! Wrong type of yield. This is manufacturing production, so more of a "good units" vs "bad units" rather than chemistry yield. Given a 500KG bin of powder, they should make as close to 500KG tablets as possible. However, we have a built-in waste of about 40KG because of a known issue with the formulation (nothing bad for end users, but simply a loss factor we have to account for). Sooooo... if I see a batch with drastically less than 40KG of waste, I know something is seriously wrong. For example, let's say I have a batch that the operators claim had only 6KG of waste... where did that other 34KG I know I had to throw away go? ...right into the finished product.  quote:"rework" Unfortunately, impossible for a direct-compression process. Once you've compressed the tablet, there's no going back to powder in any way that is reliably FDA-accepted and certainly no way we've validated. Even more, they put all the bad product in with the good, so we'd have to "rework" the entire loving batch. It's (assuming it wasn't impossible given our process) cheaper to just throw it away and fire an operator.
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Mar 22, 2016 02:10
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New ICP has a near-silent shutter making it impossible to know when it's next sample time without looking up from my phone. Ugh.
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Mar 22, 2016 05:56
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Hey, science hiring managers--a question for you.  I'm looking at career paths moving forward, and I'm curious, in your view, what constitutes too many jobs in a period of time. In my personal view, pharma is a highly volatile industry so I don't expect more than maybe 3-4 years per role on people's resumes. If I end up changing jobs in a few months as planned, I'll be at 4 different companies in 8 years (4th being the new one). So assuming 2 years before I would consider a departure, we'd be talking 4 companies in 10 years. I have good explanations for the first two (PFE laid off my whole department, followed by Indiana not being a good family fit), but leaving the third would simply be a "they're awful so gently caress them" move. Then from #4 to #5, should it happen... it starts to pile up in a hurry on a resume. On the other hand, it'll tally up to about a 425% total raise over 8 years.  What's your view on scientists / engineers with resumes averaging 2-3 years per company for tenure? How many changes is too many changes, assuming they're all either increases in responsibility/title or clear shifts in company quality?
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Mar 22, 2016 19:53
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Sundae posted:Hey, science hiring managers--a question for you.
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Mar 22, 2016 23:03
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Dik Hz posted:Everything's rework if it goes in at a low enough percentage..... At least rework isn't as scary of a word as recall
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Mar 22, 2016 23:34
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It's burgin' time! 
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Sundae posted:Unfortunately, impossible for a direct-compression process. Once you've compressed the tablet, there's no going back to powder in any way that is reliably FDA-accepted and certainly no way we've validated. Even more, they put all the bad product in with the good, so we'd have to "rework" the entire loving batch. It's (assuming it wasn't impossible given our process) cheaper to just throw it away and fire an operator. But if you're in development, and desperate enough for more material, you could always figure out a way recover the drug substance from the drug product, like my company did one time! It was an extended release, polymeric formulation too, so you can imagine the production folks loved trying to clean that poo poo out of their reactors for a month. Sundae posted:What's your view on scientists / engineers with resumes averaging 2-3 years per company for tenure? How many changes is too many changes, assuming they're all either increases in responsibility/title or clear shifts in company quality? My boss is really suspicious of multiple company jumps, but he's a lifer at my company, so his perspective is a bit skewed. He wouldn't pass on someone completely, but you'll definitely be asked about it early on in the process. Dik Hz posted:Honestly, I'd be more suspicious of 1 job in 10 years of biotech than 4 jobs in 10 years. I guess you should keep in mind that I have this weird perspective on these things, since my company was my first job out of college, and I've been here for 13 years. We have a bunch of people with 10+, years, and a couple people I work with regularly are 20+ years. Hell, I was born the year my first boss started at my company.
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Mar 23, 2016 12:01
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Thanks for the different perspectives. I have decent explanations for all the roles I'm in now, but the more jumps you get, the more it looks like you're job-hopping for cash. (I mean, that's part of it for me; however, it's also for career improvement since I'm Sundae and the TPS thread is my own personal Bad With Career thread these days.)quote:But if you're in development, and desperate enough for more material, you could always figure out a way recover the drug substance from the drug product, like my company did one time! It was an extended release, polymeric formulation too, so you can imagine the production folks loved trying to clean that poo poo out of their reactors for a month. I'm getting the chills just thinking about this. Oh man. "Hey, QA... our drug costs $100 per 250kg, but do you mind if I try out some extraction processes to recover the 70 kg in this batch to reprocess it? Wait, why are you picking up that shotgun?" OTC: The one area where "throw that poo poo away" is probably the most cost-effective option.
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Mar 23, 2016 13:54
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Sundae posted:Hey, science hiring managers--a question for you. I was at 2 companies for less than 6 months, once company for less than a year, and two companies for ~5 years. I am jealous of the people who somehow manage to stay at a job for 10+ years, but the concept seems alien to me. If the company is doing well it gets bought and you get laid off, if the company is doing poorly you run out of money and get laid off. Maybe someday I can find that mediocre company that no one wants to buy but investors keep giving it money, or they have some product that just makes enough money to keep the lights on. I get asked about the number of companies I have worked at, but since most of them no longer exist, it is not too hard to justify why I keep hopping jobs. When interviewing people I don't care, as long as they have been somewhere for a decent amount of time. Most of the time I can recognize the company and the year they left and recall that is when the company had layoffs or shut down. 2-3 years average is plenty. I recently started working at a big company, and it is kind of strange. People constantly talk about how money is no issue because they have big company money behind everything, but the place is a dump with 30 year old freezers where the doors literally fall off. I am not sure if the site head is just stingy or what. Also people have either been there for 10+ years or 1 year, nothing in-between. Maybe they just don't know that even small companies buy new equipment when stuff breaks?
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Mar 24, 2016 15:26
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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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Latest announcement from EHS, banning headphones in the lab soon, for reasons. I hope they ban radios as well because I could at least tolerate it then.
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Mar 24, 2016 17:34
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Latest announcement from EHS, banning headphones in the lab soon, for reasons. I hope they ban radios as well because I could at least tolerate it then. Good. Headphones don't belong in the lab.
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Mar 24, 2016 19:59
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Latest announcement from EHS, banning headphones in the lab soon, for reasons. I hope they ban radios as well because I could at least tolerate it then. What kind of lab and why band them?
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Mar 24, 2016 20:18
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Epitope posted:Good. Headphones don't belong in the lab. You're a terrible person. Or working with actually dangerous substances. Probably the former though.
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Mar 24, 2016 21:41
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I'm going to laugh at anyone who tries to tell me not to wear headphones in lab. You kidding me?
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Mar 24, 2016 21:42
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Wearing headphones in the lab is really bad. You're supposed to interact with your co-workers and talk to each other.
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Mar 24, 2016 22:24
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Scientastic posted:Wearing headphones in the lab is really bad. You're supposed to interact with your co-workers and talk to each other. What co-workers?  Why yes, I work the lab solo, why do you ask? Nissin Cup Nudist fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Mar 24, 2016 |
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Mar 24, 2016 22:26
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Scientastic posted:Wearing headphones in the lab is really bad. You're supposed to interact with your co-workers and talk to each other. Headphones are required PPE when performing concentration-intensive tasks involving many tiny samples that all need to go in specific places in very specific ways.
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Mar 24, 2016 23:58
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Scientastic posted:Wearing headphones in the lab is really bad. You're supposed to interact with your co-workers and talk to each other. If only we had volume control, or hell, even a pause button for our music... Or maybe just wear one earbud out? I can't even believe I'm having to say these things.
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Mar 25, 2016 00:14
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Scientastic posted:Wearing headphones in the lab is really bad. You're supposed to interact with your co-workers and talk to each other. It's possible to wear headphones and talk to people. Some of the friendliest people I know wear headphones in the lab. Get some with inline controls. Honestly I like to put headphones in without listening to anything just to cut down on the noise of rotavaps, chillers, and vacuum pumps in the lab. In other silly safety news, a lab dropped and broke a bottle of TFA, everyone was ok. Now EHS wants to limit the amount of TFA we buy to 50 mL or less per bottle...
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Mar 25, 2016 00:19
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Lt_Tofu posted:
The background noise just from freezers and fume hoods is crazy, but when you have poorly balanced centrifuges and vortexers and vacuum pumps and compressed gas tanks and constant-but-irregular beeping from electronic poo poo and ....
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Mar 25, 2016 00:34
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Johnny Truant posted:If only we had volume control, or hell, even a pause button for our music... This is the correct response. Use judgement so you're not distracted or not aware of poo poo. I probably work with the nastiest poo poo here too. Or drat near.
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Mar 25, 2016 01:50
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I'm in favor of a headphones ban in the lab. Seen multiple accidents happen due to them and also several young graduate students act out passive aggressive vengance on each other by their use. Would rather have gotten rid of those people than the headphones, but I think encouraging open communication is a better outcome.
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Mar 25, 2016 01:53
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DemeaninDemon posted:I probably work with the nastiest poo poo here too. Or drat near. You work with people too?
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Mar 25, 2016 02:07
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Sundae posted:You work with people too? No I work with engineers.
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Mar 25, 2016 02:10
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Epitope posted:Good. Headphones don't belong in the lab. Neither do radios blaring talk shows that sound like the two dumbest humans in existence talking about things they are not qualified to have opinions of but i have to loving listen to it. I might just buy a bluetooth speaker and blare that in the corner so i can drown out retard radio for half of my day.
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Mar 25, 2016 02:23
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No headphones if you are working directly with other people, headphones if you are working alone. Use crappy earbuds without the volume blasting so you can still hear people talking if someone comes in, not fancy noise cancelling headphones that cover your whole ear.
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Mar 25, 2016 02:55
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Pain of Mind posted:No headphones if you are working directly with other people, headphones if you are working alone. Use crappy earbuds without the volume blasting so you can still hear people talking if someone comes in, not fancy noise cancelling headphones that cover your whole ear. Headphones do not belong in a lab with dangerous chemicals, because you need to be alert enough to respond to your colleagues needing help. And you need to be responsive enough to respond to people walking past you/bumping your elbows. Molecular biology labs, on the the other hand. You're micropipetting non-hazardous poo poo over and back for hours. Anything to numb your mind enough to do those tasks is fine.
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Mar 25, 2016 03:43
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Dik Hz posted:You should not be working alone in a lab with dangerous chemicals. Full stop. Yea, I am not a chemist. I just assume they hibernate or crawl back into a burrow or something once they are done making my chemicals so they probably do not even need music.
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Mar 25, 2016 07:51
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Dik Hz posted:You should not be working alone in a lab with dangerous chemicals. Full stop. I work in molecular bio / microbio labs and have seen more than once incident of solvent spills / someone caught something on fire and half the lab didn't know and either walked right into it or sat there at their bench with headphones in while 2 others in the lab grabbed a fire extinguisher and pulled an alarm. Not a fan of them. That's not counting dozens of "near misses" where someone is carrying a BSL2 culture and nearly gets knocked over because they can't hear another person walking behind them when they stand up with a sample etc.
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Mar 25, 2016 13:32
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Y'all need to get better trained/coordinated coworkers then. One earbud out is perfectly acceptable. My old boss used to get on me cause I'd have both in and couldn't hear her... so I took one out. Only issues we've ever had with headphones in lab.
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Mar 25, 2016 14:01
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Johnny Truant posted:Y'all need to get better trained/coordinated coworkers then. One earbud out is perfectly acceptable. Ah yeah, proper training will teach someone to overcome a voluntary sensory impairment. That'll do it. Not having em in my lab. Use a speaker.
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Mar 25, 2016 20:48
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That Works posted:Ah yeah, proper training will teach someone to overcome a voluntary sensory impairment. That'll do it. I'm so happy I work graveyard solo.
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Mar 25, 2016 22:54
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That Works posted:Ah yeah, proper training will teach someone to overcome a voluntary sensory impairment. That'll do it. Jesus christ, I never thought I would have to literally spell it out. Train them to only have one earbud in. This is not a complicated issue.
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Mar 25, 2016 22:54
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Johnny Truant posted:Jesus christ, I never thought I would have to literally spell it out. Train them to only have one earbud in. This is not a complicated issue. He can't hear you over the cheap speakers blasting Car Talk.
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Mar 26, 2016 00:01
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Dik Hz posted:You should not be working alone in a lab with dangerous chemicals. Full stop. Listen to this man; he knows what he is talking about.
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Mar 27, 2016 01:07
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Mourne posted:Listen to this man; he knows what he is talking about. I call security and have them stop by if I'm alone and doing something particularly nasty. Talking concentrated HF or worse here.
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Mar 28, 2016 04:40
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So my boss is now telling me the equation in an excel spreadsheet is wrong because it includes a blank cell in a calculation. I have explained that the program omits blank cells from calculations but no it's wrong and I have to fix it on ~230 spreadsheets. On the plus side I have an interview in two weeks at another company that is better by the simple expedient of not being my current employer.
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Mar 28, 2016 19:31
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I've worked with a lot of laboratory equipment for long enough that I can usually diagnose some mechanical issues by hearing them. Pharma here, so I guess the worst stuff we work with is a few mutagens and stuff here, a couple of our antibiotics are pretty nasty. Plus I'm older and go to lots of concerts so earbuds will probably just gently caress up my hearing. In other news, the first drug that was engineered at our site got FDA approval last week. So much food and beer.
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Mar 29, 2016 05:40
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Was chatting with a service engineer from our instrument vendor yesterday, mentioned that I had applied but hadn't heard anything in awhile. He said not to despair yet that the service manager takes forever to do things and that he would talk to him about my resume. Really hoping I can score a job with the instrument company because it gets me the gently caress outa analytical, GMP and pharma.
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Mar 29, 2016 11:20
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Bastard Tetris posted:Plus I'm older and go to lots of concerts so earbuds will probably just gently caress up my hearing. Uhhhhh what?
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Mar 29, 2016 16:29
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Earbuds generally cause significant amounts of hearing damage over years of use because people listen to them too loudly, especially among 12 year olds who just want to blast slayer at max volume or whatever on their phone and don't ever think about it.
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Mar 29, 2016 21:30
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