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Solkanar512 posted:This is a good point here, as I know of a guy that would do really well at a smaller firm, get bought out and join the big firm, start another small firm with guys he knew and so on and so forth. It's not like he didn't work hard, but the whole thing seemed wasteful. It was like watching skyscrapers being built only to be looted for the copper wiring. The way I heard it described this is one way the pipeline functions. The big firms don't have enough early stage development to feed their late stage development. Someone starts a small company based on a compound or two. If things look good a big firm will buy them out, which is good since a small company probably doesn't have the resources for the late stage development anyhow.
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May 31, 2011 14:30
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Solkanar512 posted:I'm beginning to believe that you actually have a job at the Hotel California. On the first point, there's a pretty strong chance of it.  This company really is kind of amazing in how well it parodies itself.Yeah, the management level certifications for entry level jobs are always amusing, because if there's one class that never seems to be laid off, it's managers. Where are all these unemployed managers they think are going to be leaping onto a position where they'll get fired in 6 months?
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May 31, 2011 15:01
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So I got a temp Job working R&D at a Biotech Company that develops Diagnostic machines. I have noticed that the company itself is like 80-90% temps is that the state of the industry or is it just this company?
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Jun 1, 2011 02:22
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Bobatron posted:So I got a temp Job working R&D at a Biotech Company that develops Diagnostic machines. I have noticed that the company itself is like 80-90% temps is that the state of the industry or is it just this company? That is one thing I will say about my job which is laughable in some ways. We DO hire every one of our temps that isn't a total fuckup, and they DO get good (not fantastic, but good) health insurance, 401(k) with company match, etc etc and are not strung along as temps for months to years.
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Jun 1, 2011 03:42
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Solkanar512 posted:So I just have to ask something here. Back in the 1990s/2000s the big drug companies were coming out with drugs all over the place and have since slowed down to almost nothing. Is that because there was some huge breakthrough with computers that enabled a bunch of then low hanging fruit to be picked, or did the management simply ride the wave and forget to make basic investments in R&D and now they're hosed? FDA's also had some high-profile recalls and it's resulting in longer processing on phase III studies and more stringent review. Heck, I was at a conference a few weeks ago where one of the guys from the FDA was talking about this pending decision (which has since been decided): http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/743167 He was pretty equivocal about the chances. The DMC stopped the study with a nominal p-value of something like 10^-4 and a really high conditional power, however when they put it against the O'Brien-Fleming it was just in the continuance region. I'm glad they decided to accept.
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Jun 1, 2011 04:03
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seacat posted:That is one thing I will say about my job which is laughable in some ways. We DO hire every one of our temps that isn't a total fuckup, and they DO get good (not fantastic, but good) health insurance, 401(k) with company match, etc etc and are not strung along as temps for months to years. I get kinda mad when we bring new folks on as temps, because our benefits are pretty insane so they just shot themselves in the foot for the first 6 months of their employment. Temp agencies are nice when you're straight out of college and don't want to spend 6 months at the parents' house looking for a job, but goddamn it is a poo poo deal for the entry-level folk. And if HR thinks they can get me a candidate for my department at a temp agency I will slay them.
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Jun 1, 2011 07:33
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Contractor / temp usage is varied by department here, but we're getting more and more of them these days. They're starting to trickle into actual scientific positions as well, which was not the norm. It used to be cleaning staff, maintenance, cafeteria workers, etc who were all contractors here. (For the purposes of the comparison, "contractor" here might as well mean temp-worker. There's almost no difference in these cases; it's not like we're hiring ICs or anything.) Contractors are banned from attending any meetings here, so if the position requires presenting or discussing significance of research / findings, they won't be contracted. This more or less means (barring a change in the rules for temps) that primary scientists will never get temped, but will remain either full-time here or full-time in China / India. For all the craziness of my company, we have absolutely unbelievable benefits. That's a big part of what makes it so hard for me to just get up and leave (other than unemployment % right now). I'd be hard-pressed to even come close to what I get here, benefit-wise.
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Jun 1, 2011 14:04
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Lyon posted:LIMS stuff I'm a software dev for an academic genetics service core. We've built custom LIMSs for both internal and external use. It's interesting to look at OTS packages out of the context of my own lab and see how they've abstracted the types of things that we write to be very specific for efficiency. I've actually got a molecular bio undergrad, but started here right out of school. Thinking about going back for a masters, so I'm on the lookout for hybrid software/biology/bioinformatics programs. Anyone know of any cool ones, especially in the Chicago area?
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Jun 1, 2011 19:03
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kaptainkaffeine posted:I'm a software dev for an academic genetics service core. We've built custom LIMSs for both internal and external use. It's interesting to look at OTS packages out of the context of my own lab and see how they've abstracted the types of things that we write to be very specific for efficiency. So are you a biorepository and lab then? In regards to that... does your LIMS primarily do sample tracking from start (collection site) to finish, data storage, work flow management, regulatory/experiment/clinical reports, etc? All of that or some of that? I know there are some bioinformatics professional certificates you can get. My old boss has one from Stanford. Not to sure of any anything beyond that or how relevant the certificate is.
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Jun 2, 2011 06:27
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We are officially down another lab scientist in my department. She gave her two weeks notice today. We had a total of five including her. One of them is 100% guaranteed to be laid off (it's a good thing, though - long story short, his manager is doing it so that the guy gets his full retirement benefits instead of getting shafted next year), and one is finishing his last year of night classes for his law degree. We're going to have two total lab scientists for a department of 75-100 people. I'm curious who is going to do all the work, because the other 73 haven't set foot in a lab in a decade or so. They're basically useless desk-hogs, but they're not going to volunteer to lay themselves off, so clearly we lab scientists will have to go. There used to be 40-50 of us, too. We're going to be down to three, possibly two, after less than four years. 
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Jun 7, 2011 03:39
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In slightly less depressing news than my previous post (though still depressing nonetheless), my purchase order for black ballpoint pens was just rejected by our accounting department. We make something like $25B a year in profits. I'm sure they can spare $8.00 so that I have pens.
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Jun 7, 2011 15:59
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Sundae posted:In slightly less depressing news than my previous post (though still depressing nonetheless), my purchase order for black ballpoint pens was just rejected by our accounting department. Steal all of theirs. If they complain say it's for important, life-saving research. Insinuate that they're getting in the way of a cure for cancer and that you need every loving pen they have.
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Jun 7, 2011 16:15
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Sundae posted:In slightly less depressing news than my previous post (though still depressing nonetheless), my purchase order for black ballpoint pens was just rejected by our accounting department. Whatever you do never give in and go out and buy your own pens so you have something to write with. Alternatively, write everything with a massive Sharpie. You should have plenty of those floating around.
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Jun 7, 2011 16:21
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Solkanar512 posted:Steal all of theirs. If they complain say it's for important, life-saving research. Insinuate that they're getting in the way of a cure for cancer and that you need every loving pen they have. I took an entire box from the managerial supplies cabinet before going to get lunch. Hope they don't need black pens, because all they have left are red and green. quote:Whatever you do never give in and go out and buy your own pens so you have something to write with. gently caress that. I do not spend a dime of my own money on this company.
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Jun 7, 2011 16:47
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Sundae posted:In slightly less depressing news than my previous post (though still depressing nonetheless), my purchase order for black ballpoint pens was just rejected by our accounting department. Look at it another way: Your company makes $25B a year in profits because they don't spare you and other scientists $8.00 for pens. 
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Jun 7, 2011 18:02
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polyfractal posted:Look at it another way: Your company makes $25B a year in profits because they don't spare you and other scientists $8.00 for pens. Perfect! I can add that to taking away our first aid kits as examples of "cost savings measures" that my company has performed. The first aid kits already existed and were removed. No money was saved in that cost-savings measure. On a non-TPS style science topic, I'm actually having a bit of fun working with nano-API drug forms today, but seriously gently caress amorphous foaming. If I have to spray nitrogen on one more pile of shaving-cream looking poo poo, I'm going to punch a kitten. Some compounds just don't like being milled that small, and their physical stability goes out the window instantly even if they'd be fine when left to larger scales.
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Jun 7, 2011 18:09
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Sundae posted:Perfect! I can add that to taking away our first aid kits as examples of "cost savings measures" that my company has performed. How is that not an OSHA violation? You should make a discrete call asking for a surprise visit.
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Jun 7, 2011 18:12
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Oh god, don't get me started on that. At least three separate calls have been made by (now former) co-workers. Nothing has ever happened. The only agencies which have set foot on this site since I started here are the FDA and the DEA. OSHA has not been here since I started working here. Edit: Clarification - not saying that they got fired for calling. They just got laid off like everyone else.
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Jun 7, 2011 18:30
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Solkanar512 posted:How is that not an OSHA violation? You should make a discrete call asking for a surprise visit. At my company, they took them away so you have to go to medical and get it looked at, no matter how minor the injury. Get a paper-cut - trip to the medical. On the other hand, if it was anything major, we have an on-site ambulance that could get to you faster then it would take to find and remember where the first aid kit was.
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Jun 8, 2011 03:40
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My pens kept getting stolen so I BOUGHT MY OWN and labelled them with my name and they still get stolen.
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Jun 8, 2011 06:16
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gninjagnome posted:At my company, they took them away so you have to go to medical and get it looked at, no matter how minor the injury. Get a paper-cut - trip to the medical. Luckily our safety/EHS person quit months ago (she knew gently caress-all about anything anyway), but now we have nobody to report injuries/accidents to. They haven't replaced her. I wonder who even updates that "This plant has worked X days without a recordable accident" sign, or if that sign is just random made up numbers. The only person who tries to limit REAL dangerous behavior in the lab like heating explosive and flammable poo poo on the bench (not in the hood) without safety glasses is me and another chemist. quote:My pens kept getting stolen so I BOUGHT MY OWN and labelled them with my name and they still get stolen. 
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Jun 8, 2011 06:39
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Every day something makes me sad at work I refer to this thread.
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Jun 8, 2011 07:13
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seacat posted:The only person who tries to limit REAL dangerous behavior in the lab like heating explosive and flammable poo poo on the bench (not in the hood) without safety glasses is me and another chemist.
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Jun 8, 2011 11:24
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seacat posted:The only person who tries to limit REAL dangerous behavior in the lab like heating explosive and flammable poo poo on the bench (not in the hood) without safety glasses is me and another chemist. How little some chemists regard safety still boggles my mind. We have a guy that still mouth pipets organic solvents on occasion.
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Jun 8, 2011 12:11
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gninjagnome posted:How little some chemists regard safety still boggles my mind. We have a guy that still mouth pipets organic solvents on occasion. 
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Jun 8, 2011 13:54
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Some habits are really, really hard to break.  I worked with a post-doc at Cold Spring Harbor Labs who did that with murine blood samples. Sure, no volatility to deal with there, but all the same.Regarding the "everything goes to occupational health services" thing - that's our policy here as well (though they were quite frank that they were pulling the first aid kits for cost savings). The problem is that my building is not ambulance-accessible. Well, I suppose it technically is in the sense that they could park a half mile away and run through the building with a stretcher, but there is literally no direct access for any emergency services to my laboratory. Someone losing a hand in my lab (possible w/ granulation equipment) will absolutely, 100% not get help in time. Firefighters also stand no chance of getting to anything in the lab either, but that's actually less of a danger than injury. Our OHS offices are about a 10-15 minute walk from my lab. Nobody's doing that walk for a paper cut, and nobody's going to make it there if it's a serious injury. The entire policy is poo poo.
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Jun 8, 2011 14:11
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Radd McCool posted:Are they at least wearing safety goggles? I trust they've seen the great posters about Carol, who doesn't need them anymore. Do you have any links to them? We kinda treat safety as a joke here, and it would go well with the cynical attitude of the employees and constant client tours.
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Jun 8, 2011 17:35
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Solkanar512 posted:Do you have any links to them? We kinda treat safety as a joke here, and it would go well with the cynical attitude of the employees and constant client tours.  We had a whole photoshop thread about it few years ago.
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Jun 8, 2011 19:35
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Just posting to say how much I miss the art of western blotting and the finesse of cell culture.
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Jun 8, 2011 19:46
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If there's one thing I don't miss, it's cell cultures. gently caress nights. gently caress weekends. gently caress other people's bleach wipes. In fact, gently caress bleach. I'm never wearing white again. (Not bitter.)
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Jun 8, 2011 19:58
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I miss my cells.. even the stubborn mycoplasma-infected ones and those who refused to take NaCl from anyone else than our group leader. I wonder how their (greatgreatgreatgreat grand-) kids are doing :<
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Jun 8, 2011 21:14
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Sundae posted:If there's one thing I don't miss, it's cell cultures. gently caress nights. gently caress weekends. gently caress other people's bleach wipes. In fact, gently caress bleach. I'm never wearing white again. This. God this so much. I loving hate my cells. You don't know pain until you have to take care of primary neurons. We have the most ridiculous feeding schedule just to keep these drat things happy. Every volume has to be precisely correct or they get pissed off and die or swallow their spines. And then they all get contaminated three weeks later from a fungal infection because our incubator has it growing on all the sides. But nope! We can't take the incubator down to clean because we'd lose three weeks of experiments (even though our attrition rate is high because of the fungus).  Edit: gently caress western blots too. loving awful protocol - you get to do 15 minutes of work spread across an entire day, just so you can get a semi-quantitative band which probably isn't what you wanted anyway.
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Jun 8, 2011 22:07
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I spent christmas day 2007 ducking out from a family gathering to passage some fuckhead princess stem cells we called princess cells because if you didn't treat them like princesses they'd fail and die. They died. The next group of cells were isolated from fetal mouse heart valves so each culture represented some absurd amount of work hours and a total mountain of dead unborn mice. gently caress cell culture. My next experiment involves a shitton of highly volatile, potentially explosive, carcinogenic, skin-absorbing and hepatotoxic organic solvents. Who wants to take an over/under on how many brand new instruments I contaminate or damage this quarter? Bastard Tetris fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Jun 9, 2011 |
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Jun 9, 2011 07:22
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Bastard Tetris posted:My next experiment involves a shitton of highly volatile, potentially explosive, carcinogenic, skin-absorbing and hepatotoxic organic solvents. Ahahaha oh man, have fun with that one! My coworker recently started using some methyl mercury compound to help their troublesome PCRs. It's apparently highly volatile and potentially shock-explosive so you have to be very gentle with the bottle, but also has to be stored at 4C. So we have this bomb sitting in our common fridge because where else are we going to put it? Not to mention she's using it for radioactive tRNA labeling experiments so it'd be exploding, radioactive methyl mercury solutions. Whee!
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Jun 9, 2011 13:31
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Wow. I actually cannot even come close to matching any of those. I am humbled. I... um... work with lactose. Yeah. If you're Lac-intolerant and lick the bag or something, you might get a tummy ache. OOH SCARY.
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Jun 9, 2011 13:55
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polyfractal posted:My coworker recently started using some methyl mercury compound to help their troublesome PCRs. It's apparently highly volatile and potentially shock-explosive so you have to be very gentle with the bottle, but also has to be stored at 4C. So we have this bomb sitting in our common fridge because where else are we going to put it? Not to mention she's using it for radioactive tRNA labeling experiments so it'd be exploding, radioactive methyl mercury solutions. Whee! Is methyl mercury as toxic as dimethyl mercury? Like 1 mg doses are enough to kill you? Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn
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Jun 9, 2011 15:44
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Lote posted:Is methyl mercury as toxic as dimethyl mercury? Like 1 mg doses are enough to kill you? I don't believe it is nearly as dangerous as as dimethyl mercury. Certainly dangerous, but not "drop on your skin kills you" dangerous. Edit: Apparently it is not known if methyl mercury can diffuse across latex gloves like dimethyl mercury can. They do have different properties, but still...I think I'll warn my coworker to start wearing nitrile and maybe some heavier duty neoprene gloves or something. Edit: Found a picture on my cell phone from a while back. I have an entire incubator to myself. Behold, all my neurons in their horrible glory. I just tallied how many I have currently and its even more than this picture. I'm tending 84 dishes and plates of neurons. So awful. 
polyfractal fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jun 10, 2011 |
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Jun 9, 2011 17:25
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john ashpool fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Jun 12, 2011 01:12
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john ashpool posted:Am I correct in assuming that most analytical chemists with salaries are overtime exempt? This is certainly the case at my company, at least.
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Jun 12, 2011 02:32
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Sundae posted:This is certainly the case at my company, at least.
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Jun 12, 2011 04:54
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