Still Just a Rat in a Cage - Laboratory Chat!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Still Just a Rat in a Cage - Laboratory Chat!

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

I'm a lab rat! I work at an organic synthesis lab. We make reference standards and certified reference standards! I graduated back in December 2009 and have been working there for a bit over a year. It is fun, I enjoy it. Get to do a bit of everything which is what I enjoy. The job search sucked, though.. Not looking forward to doing it again. About to start because we are moving to Houston from Austin and I'm not sure where I should be looking... Uhg.

# ¿ May 1, 2011 22:50

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 15:39

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

seacat posted:

I used to live in Austin so I'm pretty sure I know what company you are at unless things have changed.. does it starts with a C? You are right to move, there like 1 synthetic chemist job opening every 3 years in Austin and like 1 every 10 years for a senior (PhD) synthesis position.. Do you do any NMR?

For synthesis (if that is what you are interested in) Houston sucks too. There will definitely be more jobs there though than Austin due to the size and less competition from fresh UT grads willing to work for jack poo poo. Austin just sucks rear end for ANY field because everyone wants to stay there after graduation. However if that is truly what you want to do and are willing to relocate you really want to be looking in New Jersey or Virginia. NJ might suck and no place in the country is as good as Austin, but it can't be any more of a shithole than Houston (I lived in Houston area for 15 years). I will go on the record saying I absolutely loved doing organic synthesis. I swapped for analytical/instrumental chemistry after graduation because there is a ton more jobs (BY COMPARISON, not absolute terms) to organic/inorganic synthesis, and I really do love instruments.

Yes, you are correct! And I do all of my pre-submission NMR. I am competent with Proton, C13, COSY... So yeah! But really, I just want a job that pays more than I am paid now which isn't Too much. It would be great if it is synthesis, but if it is analytical or whatever I really am not too picky.

Edit: I'd love to get into the materials science/energy business but I don't have that stupid 'Engineer' thing on the end of my diploma so it may be a bit hard. Don't get me wrong, though.. I love organic synthesis, but I learned from my first job search that being picky means I might not get a job so I ready for anything.

soupy fucked around with this message at 23:21 on May 1, 2011

# ¿ May 1, 2011 23:12

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

seacat posted:

Good man always glad to talk to someone from Austin especially a chemist . One thing you only learn from the school of hard knocks is that if you fold your arms and limit yourself to one field without a whole lot of experience, your rear end will be unemployed a long time. I hate those C&E News statistics (what's that? physical chemists make 50K starting whereas organic chemists make 45K and analytical chemists only make 38K starting?) They omit certain facts like that there is a 100:1 ratio of analytical to physical chem positions and that all pchem people do some achem and vice versa, and you'll see that means gently caress all. Just search Indeed.com for "physical chemist" vs "analytical chemist", seriously. If you love synthesis but have an interest in analytical chemistry as well, or just open to different fields, I would highly suggest you try to get a background in instrumental analysis (QC labs are your best bet - they hire tons of early-career chemists and I have not seen even a crappy QC lab without at least a HPLC or GC or AA). Push your NMR skills heavily - NMR is insanely expensive and while it is rare, it shows you can handle a 250K$+ instrument with 200$/hr LN2/LHe requirements.

If you really want to get into materials/energy engineering, don't let your degree hold you back too much and start edging your job experience towards those fields in any way you can. That's easier said than done, and it will take years not months. Again, instrumental work rather than wet-lab work (titrations blah) will help you a lot here as instruments are very very technical in the traditional engineering sense. As an example I am just a QC lab drone whose first job was actually for a university, but I've gotten calls (and am interviewing) for a field-service engineer position for an instrument manufacturer. Now, it's not an engineer in the usual sense at all (it's really more of a mechanic position, they just like to call it engineer rather than "technician" bc of the serious education and experience requirements), but my instrumental experience led me to interviews for that position and if I get this position (fingers crossed), it will unlock many more new doors.

The real world is NOT NEARLY as segregated as the academic world where everyone hides in their lab researching obscure topics many of which nobody cares about. The job market is just that - a market, whereas university education is not a market - you can do whatever it is you want as long as you fork over tuition money or cheapass labor as a grad student. I'm glad to see you're discovering that -- the sooner you learn it the sooner you will start making real money and going places you want to go with your career. People with chemistry degrees AND enough experience get hired for engineering positions, and some people with Chem-E degrees work as lab chemists (usually in higher positions than just drone though) instead of doing fluid process analysis or whatever the bloody hell it is they are trained to do do.

Yeah I've been looking into a few QC lab positions. I run all of my own GCs, HPLCs, LC/MS and I can fix most common/some uncommon GC problems (Same with LC except more common stuff only). I feel like I have a good range of skills from my year at this lab and hope it will translate well. We'll see, though.. I need to find the companies hiring first!

# ¿ May 2, 2011 00:42

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

That is just.. Awesome. Like.. It truly boggles my mind how someone could do that. It really does. We just had someone put copper powder on our lypholizer and it bumped SO hard and the entire inside of the machine is coated with copper powder. We were able to clean out the metal parts, but the copper imbedded itself in all of the rubber seals. So we have to order all new ones to the tune of 1.5K+ And even with that we all weren't.. Happy. There is NOTHING worse in a lab then someone who wont clean up their own messes.

# ¿ May 5, 2011 16:31

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

plasmoduck posted:

Hello there! I'm glad to find this biotech/pharma thread, since I've been toying with the idea of joining "the dark side" after my Master's. Sadly, I have virtually no clue what "the industry" actually does, so I'd really appreciate some advice (even if it'll shatter my illusions of "I can do research, keep my dignity AND earn money!" vv).

Most people here seem to work on the more chemical/engineering end of things, are "purely biological" research jobs not so common? And is it also possible for biologists to stack up experience on top of a MSc to make up for lack of a PhD for more "advanced" positions?

Also, I've always pushed myself for good grades (yay Asian), but I have the impression that to the industry, grades matter less than, let's say, experience with lots of assays/techniques. For example, my bachelor thesis project involved the ubiquitin-proteasome system and I loved it, so for my 2nd master project I applied to a Japanese lab also in this field (other master project was peroxisome biogenesis). It's super interesting to me, but I'm a bit worried that by indulging in this preference, I'll miss the chance to learn more new techniques and it'll hurt my prospects in the future...

It really is all about experience and what you've done. Grades really.. Don't matter in industry unless you are fresh out of undergrad and they don't really have anything else to go on. As for purely biological industry jobs? I can't think of any.. Biotech, however, has tons of jobs. We are looking for a chemist right now and they want either a PhD or a MS with good experience so at least for our company having a MS wont hurt you as long as you have good experience.

# ¿ May 5, 2011 17:51

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

polyfractal posted:

Hey industry biologists/chemists, how much do you guys use the academic biomedical literature? A lot? Sometimes? Never? Do your companies provide subscription access to journals?

Even when we were a small company we had access to a lot of journals. We are an organic syn lab and we do quite a bit of R&D on reactions we aren't familiar with.

# ¿ May 20, 2011 14:02

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 15:39

soupy: Feb 20, 2007

Sundae posted:

Until last year, we were permitted to have full-access to journals our company subscribed to, plus a personal subscription to one journal of our choice regardless of its job-relevance. For example, even though I'm in mat-sci/chem now, I wanted to keep up with my old bio stuff + major science in general, so my personal subscription was to Nature.

The personal subscriptions were canned last year, and we now are only permitted access to sub-site licenses specific to our job function. My computer's account won't let me use the site licenses for Nature, for example, and pretty much limits me to JPharmSci(pretty good quality), PharmTechnology (pretty bad), Pharm Outsourcing (absolute piece of bullshit with no value whatsoever). I don't get to anything beyond the applied field sciences anymore. No direct chem, no materials research, etc.

I didn't read them very much for my actual work, but I loved having them for personal reading.

Now... if someone ever starts the International Journal of Dealing with Assholes Wearing Suits, I'll be all over that one. My publication record will skyrocket, too.

You're mat sci? You get your degree in chem e or in chem? Or are you a PhD?

# ¿ May 20, 2011 17:46

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