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Recently graduated fool with a masters in chemistry here, while I'm trapped at home interpreting NMR data for my thesis I am looking for work. Apparently the great state of New York has next to no jobs for anyone in chemistry. I was hoping someone here can recommend some greener pastures hopefully on the eastern part of the US. Also is it remotely possible to use my NMR experience or should I just get ready to move from NMR jockey to MS jockey?
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Sep 5, 2011 19:09
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 13:53 |
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Analytical slave checking in. Have been working for a company for a little over two years now, I can now say I utterly regret becoming a chemist after being here. This gem however was what made me decide i choose poorly. When the bid for a particular project was done we agreed to develop many qualified methods for production support, this particular project is no where near needing qualified methods and for us to qualify things is a total pain in the rear end. each method (for my technique) takes about 40 hours for us other groups its closer to 10. About half way through I found out why were doing all this extra work. One of the guys in another group complained that it wasn't fair he had to qualify all his methods so we should too. He got the ear of the gal who writes all of the bids and got her to toss them in. The people who need to do the work (my group) were never consulted about this so now I'm trying to get test methods done while the PM is screaming about how we're using up all the allocated time because bid writer never asked how much time it would actually take she just said "it's a qualification they are all the same time!". We're going to loose money on this and because I've been trapped on this project were behind on 20 other projects cus there's only one person available for these ones. Suddenly using my degree for kindling seems like a much better use. Shrieking Muppet fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jan 14, 2014 |
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Jan 14, 2014 03:20
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johnny sack posted:Sounds like it is time to update your resume and be ready to look for another job. Things like projects taking way longer than management assumes they will take are bad news. Yeah been working on this already found a place that looks interesting although after this first job my hopes are not very high that it will be any better elsewhere. I also forgot the best part of the stupid i mentioned earlier, when part of the production team told this to me they said "jackass is making a power play" my reply was a mixture of dumbfounded look and to say "that's not a power play that's a grown man having a temper tantrum."
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Jan 14, 2014 12:48
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So as I frantically continue to look for jobs related to NMR all I find are jobs that want PhDs. All I have is an MS, should I just accept that continuing in NMR is a lost cause and look into becoming another mindless QA drone?
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Jan 15, 2014 03:59
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seacat posted:Yes, it's a lost cause. I had this problem when I came out of undergrad having done undergrad research project in NMR. They only want PhDs. The only companies that are rich enough to do NMR and make a profit are rich enough to have their pick of PhDs even for the technician level, who have been overproduced for years if not decades. I guess you can look into spending four more years in school for a PhD if you're willing to take a 1/10 change for a job. How depressing, and yes meant to say QC but I wasn't I'm putting more than a second of thought into what I was writing. Phd isnt happening market is hopelessly overloaded and after my masters i said gently caress school, if i get a phd it will be to teach and I'm not that desperate yet. I have a masters but from what I can tell its a totally useless degree and most jobs I see that I'm qualified for want a BS/BA and those are QC analyst type jobs where if its like our QC group ill run KF/UV/some simple test 8 hours a day 7 days a week. What else should I look into that's not just over glorified factory work?
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Jan 15, 2014 04:58
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Riddle me this lab jockeys: you have a 10 year old instrument that needs a new optical bench and a replacement instrument is $2,000 cheaper than fixing the old one. Fix the old one of course, New always cost most money! Question to the fellow lab slaves, what is on the lab radio if you are fortunate enough to get one? After all of last month begin subjected to Christmas music, this month it seems we are getting to listen to pop music like ke$ha and Lady Gaga all day, I think the QC group who controls the radio has collectively lost it.
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Jan 22, 2014 04:26
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seacat posted:Just remember the first thing you get will be tedious, doing the same poo poo over and over again, day in and day out (in the case of a entry-level micro tech setting up plates, streaking, preparing media, etc.). Its just a right of passage. Ive started with people in QC that went on to management, R&D, sales, production and warehouse management, you name it. I've not worked with any science degree holder in Quality who is in a worse position than when we worked together. They're all team leaders, managers, engineers, etc now., making a lot more. Just take the first job you can which is in a GMP environment. Sorry if this prying but do you/the coworkers who suffered with you at the bench have a graduate degree? Where I am now (GMP QC) all of the supervisors/managers/PMs have phds and I see no zero options for advancement at my current position since I don't have a phd, is this the norm in QC or is my place a special hell?
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Mar 19, 2014 12:44
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seacat posted:Its not the norm. I've been in quality for five years and two years in management and I don't have a grad degree and most of the higher ups I've met don't either. Of those that do only one is a PhD. I work in That is relief to hear, I was going to pack it in and start looking for jobs that were totally removed from science since I figured the rest of the world was no phd, go no where.
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Mar 19, 2014 17:28
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Dik Hz posted:I'm looking to hire a GC Chemist with industry experience and the confidence to take apart, service, and reassemble GCs. In addition, the person should be independent, self directed, and able to develop methods and analyze data. Experience working with polymers and/or pyrolysis unit is a major plus. Job is located in Thomasville, NC. Convenient to the Piedmont Triad area of the state. If you're interested, send me a resume and cover letter to dikhzgcjob yahoo com. If I knew more chromatography I would jump on this position. I doubt a NMR jock who would be willing to do instrument and analysis work is would be considered? Also after working in GMP I can understand how you they might not be a great fit. I feel like a lot of my coworkers just mindless run Test methods like drones and cannot do much else unless they are the people developing the methods.
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May 26, 2014 06:02
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My supervisor gave me this little jem yesterday, trying to decide how to weight out a volatile sample for a weight percent analysis. "yes weighing the sample in glass vials will work, I developed the method of weighing samples in glass vials for weight percent analysis!" That's right I work for the person who invented this technique!
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Jun 10, 2014 12:57
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Donald Kimball posted:My girlfriend is currently working at LabCorp in NC as a tech trainee, running radioactive immunoassays all day, errday. I am, unfortunately, dragging her to Roanoke, VA to start school in the fall. Compared to RTP and the Triad, this place looks desolate in terms of research/lab/biotech work. Where should we focus our job-hunting, Blacksburg? Pharma is a terrible place, development jobs are getting sent to India. The few that are here are QC lab slave jobs that are soul sucking and dont pay very well. If shes hell bent on an early grave from stress MA seems to be a big one now days. seacat posted:Tell her to get over it and get into nursing. Hospitals are creaming themselves to hire any nursing grad whos passed the nclex for 30$ gh minimum. What is this and how do i get into it?
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Jun 11, 2014 12:40
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It feels like the outsourcing is having an effect. Our r&d departments state side are almost non existent, maybe 30-40 people total. Our India sites are several hundred people now. Although I work for a CRO so most of what we do is tied to what big pharma wants to fund this year. *edit* Also if you were looking to escape GMP pharma land what else is there for someone with the Chem MS?
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Jun 11, 2014 17:22
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Vladimir Putin posted:What does your CRO do is it mostly preclinical/discovery or clinical? Both, we go from discovery all the way to commercial
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Jun 20, 2014 12:35
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Wasn't there a few grads at MIT not that long ago, who got caught using a computer program that spewed a bunch of pointless words together and managed to get several articles published journals using this method? I'd look the article up but on my phone right now.
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Jun 20, 2014 20:59
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I wouldn't say all pharma is terrible, it seems to depend on what part of it you work in. I work in GMP analytical support and the job is stressful, bosses are always yelling about having projects done on time or else were going to loose revenue for the quarter, most of the chemists I ask in my department say they regret their career choice. Also the paper work is loving endless. Our research departments in contrast are much more laid back however and the chemists don't seem to regret their career choice. You can tell something is different and maybe even wrong when every single person who's transferred in from a research department left within two years.
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Jul 19, 2014 11:41
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Yargh posted:Ok, here it goes: Sup capital region goon! If hospital lab work is anything like pharma lab work often you need a inside man to get a job anywhere (then again that's the norm all over). I know several of the pharma companies are looking for more bench chemists. I know my place is looking for ~30 people now, most in HPLC or QC positions.
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Jul 22, 2014 12:42
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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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kissekatt posted:qPCR When i was working on my masters thesis i was talking to my adviser about a NOESY NMR correlation that didn't make any sense and she said "eh we can fix that with white out".
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Apr 17, 2015 14:40
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Zerstorung posted:No matter how depressing or painful your job is, just remind yourself that you don't work for a CRO. (unless you do in which case you have my condolences) I work for a CRO, I envy the dead.
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May 11, 2015 01:12
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Sundae posted:We got a team of people who had never been in a solids pharma facility before. They gave us a few 483s for bullshit that was easily explained, but since they had all biologics experience, they missed all the REAL fruit and just picked up the low-hanging bullshit. Like, we got a 483 for not following our protocol for a validation, but not for a systemic failure we ignored that could have (potentially -- highly unlikely, but we don't know and never checked) implicated somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 batches. Some days I wish I was an auditor, just find something to bitch about and your day is complete.
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May 20, 2015 22:13
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Lt_Tofu posted:So a labmate has been trying to repeat a reaction that was published from our lab for the last six months with no success. The procedure was published by student Y as part of an incomplete total synthesis project. No one currently in the lab has ever meet student Y so the guy only had old lab notebooks to refer to but they were poorly documented (are they ever?). Well, our PI mentioned in passing to him that student X (not included in the publication) had helped Y on the synthesis. My friend searches through X's notebook and only finds one mention of the experiment with no details EXCEPT one little asterix. It was poo poo like this that made me run away screaming from synthetic chemistry, well that and the observation that every synthetic chemist is a self centered jackass.
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Jun 12, 2015 12:43
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Unfortunately, the PI blamed him for wasting 6 months and not magically knowing about this other student. Simply unreal...
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Pain of Mind posted:Places pharma is not bad: I've heard that Raleigh isn't that bad for pharma either, aside from being stuck in Raleigh and working in pharma.
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Sep 16, 2015 12:15
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C-Euro posted:Other MS holders out there- have you been able to find jobs or career paths that actually care about your extra degree? My first job out of grad school was that food chem job and I was way over-qualified, and my current Regulatory job didn't require an MS. In fact before hiring me, my boss said "we can't pay you what a Master's holder deserves, but the extra chemistry MS should make up for the Regulatory background you don't have" (there's very little chemistry in my job, other than being able to pronounce chemical names and understanding one polymerization). Both times I applied for jobs I saw very few that wanted MS degrees, it was either research positions that require PhDs or lab techs that only need Bachelor's degrees. Maybe it's just an early career problem but both times I felt like no one cared that I have a Master's, and certainly haven't cared to pay me more for it. I just feel like a bastard middle child in between in BS and PhD tracks, without my own track. Some companies will let you use the MS time count towards positions that need 5-10 years of experience but I have seen maybe one or two positions list a masters as a requirement. Most people I have met whom have masters simply make slightly more than the non MS chemists but work BS level jobs. Unfortunately lab world seems to need two types of people, sets of hands (BS) and brains to direct the hands (PhDs). The MS is weird because your smarter than a set of hands but don't have the title (and in theory the brains) to give an office to and make a brain, so instead your just a set of hands with a super BS degree. I also might have a huge dislike of my masters and consider it the second worst mistake of my life so take my comments with a grain of salt.
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Oct 23, 2015 19:46
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Day Man posted:I work in R&D designing mass spectrometers at a big instrument manufacturer. I just wanted to comment that I have 3 or 4 colleagues with MS degrees that are quite successful. The path into R&D can be a bit trickier without the PhD, but it's definitely possible. How does one end up in that sort of job? i like doing instrument work but no one seems to want to hire me since i have totally useless experience. Also how many years of experience do your colleagues have? i would imagine they have enough that the masters is just waved over or they started back when a masters had some sort of value beyond a super-undergraduate degree.
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Nov 6, 2015 02:53
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Bastard Tetris posted:Aww poo poo mothafucka Grats man! What are you going to be using the lab for? Meanwhile i got turned down for a job that probably was a lower level than I am now. But was at least somewhere other than a loving CRO.
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Nov 25, 2015 18:18
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I was just dressed down by my supervisor for putting a structure upside down in my notebook, Apparently this will alter the stereochemistry.
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Feb 24, 2016 16:26
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So today my boss suddenly decided that we should consider changing from working with a volatile cytotoxic sample in a fume hood to a poorly ventilated potent compound lab just because its the potent compound lab. The last time we did something like this one of my coworkers developed chemical sensitivity to the vapors from the chemicals we were using in the poorly ventilated lab.
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Mar 15, 2016 00:29
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Hypha posted:Today is the day your boss works on the sample, alone, while everyone watches from a safe distance. Forgot the best part, boss isn't even allowed in potent lab because they cannot get a clearance for a respirator! Everyonelese posted:Get a lawyer and get a new job Already looking at a few new jobs maybe even my dream job at Bruker but will be a bit before anything happens with that. Since I live in america i have no rights as a worker so all calling OSHA would do is guarantee that they actively try and screw me from anywhere else I apply.
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Mar 15, 2016 11:29
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Sundae posted:"Nowhere in the batch record does it say I can't do that..." Wow and I thought manufacturing analytical were incompetent.
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Mar 15, 2016 20:01
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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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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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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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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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Is there a gas supplier who doesn't suck? Yet again for the 3rd week running our liquid nitrogen supplier dropped off the order for another department in my building then didn't bother with ours. And it's not this one being the lovely lowest bidder, our liquid helium supplier (who costs a arm and a leg apparently) is somehow even worse. Seriously how can these companies still be in business but fail at their jobs half the time?
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Apr 26, 2016 12:30
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Lyon posted:PSA (public sales announcement): Buy a LIMS and consolidate all your sample and reagent data into one application! Track instrument and analyst certifications! Integrate your complex and simple instruments to get rid of time consuming transcription and reduce errors! Easily generate reports! And more! I'd love a LIMS system at my current place but the accountants are cheap and the managers seem afraid to use something other than books. Also I am skeptical of your claim on integrating instruments, i can assure you that NMR software is in fact poo poo and works right with nothing, even NMRs.
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May 17, 2016 11:23
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Epitope posted:Also I think I've convinced financial that all-paper is not cost effective for information/quality management. God I hope so. I was talking to an administrative assistant yesterday and she told me my department uses three times more paper than any other department. My reply, GMP stands for generate more paperwork.
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May 17, 2016 13:09
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Today's fun, get a last minute request to run a sample, not a big deal but this one has a gimmick. The gimmick is that it's kept in a vault so I have to request it from a person with the keys. Of course this person is not here today. Now the requester is having a woe is me moment about how they are screwed. They have had a month to ask me or my boss to do this, unsurprisingly when they asked me what they should do I told them "plan ahead" and have retuned to filling out notebooks while they wonder the office bemoaning their fate.
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Jun 13, 2016 19:29
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All I ever see are white powders and off white powders. And basically empty vials for wits analysis.
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Jun 29, 2016 17:58
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DOOP posted:look at you fancy people with radios and such Trust me at Christmas you would want to throw the radio in a sink of HCl too So yesterday i was reading the MSDS for a anti-cancer drug that i was supposed to test, apparently exposure to it may cause cancer.
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Jul 6, 2016 12:32
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 13:53 |
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Question for anyone in this thread with a phd, is it still worth getting one anymore? this past weekend i was catching up with a buddy at a local university working on one in the same general field as myself (NMR spectroscopy) the work is really interesting (looking at cell expression via NMR), he said that if i wanted to join the group, because of the level of experience I have (5 years in industry (dear god its been that long...)) his adviser would likely fall over himself trying to get me to join his research group. its tempting since usually you need an phd to work in NMR but i keep hearing about how their are way too many phds and don't want to spend the rest of my life justifying my existence, also having to take a break from money is a bit scary.
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Aug 1, 2016 12:28
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