Good morning! Between April 7 and April 11, 19 new positions were posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 6 (32%) were academically connected.
Hmmm: Slowing down? This is the lowest Thursday-to-Monday total since late December.
Baaa baaaa baaaaaaa: Vertex weighs in again with a position for a senior spectroscopist (BS/MS/Ph.D.) with 8+ years experience with process analytical technology. Also, a little lost lamb: anyone hear want to be an accounting manager? Bueller? Bueller?
Missives from Experimental Station: DuPont is looking for a senior analytical chemist to be a part of their new analytical CoE; Ph.D. in chemistry with expertise in separations and LC/MS is desired.
Well, it's next to the airport...: Numerate (San Bruno, CA) is looking for a senior medicinal chemist with 10+ years experience in the field. Responsible for "ideation of large, diverse, patentable and synthetically accessible compound solution spaces for each project." What would Freud have to say about that?
Staying in the Bay Area: Amyris is looking for a Ph.D. polymer chemist with 4+ years experience to perform research and product development for polymers from their synthetic biology efforts.
Rockville, MD: The United States Pharmacopeia is looking for a senior gas chromatographer; a minimum of a B.S. degree with 9 years experience is desired (M.S. w/7 years, Ph.D. w/5 years.)
Hmmm: Slowing down? This is the lowest Thursday-to-Monday total since late December.
Baaa baaaa baaaaaaa: Vertex weighs in again with a position for a senior spectroscopist (BS/MS/Ph.D.) with 8+ years experience with process analytical technology. Also, a little lost lamb: anyone hear want to be an accounting manager? Bueller? Bueller?
Missives from Experimental Station: DuPont is looking for a senior analytical chemist to be a part of their new analytical CoE; Ph.D. in chemistry with expertise in separations and LC/MS is desired.
Well, it's next to the airport...: Numerate (San Bruno, CA) is looking for a senior medicinal chemist with 10+ years experience in the field. Responsible for "ideation of large, diverse, patentable and synthetically accessible compound solution spaces for each project." What would Freud have to say about that?
Staying in the Bay Area: Amyris is looking for a Ph.D. polymer chemist with 4+ years experience to perform research and product development for polymers from their synthetic biology efforts.
Rockville, MD: The United States Pharmacopeia is looking for a senior gas chromatographer; a minimum of a B.S. degree with 9 years experience is desired (M.S. w/7 years, Ph.D. w/5 years.)
Correct me if I'm wrong: do a lot of people run around with the title "Senior Gas Chromatographer" on their CV?
ReplyDeleteClip from this job description: "This is a...highly technical, non-supervisory role"
Followed by: "Leads project teams; train and mentor junior staff"
New management technique?
"Train and mentor junior staff", i.e. "train your replacement" :-)
ReplyDeleteWell technically one could lead a project team and mentor junior staff whilst actually having zero direct reports (hence non-supervisory).
ReplyDeleteMaybe somewhere in there, there's a desk bound manager with all supervisees, who takes care of all the important stuff, like moving the correct paperwork around and drafting the minutes for the Quarterly Site Safety Inspection Committee - Personal Protective Equipment (Clothing) Section
@ See Arr Oh
ReplyDeleteYes, I am one of those "Senior Gas Chromatographer" types who has preferred non-supervisory roles, although I have done my share of training and leading in non-management roles over the years.
And now, after quitting Big Pharma last summer, I am about to give up on my job search like many others.
Don't you just love how our Department of Labor does anything it can to make our existence futile? Allow rampant outsourcing of our jobs abroad, and simultaneously open the floodgates for H1B visas.
Really, my days now consist of gardening, running, reading. Job searches result in complete loss of self-esteem and frankly are probably even harder on my references.
Dave in Indy
Dave, thanks for reading. Keep yourself mentally sane -- and don't give up hope.
ReplyDeleteCheers, CJ
CJ: This post may be non sequitur, but I've just read David Gin's obituary in C&EN. What a bummer...his research was really innovative and he seemed like a nice person. His cause of death has not been widely disclosed. The funeral home that handled his case has set up a (temporary?) memorial website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.westchesterfuneralhome.com/obit-display.cfm?rec_id=919
A bunch of renowned organic professors have apparently posted their condolences. I am particularly struck by the comment made by someone claiming to be Tohru Fukuyama.
"I am deeply saddened by the totally unexpected news of David's death. David asked for my opinion about whether or not he should take a job at Sloan-Kettering. In some way I regret that I suggested him to make a move... He would have had a longer life at more peaceful Urbana-Champaign. While his untimely death is a tremendous loss to our field, it is of course no comparison to the sorrows felt by his surviving family members. I miss David who is one of the few synthetic chemists I like from the bottom of my heart."
My guess is that Gin, like Keith Fagnou, unfortunately succumbed to a random malady. However, I feel that many PhD chemists gravitate towards rat races in academia or industry. Although it is admirable to have high aspirations, doing so incurs the risk of burnout. Despite what is implied by the above comment, I doubt that there's much difference in the average stress level of a chemist at UIUC versus MSKCC. While I mostly believe in the value of scientific research to a nation's economic and cultural development, I have encountered many unhappy researchers who are perpetually toiling for ever-diminishing returns. Heck, in retrospect I could've been considered borderline manic-depressed in grad school. Given the uncertainties in funding and future employment along with perceptions of labor oversupply, should more be done to force prospective chemists (and other scientists) to question their motives for pursuing higher education?
@Dave in Indy: Keep hope alive, but be prepared to leave chemistry and never look back. Perhaps a bright future awaits you in another field. Look at Butler's Brad Stevens. He left his cushy marketing job at Eli Lilly to be assistant basketball coach at a non-powerhouse. Now, at 34, he's managed to get his team to the NCAA finals twice in a row! While it's somewhat depressing that Stevens is getting more societal acclaim than a similarly-aged chemist will ever get, his unexpectedly meteoric rise following a career change is nonetheless inspirational.
ReplyDeleteA7:39: Thanks for the post; there's not an obvious thread for it, so here's just as good as anywhere, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteDave, I am in a similar situation and my afternoon just today was brightened by agent who was very keen to set me up a job interview with a company in healthcare right the next morning. The only odd thing was that he did not remember any specifics about me, he only had my phone number, but he was effusive and gushing the praises.Then it turned out the job was in insurance, with a company to which I never applied to so I politely turned him down. A quick Google search then revealed that the said company is involved in a pyramid direct marketing "work from home" scheme and they needed fresh people to do a door-to-door legwork. With fantastic promises they lure desperate people to become their agents but then under various pretexts hidden in fine print they don't pay them.
ReplyDeleteAfter I hung up, I got an automated from the same company about my great job opportunity...
So you see it is not completely hopeless.
Tsktsk, milk.
ReplyDelete