C&EN is collecting stories of chemists getting their current jobs:
Please tell us the story of how you got your current job in 250 words or less. You might consider answering some of these questions: How long did you search for your current job? What circumstances or contacts ultimately opened the door to a new job for you? What gave you the edge in landing your job? When did you start your current job?If you want to participate, click here.
1) Derek Lowe from In the Pipeline wrote a post saying "By the bleach'd bones of Becket, someone give this guy a job" 2) owners of a small biotech company that I never heard of contacted me and encouraged me to come over for a job interview. 3) I went to an interview and got the job.
ReplyDeleteIt pays to have powerful friends in the right places.
The bottom of the flask fell out?
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UW lab worker suffers burns in acid spill
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2013/09/27/uw-lab-worker-suffers-burns-in-acid-leak/
"A 25-year-old lab worker was removing a flask containing a hydrochloric acid solution from a cabinet in a second-story room at Benjamin Hall when the bottom fell out of the container, causing two liters of the solution to spill out, Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said."
I got fired from my postdoc due to term limits in my university where postdocs can't stay beyond a certain amount of years. My wife was still working in the area so I couldn't really move too far immediately. I was still coming to the library to finish up articles, and was applying for jobs, and had two hour lunches with a bunch of guys in the cafeteria where we talked shit a lot and played word games in languages that we knew and told each other stupid jokes. One of the people who came to the lunches was a new professor from another university in the area and she asked me if I could help her with her new lab since I'm not doing that much anyways around the old place. Of course, she couldn't pay me a lot.... And that's how I got my second postdoc!
ReplyDeleteThrough a guy who knew a guy. Is there any other way?
ReplyDeleteI applied for a job that was advertised on the internet that matched my education, skills and experience. I was promptly called and asked to come in for an interview and soon after offered a job with a salary commensurate with the ACS salary survey.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding! Ha… could you imagine if it worked like that? I got my job through professional nepotism like everyone else.
Ironically, my first job was obtained in the manner described in your first paragraph.
DeleteOf course, my best (and current) job was pure nepotism.
Via good old time seasonal on-campus recruiting. Now that I am inside and I see the recruiting process from the inside I sometimes wonder how did I get hired.
ReplyDeleteI got my job through the old-fashioned campus recruiting.
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