Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Daily Pump Trap: 10/4/16 edition

A few of the positions posted on C&EN Jobs:

Billerica, MA: Entegris is looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be a senior research scientist. Looks to be membrane-related research? Offering 80-90k - a touch low?

I feel like this is a first:
Develop new methods for activating C-F or C-H bonds on inert polymeric membranes.
Would love to know if I'm wrong.

Bristol, PA: Two B.S. production chemist positions with UCT, which appears to be a manufacturer of various silanes and silicones.

West Sacramento, CA: Bayer CropScience is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. chemist with a natural products background for work on analytical/compound elucidation work. Sounds fascinating.

San Antonio, TX: Southwest Research Institute, running it's periodical "we need a M.S./Ph.D. medicinal chemist to be a project manager" ad.

Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is looking for a synthetic postdoc aimed at porous materials. Looks like a good position for the right Ph.D. I wonder how much it pays and how long the postdoc actually is (just 1 year?)

Des Moines, IA: I would really like to know about this Kemin Industries postdoctoral position researching plant-based extracts and products. Specifically, how is this a postdoc? Is there training? Is there publication of results? Or is this a Very Junior Senior Scientist position? Finally, this seems to be fascinating legalese:
The exempt-level position is considered to be 40 hours per week, but requires tremendous flexibility and may require operations monitoring on off-shifts including weekend and holiday work to meet deadlines.
I sure wonder if this position pays more than $47,476...

5 comments:

  1. $80-90K is low for the Boston area, but has also become the new normal start salary since the job market bottomed out.

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    Replies
    1. Really? Starting is more like 90-110K in the bay area which is similarly priced/

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    2. Depends on a lot of factors. But entry level PhD for a small startup, that range wouldn't surprise me. I'd be willing to bet entry level PhDs in the Bay are closer to $90K than $110K. Wages for scientists are really bad and I don't see them improving any time soon.

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  2. The Kemin position post doc comes with vocalized statement of an intent to hire however, the words in the contract specifically state that this position does not mature into a full time contract. The company boasts great work life balance, however, this is very position dependent and this particular position is not that one. As someone who has been in this EXACT position, I was given multiple projects that were expected to be completed outside of work (at home). I stress multiple ones like this, and when I worked on them at work, I was reminded that these were in addition to my current work.

    Multiple people have had these positions, one post doc for a 3 years, one quit after 3 months. The turn over rate is high and 0 our of the last 7 Kemin post docs received a permanent position.

    The pay is about 50-55k. The benefits are decent. Vacation is 2 weeks for the first five years. The science isn't cutting edge. The place is emotionally managed, the atmosphere is toxic, and many of the employees are immature. The company is very nepotistic, hiring family and friends for positions instead of qualified candidates.

    I would not suggest this position to the most desperate of folks, but the truth is, I had gotten a lot more call backs from my job applications after that year of post doc.

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  3. Correction: "0 out of 7 post docs received..."

    Also, the glassdoor reviews are quite accurate.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20