Monday, March 27, 2017

I'm sure everyone has already seen this, but...

Derek Lowe is on the employment market, apparently. 
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16 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 27, 2017 at 5:57 PM

    As are many, many others, including ex-colleagues of his. As much as I wish Derek good luck in job search, it seems an unfair disadvantage that you would advertise his job seeking while many others are in his exact shoes. He's already got his own platform to do that with (which is already a little questionable).

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    1. ChemjobberMarch 27, 2017 at 6:07 PM

      Send me a "situations wanted" ad and I would be happy to post it for you. chemjobber@gmail.com

      Delete
  2. milkshakeMarch 27, 2017 at 6:45 PM

    also, since blogging platforms like Wordpress are free or available at nominal subscription, it would be very easy to set one yourself, built readership etc... rather than complain about unfairness of Derek Lowe trying to capitalize on high profile of his web site. It is not like he is asking you to pay a subscription, and his moderating is benevolent.

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    1. AnonymousMarch 28, 2017 at 8:18 AM

      Of course, as I'm sure both you and anon 5:57 know, building an audience wouldn't be easy at all. Writing of such high quality (and quantity) as Derek's can only result from a lot of hard work. And as far as I can tell, none of this effort is directly compensated. Begrudging him any indirect benefit from it (which is not even slightly "questionable") is simply ungracious.

      Delete
    2. HapMarch 28, 2017 at 9:00 AM

      He made his friends, his writing, and reputation on his own (well, as much as most people do), so it does seem unfair for dinging CJ for noting his situation.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousMarch 28, 2017 at 9:44 AM

      Anon 818, Derek is paid quite well for his blog, and I'm certain he was also paid quite well to survive a long time without employment if he chooses. Ultimately, his blog is a bit more personal as well and I this is a personal event he chose to share with his readership; I seriously doubt he was trying to panhandle for a job. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a few interviews set up before he was even out the door.

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    4. AnonymousMarch 28, 2017 at 4:26 PM

      Anon 9:44. New poster here, but Derek's blogging is now well compensated. But my understanding is that it started off as an uncompensated endeavor until he built up a readership.

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    5. ChemjobberMarch 28, 2017 at 4:28 PM

      I'd really like to understand how everyone knows how much STM is paying Derek for his blogging.

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    6. AnonymousMarch 28, 2017 at 5:31 PM

      Ha! I just assume that if you get paid to blog at all, you're well compensated compared to the rest of us out there with a blogger/wordpress/blogspot site.

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    7. AnonymousMarch 29, 2017 at 12:10 PM

      Honestly, Derek Lowe loves to write and circumstances have allowed him to do so in a way that had been essentially impossible a decade earlier. People who knew him before all this knew him as someone who loved to write long letters to his family about his time as a post-doc in Germany. He is naturally inclined to do so. Some pro athletes are natural communicators and become sportscasters in retirement. Some chemists are good writers and some are kind of average (like myself). Derek is a natural in chemistry and writing. Two core competencies which when combined can help send a couple of kids to college even after an unexpected layoff later in the career. I honestly don't know what I would have done if I had been laid off in my early 50s. I don't think I have a network that would allow me to overcome the barriers to late career employment in a Boston-San Francisco-CRO flavored world with a glut of experienced organic chemistry PhDs competing against me for the few post-entry level positions.

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    8. AnonymousMarch 29, 2017 at 12:15 PM

      CJ asks how we know how much Derek is paid. Well, he occasionally posts affiliate links for books on Amazon, so that means he must be rolling in money, right? I'm sure they pay literally at least pennies for a successful click-through....

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    9. HapMarch 29, 2017 at 12:41 PM

      I guess I didn't assume he was making that much money through blogging - I don't know how page views compare to viewership on TV or listeners on radio, but I would have figured that they didn't compare that well. If pageviews and audience drove pay, I would have assumed that Dr. Lowe would have published lots more political posts (if he could stomach it) - political posts are the blog version of dropping a 1 kg chunk of sodium in a lake, or a half-ton of chum in a shark-infested bay. I assume that there aren't as many book purchasers as viewers, so I assume that limits the cash flow further.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 28, 2017 at 10:50 AM

    OK, so strike my third sentence and finish with essentially the same conclusion: "Begrudging him any additional benefit from his efforts is simply ungracious."

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  4. HapMarch 28, 2017 at 3:28 PM

    1) I wasn't trying to pile on A5:57 - I hope you can find something good.

    2) It's getting dispiriting how often unbounded cynicism about pharma jobs (or maybe about any jobs) seems to be merited.

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    1. AnonymousMarch 29, 2017 at 1:03 PM

      Re #2 - People don't go in to the comments sections of blogs to write about how awesome things are going for them. They log on to dump 'unbounded cynicism'.

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    2. HapMarch 29, 2017 at 3:09 PM

      If things were going great, though, you'd expect to hear from it from other sources (even if not on blogs). People might be angry and thus cynical, but their cynicism may not be merited in general. The arc of pharma, though, and bimodality of the economy, though, seem to fit the cynicism better than I'd like.

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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

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