Good luck to the battery companies

Remember 2009 and all the people who were trying to hire battery chemists? Well, in this week's Chemical and Engineering News, Melody Bomgardner catches up with some of them: 

In early 2009, Barack Obama’s Administration wished for a U.S.-based advanced battery manufacturing industry, both to create jobs and to usher in a new age of electrified transportation. In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama took stock: “In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries.” 

That partnership included major grants to some firms from the Department of Energy as part of spending from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (C&EN, July 27, 2009, page 24). Battery makers are now in position to power a new generation of electric vehicles; their factories are built or nearly completed. Yet they also find themselves uncomfortably out in front of their biggest customers—the automakers—and in need of other homes for their products while they wait for the coming electric vehicle revolution. 

The rollout last year of the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, the first major-market cars to use lithium-ion batteries, was supposed to make 2011 a banner year for advanced batteries. However, slow sales—and safety concerns with the Volt battery—are leading many observers to question whether American consumers will ever adopt vehicles with the technology. 

What’s clear is that leading U.S. battery manufacturers such as A123 Systems and Dow Kokam will be operating well below capacity for the near term. Battery maker Ener1 just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Its troubles began in early 2011 when a major automotive customer, Norway’s Think Global, stopped production. 

David M. Pankratz, Dow Kokam’s vice president of operations, says it felt good to have President Obama single out the high-tech battery industry, but he adds that his company faces a tough road. “We’re not only a start-up company, but we are a start-up industry,” Pankratz says. “The challenges are magnified in a start-up industry with a whole new kind of technology.”

Presumably, electric cars will, at some point in the future, take off. Problem is, the economy is simply not good enough for people to purchase new vehicles. The average car in the US is about 11 years old, which is the oldest it's been in a long time. (The average age of vehicles in the Chemjobber household is 15.5 years, but we do not represent the average American car buyer. [And it will continue to be high if I have anything to say about it!!! -- CJ's budget.]) It will take a very long time before lots of people are going to feel flush enough to risk their down payment on an electric car.

I tend to agree with Mr. Pankratz -- being in a nascent industry, inventing an advanced technology that's simply waiting for more people to buy it, that has to be a very difficult thing. Good luck to the materials scientists and chemists who are working on this -- one hopes they've got good marketing folks.

What are your best job interview tips?

The other day, @UnstableIsotope said about preparation for an interview:

Be you, only organized and with a suit & good haircut.

That's about right, I think.

I went to the Men's Wearhouse in Mission Valley (lo, those many years ago) and bought a nice suit, shoes, socks, the whole bit. That cost a pretty penny, as I recall, but I've been able to wear it to just about everything (weddings, funerals, etc.) Navy suit, red tie, snore. I usually get a haircut about a week before the interview, but I have a pretty boring haircut, so that's no big deal.

Things I carry with me on my interviews? Extra copies of resume, notepad, laser pointer, pens, minty chewing gum, extra electronic copies of my presentation (i.e., flash drive, CD, 3.5 inch floppy), binder version of my presentation. Cell phone (silenced). Wallet, keys.

Anyone have a different packing list for their interviews? Readers, what do you think?

Have a good weekend? I don't like it, but the Patriots are probably going to win. 

Unemployment rate at 8.3%, broader measure at 15.1%

Credit: Calculated Risk blog

Fresh electrons from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

In January, the unemployment rate fell 0.2% to 8.3%. The broader U6 measure of unemployment fell 0.1% to 15.1%.

Total nonfarm payroll went up by 243,000 jobs -- that's good news, too.

Thanks, as always, to Calculated Risk for the blog. 

AstraZeneca at Waltham: not being smart

     Now, look, Carlo, it's been a very busy time for the 

     family. We know what you did with the Barzinis, and 

     we know you set up Sonny. Did you think you could

     fool a Corleone? 

     But as I said, it's been busy around here, so we're 

     gonna take a few days, we're going to look around, 

     do some analysis, do some Six Sigma  regression 

     analyses, and then we'll figure out whether or not 

     we're going to terminate your relationship with the 

     family and whether or not we'll decide to take 

     matters further. Okay? 

     

    (Photo credit: emulsioncompulsion)

With all of the announcements of cuts at AstraZeneca, it's surprising to hear that the facility at Waltham, MA has not heard their fates yet. Derek Lowe's thoughts:

From several reports, here's what I have on AstraZeneca's plans in Waltham: they've told people there that cuts are coming. But they haven't gotten very specific on when, or who, or how many. All those questions (that is, all the questions there could be) are under review. 

Pfizer has done this to their people before, as have other companies in the throes of layoffs, and it's the only way I know to actually push morale and productivity down even further in such a situation. You come to work for weeks, for months, not knowing if your, your lab, or your whole department is heading for the chopping block. All you're sure of is that someone is. And will your own stellar performance persuade upper management to keep you, when the time comes? Not likely, under these conditions - it'll more likely be the sort of thing where they draw lines through whole areas. Your fate, most people feel at these times, is not in your own hands. A less motivating environment couldn't be engineered on purpose. 

But that's what AZ's management has chosen to do at their largest research site in North America. I hope that they enjoy the results.

Once again, I suggest the Chemjobber Layoff Plan, knowing, of course, it will never happen:

1. Management decides that they're going to revisit cuts at some future date, 2 or 3 or (dare I suggest) 4 years in the future. 
2. Day 1: Management lays waste to their R&D departments, cutting all the people they think they're going to cut in the next 4 years. 
3. Day 2: Management announces to their workers: "We've cut all the people we're going to cut until October 1, 20XX. Congratulations, you're the new team. You have (whatever) years until we make another decision on layoffs. Breathe easy until then."
4. After 2 months of survivor's guilt and freaking out, everyone settles down and gets to work, ignoring that future date until it's soon enough to worry.  

If you go over and look at the comments, it's pretty clear that people prefer to be surprised or at least not have months of dread, knowing (but not knowing) when the axe will fall. 

My very best wishes to those at the AZ Waltham site, and to all of us. 

Prof. Harran, UC Regents in negotiations for plea, arraignment postponed until March 7

Professor Patrick Harran (UCLA), his lawyer Thomas O'Brien
and  Craig Moyer , lawyer for the UC Regents
(credit: Al Seib, Los Angeles Times)

From the Los Angeles Times, the arraignment for Professor Harran and the UC Regents was delayed until March 7:

"The delay, granted Thursday, will allow plea negotiations to continue between prosecutors and the defendants, who were charged in December with three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards, resulting in the death of Sheri Sangji, a staff research assistant."

Wow. Never thought I would see the day.

Guess Kevin Reed was just talkin'. 

The Layoff Project: Sadly, still relevant

With the news of 2,200 R&D people from AstraZeneca being let go (and an overall layoff of 7,300 AZ employees) overall and two site closures, I'm sorry to say that The Layoff Project is still relevant.

Below is a summary of all the stories of laid-off chemists so far:

• BQ: "I feel frustrated I cannot help anyone."
• TK: "It was very hard to shake off the sense of anger and betrayal."
• RG: "I was proud that I didn't cry in front of them."
• TN: "Be prepared for strong highs and lows."
• LM: "There is no shame in losing your job, not in this economy."
• NT: "You are either networking or not working."
• RK: "I seem to have lost purpose."
• Ortho: "Don't be afraid to ask people for help."
• Anon: "They herded us out like cattle."
• bbooooooya: "Not helpful, sitting around being bitter."
• Old pharma hand: "You are in the middle of a very emotional and stressful period."
• PH: "And then, life happened."

If you know anyone affected by today's events or recent layoffs, please let them know about this post and this blog. Please let them know that there's a community of chemists here that really cares about their fellow scientists and that can empathize with them. 

If you have a story to tell (or know someone who does), please e-mail the blog (or have them e-mail the blog) at chemjobber -at- gmail/dot/com. If you feel so inclined, let your friends and your coworkers know about The Layoff Project, too. 

The Layoff Project is an attempt to collect the oral histories of chemists who have been affected by the changes in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. The explanatory post is here; stories can be left in the comments or e-mailed to chemjobber -at- gmail/dot/com. Confidentiality and anonymity is guaranteed. 

Daily Pump Trap: 2/2/12 edition

Good morning! Between January 31 and February 1, 175 new positions were posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 5 (3%) are academically connected and covered in next Tuesday's Ivory Filter Flask and 162 (93%) positions were posted by Kelly Scientific Resources.

Forever training, I hope: The Air Force Technical Applications Center (on Florida's Space Coast) is searching for a measurement section chief. The desired applicant will be an expert in nuclear radiation monitoring, mass spectrometry and radiochemistry. Master's degree desired.

Pittsburgh, PA: PPG Industries is looking for a B.S. chemist to be an analytical chemist; HPLC/LC-MS experience would be helpful.

South San Francisco, CA: Genentech desires 2 Ph.D. analytical chemists, both on the development side of the house.

Holy Kelly: Lots of positions, most seemingly somewhat relevant. And then there's this job description: "

You think I'm kidding? Go see for yourself.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) 289, 708, 3,037 and 56 positions respectively for the search term "chemist." 

Your labmates' noses

A list of small, useful things (links):

• David has a funny post about butane and another one about poison ivy. 
• Paul Hodges says the Baltic Dry Index is down -- DOOOOOOOOOOM. 
• Want a science career with the Feds? Glen points to a new website.
• What's wrong with this ad?, asks Paul.
• Adam posts one of the all-time best Far Side cartoons.
• Th'Gaussling is looking at extractive metallurgy. 
• Matt talks about alchemy and symbolism -- slay that Minotaur!
• Dr. Freddy says, "Always prioritize people over projects."
• John worries about pirating organs. There's a bad joke in there somewhere. 
• STEM_Wonk asks, "What would federal R&D look like with President Gingrich?"
• Josh Bloom argues for extending pharmaceutical patents.

Did I miss anything? Let me know!

UPDATE: MB wants to know "Why would you ever make polyperoxides?"
UPDATE 2: SeeArrOh has a tasty-seeming recipe for a microwave breakfast sandwich. I am tempted. 

Offered without comment: President Obama confronted by unemployed engineer family

Via @UnstableIsotope, the reality of unemployed STEM (how I dislike that term!) workers:

President Obama vowed to take a look at a Fort Worth woman’s husband’s resume on Monday in an attempt to help him find a job. 

Participating in the first-ever virtual interview on the social networking site Google+, Obama was asked by Jennifer Weddel why her husband, a semiconductor engineer, is unable to find a job. (The Fort Worth woman also inquired why the government continues to extend H1B visas when there are many Americans without jobs.) 

In the beginning, Obama told Weddel that her husband “should be able to find something right away.” Unconvinced, Weddel kept pressing. 

“Send me your husband’s resume,” Obama said, after the woman voiced her frustration. “I will follow up on this.”  

“I’ll have to take you up on that,” Weddel responded with a smile.

Best wishes to Mrs. Weddel and her husband. 

Process Wednesday: Vortexes aren't good?

Undesirable? (Credit: eHow)

More on the engineering of reactors, this time from Mr. Ozzie Frietas, the technical sales manager for De Dietrich Process Systems:

The patented design of PharmaCore’s new, glasslined OptiMix reactors incorporates three vertical baffles on the walls of the reactor shell. Side baffles are common in metal tanks. They prevent the formation of vortexes that spin the entire fluid mass but do very little actual mixing or shearing. In baffled tanks, on the other hand, the baffles create turbulence that enhances mixing. They also optimize heat transfer, suspension and distribution of solids and gases, and mass transfer.  

Typical glass-lined reactors do not use straight flat baffles due to the challenge of attaching them to the reactor wall and encapsulating them with glass. Instead, they drop one or more baffles from the top head into the reactor. Under some conditions, these top-mounted baffles may not provide enough turbulence to suppress vortex formation. Vortices not only do a poor job of mixing, but they also splash liquid against reactor walls. In heated reactors, splashes soon turn into dried products that are difficult to remove from the reactor wall during
cleanup. 

De Dietrich developed the process to build wall-baffled, glass-lined reactors a few years ago. The company welds the baffles to the reactor wall prior to coating all steel surfaces with glass. The three baffles suppress vortexing and splashing. The symmetry of the three baffle/three mixing blade combination also minimizes bending loads that can deflect the agitator shaft and reduce seal life.

I'm terribly amused to learn that vortices "do a poor job of mixing." In the lab, the presence of a healthy-looking vortex is a sign to a chemist that things are mixing well, not badly. 

But then again, our friend Neal Anderson tells us this, too:

Without baffles, low-viscosity fluids tend to create vortices and swirl with poor mixing; baffles disrupt vortices and promote flow patters that lead to good mixing.

While I'm firmly convinced of the undesirability of removing dried product off the walls of reactors (boy, am I ever!) and the prevention of such, I'd really like to learn more about mixing and what's the best kind of mixing.  Vortices are poor at mixing? Could have fooled me.

Fascinating video from commenter marvinthefish -- I'm convinced!:

To be yourself, or to not be yourself?

Courtesy of Lisa Balbes: As assistant professor candidates are heading out for interviews, someone who has billed themselves as a consultant to professor candidates speaks up in the pages of Inside Higher Ed:

Because no matter where you are in your career, but most especially if you are just starting out, or (god forbid) a grad student, you are, as an academic, insecure, verbose, defensive, paranoid, beset by feelings of inadequacy,  pretentious, self-involved, communicatively challenged, and fixated on minutiae. 

Consequently, here’s how you act in interviews:  rambling, obscure, petrified, subservient, cringing, disorganized, braggy, tedious, emotionally over-amped, off-point, self-absorbed, defensive, and fixated on minutiae. 

I'm sure the comment stream will erupt with objections, but …  I’ve worked with enough interviewees — as a search committee member, Ph.D. adviser, and coach and consultant — to know whereof I speak. 

Sorry, academics. You/we suck at interviewing.
Here's what actually needs to happen.
You have to jettison "yourself." 

In its stead, you have to create a professional persona. That persona is a full-fledged adult who demonstrates a tightly organized research program, a calm confidence in a research contribution to a field or discipline, a clear and specific trajectory of publications, innovative but concise, non-emotional ideas about teaching at all levels of the curriculum, a non-defensive openness to the exchange of ideas, and most importantly, a steely-eyed grasp of the real (as opposed to fantasy) needs of actual hiring departments, which revolve ultimately, in the current market, around money.

In some sense, I actually agree with her. People are drawn to self-confident candidates and you want to be the best version of yourself. Keeping your speech disciplined is a good way of getting there.

At the same time, in the course of the day-long interview process that happens in both academia and industry, there is no way that you can keep up a facade for that long. Hiring committees and hiring managers (I'd like to think) are typically fairly perceptive people. Contacts with references and direct questions to interviewees will reveal whatever negative tendencies you might have. If the reality is far from the illusion, people on hiring committees will respond negatively.

On the other hand, I find her business model remarkable. On her website, she writes: "My clients: Get  grants. Get tenure track jobs. Get tenure." (Really? Eyebrow raise.) She charges $20 for an initial consultation. She charges $110/hour for a Skype interview consultation. Wow -- I'm guessing she gets a fair number of takers. (Shouldn't someone do this for chemistry assistant professor interviewees? Maybe, maybe not.) 

Daily Pump Trap: 1/31/12 edition

Good morning! Between January 26 and January 30, there were 32 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 16 (50%) were academically connected and are covered in the Ivory Filter Flask.

Experimental Station, DE: Dupont is searching for a Ph.D. analytical chemist to become a specialist in gas chromatography instruments. 3+ years industrial experience is desired.

Madison, WI: Kensey Nash is a medical device polymer company; they desire an experienced M.S./Ph.D. polymer chemist to work on "synthetic polymer hydrogels and coatings used to improve medical care." 7+ years experience desired.

Still searching: Toyota is looking for the ever-elusive advanced battery materials specialist. I wonder what these folks are commanding these days? Six-figure salaries? Your finest meats and cheeses? (Ann Arbor, MI)

Woodland Park, NJ: Cytec is looking for a Ph.D. organic/polymer chemist to become a postdoctoral fellow. No remarks as to length of stay or salary.

Monroeville, PA: PPG Industries is searching for a Ph.D. organic chemist to work on photochromic dyes.

Westlake, LA: Sasol North America desires an experienced M.S./Ph.D. chemist to perform chemical research for personal care products. 

Ivory Filter Flask: 1/31/12 edition

Good morning! Between January 24 and January 30, there were 23 academic positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Let's do the numbers:

Total number of ads: 23
- Postdocs: 6
- Tenure-track faculty: 8
- Temporary faculty: 1
- Lecturer positions: 1
- Staff positions: 7
- Ratio of US/non-US positions: 22/1

Northfield, VT: Norwich University is looking for an assistant professor of analytical chemistry. Norwich is apparently a private military college in central Vermont -- take along a snow shovel?

Tabuk, Saudi Arabia: The University of Tabuk is a new Saudi university; they're searching for new professors for both their male and female campuses. Here's the pay and benefits:

Salary scale is for Assistant Professors 13,000-15,800 Saudi Riyal (SAR), for Associate Professors 17,000-19,400 SAR and for full-Professors 20,800-23,300 SAR per month. There is an additional up to 25,000 SAR annual tuition allowance for children’s education and one time 12,000 SAR furniture allowance. Faculty members can also earn an additional two months' of base salary for eligible funded research activities. Free round-trip air-ticket is provided annually to the employees and for up to three of their dependents from Tabuk to their point of origin. Saudi Arabia is tax-free country. Preceding salary amounts are take-home pay. Faculty members also get 2 months of paid summer vacation. 

Considering their top end for full professors is ~$72k/year, I think they're going to need to do better than that. Nevertheless, might be fun.

Baltimore, MD: On the other hand, Johns Hopkins is searching for a conservation science postdoc with a salary of $56,000 a year. Sounds like that'd go pretty far in Tabuk.

Staff galore: Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, OK (home of Sonic!) is searching for a chemistry stockroom manager / chemistry instructor, with the grand salary of $33.8k-$41k a year. UC San Diego is looking for a chemical safety specialist (B.S. in science + 3 years EH&S experience needed.) Georgia Southern University is looking for a chemistry instrumentation manager.

What is the level of worker safety at Chinese chemical manufacturers?

In the New York Times' series on Apple's manufacturing facilities in China, there are some sad chemical safety stories to be found:

In January 2010, workers at a Chinese factory owned by Wintek, an Apple manufacturing partner, went on strike over a variety of issues, including widespread rumors that workers were being exposed to toxins. Investigations by news organizations revealed that over a hundred employees had been injured by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage and paralysis. 

Employees said they had been ordered to use n-hexane to clean iPhone screens because it evaporated almost three times as fast as rubbing alcohol. Faster evaporation meant workers could clean more screens each minute.

I guess they can't get branched alkanes over there? I note that cyclohexane has a boiling point of 80°C, but isohexane's is 60°C.

(Note to any potential Google searchers: Mike Daisey is wrong that hexane is a "potent neurotoxin." Hexane itself is not the neurotoxin, it's the lysine adduct of the hexane metabolite, 2,5-hexanedione. (Not that it really matters to the poor kid whose hands are shaking.))

There's also a passage in the New York Times article about an explosion that killed a number of employees because of ambient aluminum dust from polishing iPad cases:

In its most recent supplier responsibility report, Apple wrote that after the explosion, the company contacted “the foremost experts in process safety” and assembled a team to investigate and make recommendations to prevent future accidents. 

In December, however, seven months after the blast that killed Mr. Lai, another iPad factory exploded, this one in Shanghai. Once again, aluminum dust was the cause, according to interviews and Apple’s most recent supplier responsibility report. That blast injured 59 workers, with 23 hospitalized. 

“It is gross negligence, after an explosion occurs, not to realize that every factory should be inspected,” said Nicholas Ashford, the occupational safety expert, who is now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If it were terribly difficult to deal with aluminum dust, I would understand. But do you know how easy dust is to control? It’s called ventilation. We solved this problem over a century ago.”

That's a pretty depressing thing to hear. What is frustrating, just like Ashford says, this is an easily monitored and addressable issue.

It really makes a person wonder about the other, less well-known hazards in Chinese manufacturing. What's the safety record of Wuxi PharmaTech, anyhow? It's my assumption that many Aldrich reagents are made in China -- do they audit their suppliers' safety?

If anyone knows anything about this, please e-mail me or write in the comments. I'd love to hear about it.

AMRI: A self-assessment by CEO Thomas D'Ambra

From this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News, the annual custom chemical manufacturing article (by Ann Thayer), with a section on everyone's favorite chemistry outsourcing firm (and former mass employer of organic chemists), Albany Molecular:

More recently, AMRI made cutbacks in response to changing customer needs and the economic environment. “This means investing in areas that are doing well and refocusing areas that have experienced decreasing demand,” D’Ambra says. Among its steps, AMRI is ceasing all internal R&D programs, except for generic drugs, and trimming its U.S. contract drug discovery staff. 

“During the last couple of years, we have seen steep declines in demand for U.S. discovery offerings, with concomitant growth to AMRI’s Asian locations,” he explains. “As we are cutting back our U.S. assets, we are continuing to invest in the growth of our Singaporean and Indian facilities and capabilities.” The company also may restructure its European contract research operations, including ­possibly closing its site in Hungary. 

On the manufacturing side of its business, AMRI’s U.S. API plant had a record year in 2011. “Many projects we have been involved with during the last several years are going commercial or are approaching the filing stage,” D’Ambra says. This progress has compensated for slower movement in earlier stage projects, he adds, where customers have taken longer to make decisions, leaving the company with a record backlog of outstanding bids. 

Despite the delays, D’Ambra is optimistic about the future and foresees a strong year in 2012. Although 2011 was a year of significant disruption for big pharma customers and financially tough for many small and start-up companies, the trend could be positive for outsourcing, he explains. “The tough environment will force some companies to operate more virtually than they might have wanted to in the past.”

I'm sure that there was a section about how badly Dr. D'Ambra felt about the fact that there were "steep declines" in demand for US contract researchers -- it just didn't make the editor's cut. Sigh.

(Incidentally, do Thomas D'Ambra and John Lechleiter give the lie to the thought that "we just need to get a chemist into management instead of those mean MBAs" stereotype?)

12 questions you don't want to be asked on an interview

You're at the white board in a conference room or sitting at a nice restaurant at lunch and someone leans over the table and says:

1. So tell me about your experience with angry bosses.
2. Did you have experience working on the weekends in graduate school? Did you like it? 
3. You're not one of those chemists that insists on proper PPE, are you? 
4. You don't expect a W-2 at the end of the year, do you? 
5. How would you feel about a part-time position in Bangalore? 
6. Do you know how many other candidates there are for this position?
7. Are you in chemistry for the money? I'm not. 
8. Do you think NMR is important for structure elucidation? How good are you at using IR for functional group identification?
9. Here's the complex natural product that my company is working on -- how would you synthesize it?
10. Do you prefer to be paid in drachmas or lira? 
11. You know, 70's vintage analytical equipment is quite good. Do you have any experience repairing old televisions? 
12. We have weekly naked group meetings -- got a problem with that? 

Enjoy the weekend, folks. 

How to talk about chemical safety

What's the best way to talk to a peer about how they're performing a particular chemical operation and its safety components? What if they're doing something really unsafe? 

I dunno, but here's one mostly ineffective way:

Hey! What you're doing there is REALLY unsafe. You're going to get yourself killed! And everyone around you, too! Are you some kind of idiot?

Here's another ineffective way:

What are you doing? [walks away]

 Here's how I might approach someone doing something unsafe:

Hey, uh, have you thought about the safety concerns with this method of doing something? No? Let's go look up some best practices on how to do this.  

I know that you're under pressure and trying to get this done -- I really appreciate that. But let's go find out if you could get hurt, eh?

That might be a little too diplomatic. It depends on the person you're talking, of course, and what approach you think might work the best. Readers, what do you prefer? 

What's going on out there?

Weekly unemployment claims (Credit: Calculated Risk)

It's really difficult to reduce something as big as the US and/or global economy into a few numbers, but let's try to see what's going on:

• Initial weekly unemployment claims have been trending down for a while (at right). 
• The national unemployment rate is at 8.5%; it will be interesting to see the numbers for January (reported next Friday.) 
• The 4th quarter of 2011 saw 2.8% real GDP growth. That's weak for a recovery, but the best rate since the 2nd quarter of 2010. 
• 2011 was a terrible year for new home sales because of distressed home sales (foreclosures, etc.) The Case-Shiller index is expected to show a 3.2% year-over-year drop in prices next week. 
• Paul Hodges says that crude oil inventories are up (good news)?

In related news, the Federal Open Market Committee intends to keep interest rates low:

In particular, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.

Yay for borrowers, boo for savers.

Overall, the US economy appears to be muddling through. Trouble spots include oil prices, the European economy (and the continuing (resolving?) debt crisis) and the slowing Chinese economy. Let's hope employment for chemists starts on a positive trend, eh?

Man, I hope this isn't how they hire chemists in pharma

Credit: Wall Street Journal

You get to peek behind the curtain of job application software in the Wall Street Journal's article "Your Résumé Versus Oblivion" -- it ain't pretty:

Many job seekers have long suspected their online employment applications disappear into a black hole, never to be seen again. Their fears may not be far off the mark, as more companies rely on technology to winnow out less-qualified candidates... Recruiters and hiring managers are overwhelmed by the volume of résumés pouring in, thanks to the weak job market and new tools that let applicants apply for a job with as little as one mouse click. ...Most recruiters report that at least 50% of job hunters don't possess the basic qualifications for the jobs they are pursuing. 

The screening systems are one way companies are seeking to cut the costs of hiring a new employee, which now averages $3,479, according to human-resources consulting firm Bersin & Associates. Big companies, many of which cut their human-resources staffs during the recession, now spend about 7% of their external recruitment budgets on applicant-tracking systems, the firm says.

I'm not especially surprised by their comments about small companies, but it is interesting to hear some unscientific numbers:

Résumé overload isn't just a big-company problem. Job seekers often are surprised when they don't hear back from small businesses. These businesses rarely hire enough people to make an applicant-tracking system cost-effective, but even a one-time posting on a well-trafficked job board like Monster.com can garner hundreds of responses. Only 19% of hiring managers at small companies look at a majority of the résumés they receive, and 47% say they review just a few, according to a recent survey by Information Strategies Inc., publisher of Your HR Digest, an online newsletter.

Having survived feeling my résumé into a large-company database in the recent past and actually receiving a phone call (that ultimately resulted in a offer!), I have to say that (like the first paragraph), it was my assumption that there was some sort of black hole involved. The request that resumes be in "Word document format" was yet more evidence that computers were involved.

I once spoke to a man who was hired by a major government contractor (and employer of physical scientists) in Utah. He told me the best way to deal with the software was to copy the job description and its keywords and paste it into the top portion of my résumé. I see this is in the article's advice:

Forget about being creative. Instead, mimic the keywords in the job description as closely as possible. If you're applying to be a sales manager, make sure your résumé includes the words "sales" and "manage" (assuming you've done both!).

Good heavens. I, for one, quail at our new screening overlords.

Daily Pump Trap: 1/26/12 edition

Good morning! Between January 24 and January 25, there were 19 new positions posted. Of them, 7 (37%) were academically connected and will be covered by Tuesday's Ivory Filter Flask. Two positions were from Kelly Scientific Resources.

Zeroes!: The good folks at BASF (Iselin, NJ) are hiring an associate engineer for a position running an automotive catalytic reactor. No experience needed, salary "very competitive." Also, a B.S./M.S./Ph.D. chemist/chemical engineer position (in the same laboratory)?. Maximum 8+ years experience needed, descending for higher degrees.

San Francisco, CA: MAP Pharmaceuticals is working in the neurology area. They're looking for a Ph.D. analytical chemist to work on assays and drug formulation, it appears. 2 openings available.

Birmingham, AL: Once again, Southern Research Institute is looking for a Ph.D. chemist for a "senior scientist" position where they'll perform drug discovery. With the comment that they're looking for someone who has attracted outside support in the past, why don't they just call this an "assistant professor" or a "principal investigator" position and be done with it?

Eugene, OR: Life Technologies is looking for a B.S./M.S. chemist for a process chemistry position in their production department.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) 244, 699, 2,952 and 48 positions for the search term "chemist."