Survey: What industry do you work in?

[HW Mueller]

Milk with a little melamin is grown up?

[Jade.Barker]

I used to do troubleshooting in the food industry, so there is a list of foods that I'd rather not eat

My brother did an interesting Computer project for a Fig orchard in California, he almost smacked my hand when I grabbed a fig cookie. I'm not sure if he was just messing with me, but he said something like: "Figs cannot account for the protein listed on the label" ewww.

[kdamme]

Environmental laboratory.

Good part: Diversity of techniques and optimizing analyses
Worst part: A lot of standard analyses

Diversity however is a relative term. I once met a University-guy who used insect-antennae as a GC-detector for pheromones.

[krickos]

Hi

Well, I am in the Pharmaceutical industry, APIs to be more specific in a QC support & development group.

Best part: Good variation of work (simple alcohols => more complicated structures), ~50%/50% GC/LC instruments and some CE/IC instruments, our "shift" QC also ran some quantative NMR at the R&D in a recent project which was fun. Troubleshooting, investigations and analytical transfers are also usually fun.

Worst part: Many "big pharma" companies are outsourcing (more than I like) APIs some, even to a greater extent "new/newer" APIs.
Kg price is one thing that is a good driver on a controlled level however, flexibility etc is another, and duuhh does it cost than many millions to tear down a factory. (which means that a larger outsourcing strategy will take considerble longer time before it pays off)...

Likewise many are downsizing a bit=> more centrilased, in fact I/we are losing our GC/LC MS instruments to another department any day now.

[bluejay]

I'm in the environmental industry, specifically compliance testing for drinking water and wastewater. We have one GC to analyze Disinfection By-Products in drinking water.

-Julie

[juddc]

I run a small analytical lab attached to an R&D group that develops novel raw materials for the personal care industry. We used to be a small startup, but were taken over twice and merged once, so now I work for a HUGE chemical company (the biggest one there is)...in the same lab I started in quite a few years ago. It's actually quite fun and interesting!

[IC_Gal]

Hey all;
I work for a water treatment chemical company in the Oildfield Services division. Our group is small (only 12 folks) that serves a fairly large research community and also does customer service samples. We only have a couple of LC folks here. We handle everything fromLC/MS to HPLC to GPC to IC depending upon the sample load and needs.

Best thing about it:
Variety is the spice of life indeed. I seldom get bored...

Worst thing about it:
Varieity is the spice of life and sometimes a scourge indeed. You have to learn a little bit about everything and become a master of nothing.

[TimB]

After bouncing around for a few years after college in temp positions from QC/Consumer products to large pharmaceutical, to even larger personal care, I finally found a full time permenant position in the medical device industry. Specifically in Nueroscience.

My company develops collagen-based products for use in duraplasty and other spinal and brain surgeries. I'm a part of Product Development on the analytical team.

The best part about my job:
The variety of projects and methods I have to develop and run. It's exciting to work in a "different" industry, and not just pharmaceutical. I can really be creative, and being one of 2 chemists on the team my opinion is highly valued. (My boss is the other chemist)

The worst part about my job:
I don't get to do as much chromatography as I would like. I work with engineers, and communicating to them can be rather difficult at times, especailly when they come up with "their way" to do a certain analysis. We have routine tests to do as well, that can get mundane at times.

[Jade.Barker]

...explaining how, with the aid of sophisticated multivariate statistics and good NMR spectrometer, you can tell the difference between a Labrador and a Miniature Schnauzer...

Thats a riot. I wonder how they pitched that project. Your right, dogs are where it's at. How can anyone say no to a dog project? Everybody loves dogs...

[Jade.Barker]

I once met a University-guy who used insect-antennae as a GC-detector for pheromones.

That is one of the coolest things I have ever heard. Wow, I love it when people crib from nature to make science work better. In my opinion it's the wave of the future. Reminds me of the Eiffle Tower, I heard the designer was inspired by the spongy structure of bone.

I've mentioned the antennae thing from your post, everyone says "I wish I thought of that..." Seriously, how can I copy nature and make a million dollars too?

[Jade.Barker]

... We have one GC to analyze Disinfection By-Products in drinking water.

Water is a huge topic here in Minnesota. (Land of 10,000 lakes) It seems like a lot of the environmental jobs are for water of some type. So in your opinion, how is America's water?

It seems like everyone is always down on it, but I had a professor tell me the health of our water has increased dramatically in the last 30 years. For example the Mississippi (the part here) was choked up with Paper chemicals in the 70s but it is supposed to be back to normal now?

[Jade.Barker]

I run a small analytical lab attached to an R&D group that develops novel raw materials for the personal care industry...

How do you like the Personal Care industry? Here in Minneapolis Aveda periodically has openings. It seems like it might be a more artistic work place? It might be worth it just for the discounts tho...

[Jade.Barker]

It's good to have a job at this point, cheer up...

I second that motion... I am no longer with PhibroChem. If you know anyone in Minneapolis/ St. Paul who is hiring, let me know.

[juddc]

How do you like the Personal Care industry? Here in Minneapolis Aveda periodically has openings. It seems like it might be a more artistic work place? It might be worth it just for the discounts tho...

HI Jade - My advice would be to apply, interview, and see what the vibe in the place is. Personally, I really like my job because I get to be creative and I get to play not only in method development and validation, but also in product development, troubleshooting of manufacturing issues, and a few other things - it's interesting!

The personal care industry is trend driven and things can happen quickly, so you have to have the temperament for it. Projects can show up at 4PM on a Friday and die without any warning after 6 months of hard work...then return 6 months or a year later, so it can be crazy. Cosmetics also present challenges to the analyst because the matrices can be complex, but I see that as part of the fun.

I'd say that if the place looks busy, the machines are well kept, and the vibe is happy, then go for it.

[mdfenko]

state government basic research lab.

we study the causes and prevention of and potential treatments for developmental disabilities (eg-autism, mental retardation, alzheimer's disease).

i operate a core lab with various capillary electrophoresis devices (used, mostly, for the separation of nucleic acids) and a hplc (mostly for the separation of proteins).