Job Responsibilities
I will relate the last contract position I had of any merit
length. Agency: Summit Scientific Staffing, client: BioMerieux
Inc. in Rockland, MA.
I was given the title of Consultant Chemist to develop and put
to use workable Quality Control assays for release of all raw
materials used in diagnostic reagent mixes and buffers.
HPLC assays: four to six hours of each day performing ion
exchange, reverse phase and size exclusion separations.
Preparation for running HPLC's included mixing mobile phases and
preparing samples.
Interchangeable two hours relegated to keeping a manual entry
notebook of all samples made up with relevant results. Planning
sample degradation assays that underwent extraction and
enzymatic digestion overnight. UV analysis or fluorescent
analysis of DNA (tagged) samples to determine concentration of
DNA / RNA , running spectrum to determine emitting or detection
wavelength of samples.
Intermittent activities included maintaining laboratory chemical
inventory, control charting analytical instrument standards,
interacting with service engineers for HPLC and CZE equipment
troubleshooting.
|
Job Requirements
Bachelors degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston
University, Boston, MA. Major: chemistry, minor: biology.
Direction of career path in chemistry and biochemistry,
specifically analytical laboratory employment. Chemistry major
requirements: General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physical
Chemistry (graduate level). Quality of classes, etc.:
Professional, oversized (exception: PChem), laboratories
available. Additional instruction in Chemistry: Inorganic
Quantitative Analysis, Organic Qualitative Analysis and
Biochemistry (graduate level), Quality of classes, etc:
Professional, laboratories available (exception: Biochem) .
Biology minor requirements: Advanced Biology, General Zoology,
Human Genetics and one semester Senior Research in Biology.
Quality of classes, etc.: Professional, oversized (excluding
research), laboratories available.
Other major requirements: Calculus I, II, III and Physics.
Quality of classes: Professional, oversized (excluding Calculus
III), laboratories available for Physics only.
Other bachelor degree requirements: two semesters English, two
semesters Humanities, two semesters Sociology and two semesters
History. History and Humanities combined by two semesters of
World Art History, Quality of classes: Oversized. English
requirement fulfilled with graduate level seminar "Women in
Literature" and undergraduate "History of Film and Literature"
coursework, Quality of classes: Popular, small and relevant.
Sociology requirements fulfilled by General Psychology,
Anthropology of Mankind and Child Psychology coursework, Quality
of classes: relevant, oversized.
Oversized classes hard to obtain individualized attention or
long time waiting to speak to teaching assistants with questions
or problems. Graduate level classes hard to obtain high grade
due to grading curve for graduate students. Continued to take
graduate level coursework as training for future challenge.
Workload was manageable enough to maintain physical education
course each semester as well as participate in 2-3 campus
acitivities and intramural sports challenges. Sport courses
received 0.5 and 1.0 credits; I took tennis, junior life saving
(2 semesters), horsebackriding and aerobics. For
extracurricular activities I belonged to Summer and Fall Student
Orientation Volunteers, Student Union activities: (movies,
homecoming, hosting sports events and lectures), Chemia
organization and Eastern Orthodox Christian Fellowship.
Workload can be differentiated two ways: One is educational
workload, purpose of college education. All my classes were
challenging to maintain a 3.25 average. I worked off campus my
freshman and sophomore year during the weekdays: 20-25 hours per
week to maintain expenses. Studying was done during evening
freetime before commuting home. Found time to do majority of my
studying on campus Saturdays and Sunday afternoons.
|
Uppers
Best part of the last contract position held: I was given responsibility to
develop Quality Control assays for reagents used in the Research and Development
of five probe diagnostic assays. Development of assays was ongoing as was
selection of components comprising reagents. Along with responsibility of
methods development I managed one entire analytical laboratory setup as well as
a
partial laboratory setup of analytical instruments on a different floor. I
instructed other chemists / scientists on progress of the processes they were
investigating based on results of my analyses.
|
Downers
For the majority of my contract the Capillary Zone
Electrophoresis was under repair. This instrument would have
been a useful tool in evaluating conjugated DNA materials and
raw materials.
For the final month of my contract the R&D HPLC had multiple
problems due to misuse by another employee with little or no
knowledge of HPLC operations. This decreased my productivity.
|
Lifestyle
Quality Control for Probe Diagnostics is an up and coming
field. Education requirements should include strong chemistry
background pre biochemistry education to work comfortably around
chemicals and analytical tools employed.
Job outlook is 50:50. Many companies and vendors are selling
diagnostics still at the solution / test plate level. More data
and reliability reside here. The newer phase of diagnostics is
biosensor applications where sample analysis is dependent on
specificity of reactions. More correlative data needs to be
acquired to validate these analytical methods. Research will
probably be ongoing another 10 to 15 years before reliable
products are marketed.
|
Compensation
I was contract through an agency. In lieu of employee benefits
and savings options, I received hourly wage $25 per hour.
|
Advice to Jobseekers
Quality Control for Probe Diagnostics is an up and coming
field. Education requirements should include strong chemistry
background pre biochemistry education to work comfortably around
chemicals and analytical tools employed.
Job outlook is 50:50. Many companies and vendors are selling
diagnostics still at the solution / test plate level. More data
and reliability reside here. The newer phase of diagnostics is
biosensor applications where sample analysis is dependent on
specificity of reactions. More correlative data needs to be
acquired to validate these analytical methods. Research will
probably be ongoing another 10 to 15 years before reliable
products are marketed.
|
|
