Jobs
mikethemadbiologist | July 8, 2011Before I get into the meat of the post, if, after reading this, you end up obsessing over trade deficits too, then I've failed (just wanted to make that clear). But imagining what the possible consequences of placing the trade deficit über alles would be demonstrates why the current budget deficit fetish is absurd. Because, currently, even erstwhile progressives like Ezra Klein, have turned the budget deficit into a shibboleth (I might have more to say about that silly numerically illiterate post, but the tone and tenor are what matters for now).
If you're not familiar with the trade…
drorzel | June 29, 2011Out in Minnesota, Melissa expresses some high-level confusion over the preference for people with a small-college background:
In the past few months, I have been involved in several conversations where someone mentioned that a particular faculty member or administrator was or was not an alum of a small liberal arts college (SLAC) in a manner that seemed to suggest their status as a former student of a SLAC (or not) clearly explained why the individual took the particular action or made the particular decision being discussed. (Generally the tone of the discussions has been that "good"…
mikethemadbiologist | June 28, 2011This is another resounding success by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner:
Nearly nine months after its formation, a $30 billion government fund to foster small-business lending has yet to pay out a single dime, even as the nation struggles with traumatic levels of unemployment....
As of this week, 844 institutions have applied for $11.6 billion from the Small Business Lending Fund. In theory, money from the fund would free up capital so that banks could then grant more loans to companies looking to buy new equipment and hire more workers.
But vetting the financial soundness of each bank has…
drorzel | June 24, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of S.M., a Canadian government employee who would prefer not to be identified by name. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I work for one of Canada's three federal granting agencies (one, two, three). We get money from the federal government which we give to university resesearchers (i.e. professors). We…
drorzel | June 23, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Carl Knutson, who works for a company making online learning systems. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
am the physics content project manager for an online homework and
learning environment provider, Sapling Learning, located in Austin,
TX. We offer online homework and tutorials for undergraduate…
drorzel | June 22, 2011p>(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Brad Holden, of the University of California Observatories (which, OK, is affiliated with an academic institution, but this is not a traditional faculty-type job). The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am an astronomer at an observatory, specifically the University of California Observatories. Our…
mikethemadbiologist | June 17, 2011The projections used by the Social Security Administration to determine when it will become 'insolvent' are notoriously pessimistic, in that they have been estimating that Social Security will be DOOOMED! in 28-38 years going on nearly twenty years. Like Zeno's spear, we never seem to hit that wall. Well, it's spread to Medicare (like E. coli O104:H4! ZOMG!!). Jared Bernstein lays out the past twenty one years of Medicare* estimates for us:
Just to make this clearer--because I like helping!--I've made a couple of changes:
If we take this year's prediction seriously--or at least…
mikethemadbiologist | June 15, 2011...but these are green shoots merely "bumps in the road." Or something. Brad DeLong posted a graph showing just how dismal the employment numbers are: as a percentage of population, employment has cratered. That's a much more revealing number as unemployment, especially the strict version ('U3') leaves out all sorts of people who would be willing to work if there were jobs.
Inspired by Delong, I decided to look at the historical male employment. I'm not a believer in the (false) notion of a 'mancession', but attitudes towards working women have changed dramatically over the last sixty…
drorzel | June 2, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of George Farrants, a freelance translator (and occasional marathon runner, as seen in the picture). The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I work as a freelance translator from Swedish and Norwegian into English. I try to specialise in scientific, medical and technical texts, but I accept texts from many…
drorzel | June 1, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Jennifer Saam, who translates between different departments at a medical diagnostic laboratory. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am a medical science liaison at a medical diagnostic laboratory.
I work in the medical services department and this department maintains the scientific integrity for the…
drorzel | May 31, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Adam DeConinck, who works at a company providing supercomputing resources. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I work as a systems engineer at R Systems, a company that provides high-performance computing (HPC) resources to the commercial and academic research communities. We own and operate a number of…
drorzel | May 30, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Matthew Schlecht, a chemist by training who runs his own technical translation service, Word Alchemy Translation. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am a free-lance technical translator working into English from Japanese, German, French, Spanish and occasionally Russian, in the areas of chemistry,…
drorzel | May 27, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Richard Lobinske, a Hazardous Waste Manager (meaning he handles chemicals, such as these decades-old pesticides, not particularly noxious low-level employees). The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
Hazardous Waste Manager. I oversee a county household hazardous waste collection program that also handles…
drorzel | May 26, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Darren Anderson, the Chief Technology Officer for Vive Nano. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their future careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I was the founding president of a start-up / spin-off company out of the University of Toronto. The company was originally called Northern Nanotechnologies, and is now called Vive Nano. My current job is…
drorzel | May 25, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Will Hendrick, who worked as a lab tech before returning to school. (This may seem like an odd inclusion, but there are people who do this sort of thing forever, so I think it's valid.) The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their future careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
My official job title was 'Biological Materials Technician', and I worked for…
drorzel | May 24, 2011(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Amy Young, who runs her own soap-making business. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.--post-doc--academic-job track.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
The relevant part of my work is as partner and chief developer/producer at Foam on the Range, which makes and sells soaps, lotions, and other bath/cosmetic-type products. My business cards say "Saponifier in Chief". It'…
drorzel | May 19, 2011In keeping with this week's unofficial theme of wibbling about academia, there's an article at The Nation about the evils of graduate school that's prompted some discussion. Sean says more or less what I would, though maybe a little more nicely than I would.
I wouldn't bother to comment further, except this spurred Sean to solicit career advice for scientists looking to leave the academic track. Which reminded me that a couple of years ago, I did a bloggy Project for Non-Academic Science (name chosen to have the same acronym as a prestigious journal, because it amused me to do so), where I…
lborkowski | May 12, 2011For many years, the public health and environmental communities have been calling for reform of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which governs the use of chemicals in US commerce. Instead of requiring companies to demonstrate the safety of chemicals they intend to use or produce, TSCA puts the burden on EPA to request this data and justify their request based on anticipated hazards or substantial human exposures. EPA can only ban or restrict a chemical if it presents "an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment." Of the tens of thousands of chemicals now in use in…
mikethemadbiologist | April 19, 2011I'm a bit late to this story, but, if you missed it, the LA Times had a superb article about how IKEA treats and pays workers at its U.S. facilities much worse than at its Swedish factories:
Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it's common to find out on Friday evening that they'll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can't or don't show up....
Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a…
mikethemadbiologist | April 10, 2011Yes, it's good that Planned Parenthood was defunded--I support Planned Parenthood. But the Democrats were routed on the economics. Right now, with U3 unemployment still near nine percent, and under- and unemployment essentially unbudged, we need more spending, not less (remember, government deficits mean an increase in private savings--in this case, unemployed people would get jobs and accumulate some savings or pay down debts). We also need these programs because they do useful stuff.
The House is controlled by batshitloonitarians, but the Senate Democrats and the Obama Administration,…