I don't want to hijack Heffa's post

ReturnOfKuus

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but my lab is closing.  The whole department was liquidated when the new head of the cancer center came in, and we were the last lab left standing.  Alas, no more, as of July 1st.  So she has been axing people left and right, and there are about a billion people in parallel positions to mine, and all of us vying for the very few job openings that come up here.  It's all crappy and stressing me out.

arbolita

Man, that's gotta be rough.   Have you started looking for new jobs now, just in case, or are you holding out and hoping that you'll be one of the people who gets to stay?

ReturnOfKuus

I've applied to about eight jobs.  I know for at least three of them, I didn't get the job. 

mrsconn23

Oy.  That does sound awful. 

MinM

That has got to be ridiculously stressful.

TheDuckis

Damn. I hope it works out for you.

ReturnOfKuus

It is, or at least it was until yesterday when I got the "meh" on whether I should bother working at all from Mr. Kuus.  It'd all be so much easier if I were a volunteer instead of looking for a paying job.  There aren't many research jobs that don't involve animal work, y'know?

arbolita

Is that something you guys could do without stretching yourselves too thin?

Heffalump

I'm sorry, Kuus.  That's really sucky.

I have the dumbest question ever, so please don't take it the wrong way.  Have you considered leaving research?  Because I'm in life sci, I see a shitton of business-y jobs where having research/lab experience is a huge, huge plus.

Maybe this is not what you want at all, but I thought I'd throw it out there. 

I'm also good friends with the sales rep at my former company who covers PA and South Jersey, if you want me to ask around and see if she knows of anything.  Sometimes they know who's hiring and what's growing based on who's ordering what and how much of it.

ReturnOfKuus

Yeah, we could make it fine without my paycheck.  My paycheck isn't very big anyway.

I have thought of leaving research and doing something else, but the problem is what.  Businessy jobs just sound so boring, but then again, I kind of hate medical research and think that it has been turned into something boring, too, so maybe that's not a valid argument against it.  F*ck, why can't the government just open a stargate program for me to work for?

NOLABridesmaid

Kuus, you will figure it out.

6fsn

Ugh, that sounds stressful and tiring.  Good luck.

GBCK

it sucks...but I hope you can use this to find something rawkin

dharmabunny

Crap, that really, really sucks.  I'm sorry.

What about looking at other science industry things aside from medical?  IDK if agri is big in your area, or other initiatives are available, like biofuel initiatives, etc.

Also, there's always medical/scientific writing if you're a good and efficient writer.  Easy to do as freelance, take on as much or as little work as you need.  A good stopgap until you find something else better or more permanent.  Where I work, virtually every last medical writer is freelance/contract basis.

Like NOLA mentioned, you'll find your job eventually.  It does take a lot of creativity and fancydancing with to convince them that lab and research skills can be of tremendous use in the business end of things.  But it can get done.