An Open Letter to all the "Biological Staffing Services" out there:

[athelind]

• "Ecology" is a "Biological Science", too.
  
• There's more than one kind of "Environmental Scientist". I'm the kind who didn't spend years on his B.S. to change air conditioner filters.
  
• Don't treat me like an idiot because my definition of "biology" encompasses more than one cell at a time.
  
• If your firm doesn't cover jobs in my field, don't act as if that's my shortcoming.
  
• Someone with valuable, hard-to-find skills in marine surveying doesn't want to be told that you might be able to get him a job washing bottles, if the employer's not real picky. He'd much rather hear you say, "No, I'm sorry, we really don't handle that kind of work."
  

I mean no disrespect to those in the Glassware Biology fields. I have more than a few friends who happily toil in labs across the country, if not the globe. While I have an Associate's degree in Biotechnology myself, is not my field, and I deeply resent being treated like a red-headed stepchild by "Bio-Staffing" companies because my education, skills, and abilities encompass the macroscopic instead of focusing on the microscopic.

Comments

[rikoshi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, bio-staffing folks never seemed to get the whole concept of Zoology and Paleontology with me. Granted, the amount of work for someone with a B.S. in that area is next to nil, but people seemed really confused that I didn't have experience with things like ELISA or PCR or any of those other things that require things smaller than an organism. :)

[pathia.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of when I was applying for jobs with my BA in Economics.

Everyone 'thought' they might be able to get me a job as an office assistant or some other job I could have down with my HS diploma.

[delako.livejournal.com]

ewww..lab work *shudders*. It was my lack of success finding a job in that field that lead me to go back to school. I could have worked in a lab..but after touring the facilities and seeing the sad bored facesI just couldnt do it.

Keep looking! You obviously know what you do and do not want. someone will see that and give you the job you want!

[terminotaur.livejournal.com]

Ummm, could you name a few of these services? I'm one of those terrible "glassware biology" people (perhaps plasticware biology would be more appropriate nowadays), and I'm doing job hunting again. :)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

• On Assignment
  
• Kelly Scientific
  
• LabPros
  
• BioSource
  

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

I dealt with several of those outfits during my 2.5 year job search. They tended to promise the moon and deliver manure -- one of them went so far as to brag that they were getting PhDs in record numbers, and were matching them with TECH JOBS...jobs that had no fewer then 30 qualifications. If ONE qualification was missed, the company wouldn't even interview the PhD candidate.

Talk about demeaning!

In the end, they didn't find diddly; it was a networking contact that pointed me toward Baxter and Sujatha. She ended up hiring me thru Kelly, since all Baxter wanted was temps...but Kelly didn't find me the posting. And all of 'em put on cheery faces but treated me like dirt all the same. Even in a rising job market, they acted like they had all the power.

There's my own rant on the subject of scientific temp companies. Fear not, Athe: even those of us in glassware biology fields get treated badly by these companies. But they're still where alot of the jobs are for those below PhD, so you can't simply ignore them.

-- ArchTeryx

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

Remind me where you work, Terminotaur? I've rather missed you since that messed-up Further Confusion, and seem to have remarkably bad luck making friends with fellow science geeks in furry fandom.

-- ArchTeryx

[terminotaur.livejournal.com]

Hiya. Long time no see.

Currently I'm a tech at the University of Saskatchewan. I got my masters in immunology, but I'm working in cell biology right now.

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

Cool!

I've had quite an adventure at Ohio State -- nearly had to leave the university twice and actually was forced out of one advisor's lab -- but I'm happily working in a plant virology lab now, ending Year 5 of my PhD work.

My previous lab was immunology, but the current one is all molecular stuff. :>

-- ArchTeryx

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

I'm not in your field and haven't jobhunted in 8 years but I would like to put on record that "Beechwood" in the UK have never ever had even the courtesy to reply to applications made by me. Also that jobcentres IMHO are the last refuge of the sort of employer who misses using branding irons for cheap I/Ds.
I got my current position (which I am getting bored with) from the London Evening Standard.

Thanks for reading - sorry can't be useful.