What's Important to YOU?

Yesterday's post over at Chemjobber's place really caught my attention. Paul Sturgeon, writing in trade mag Plastics News, opined that employers don't attract top talent due to fundamental misunderstandings in what "next-gen" employees really care about.

Made me wonder, if you asked some current science professionals about their top two workplace criteria, what would you get? Would Mr. Sturgeon be dismissed, or vindicated?

OK, readers, here's the game: Please list your top two workplace criteria in the Comments section. Once I get ~10 entries, I'll start to input them in a super-sciencey gizmo called a pie chart. Hopefully, we'll get a few more entrants, and I can start to pin down what's important (and what's really not).

I'll go first: My top two criteria are 1. interesting / meaningful work, and 2. length of commute.

Can't wait to see your responses!

(N.B. Certainly, a wide demographic visits chem blogs, but I'd argue the results will skew towards slightly younger, highly-educated, potentially job-seeking professionals. Exactly the demographic the above article argues companies wish to hire!)

What Do You Call Yourselves?

In the "hot-potato" game of Pharma jobs, it's not uncommon to work with a whole new cast of people every 5 years or so. I recall one such summer, where I watched the director and two lead chemists change around in just 3 months!

"Hi, I'm a GSKer."
"Really? I'm Ex-BMS!"

As you mix and match with refugees from layoffs, mergers, or plant closures, you encounter chemists from many different backgrounds. Perhaps they came from a rigid corporate hierarchy, or perhaps they were "pseudo-academics." Maybe they had legions of secretaries and associates, or maybe they were "armies of one" at a small start-up. But one thing everyone has?


A cute euphemism for where they used to work.


The Old "Ex-" (Most common): Ex-Pfizer, Ex-Merck, Ex-Lilly, Ex-BMS.


"-Ers": DuPonters, Merckers, GSKers, Genentechers*


"-Ites": Amgenites, Pfizerites


Engineers: Dow.


Geography Quiz: Sometimes, chemists will tell you they're from Nutley, Wilmington, or La Jolla, and expect you to intuit their former employers.


"Initials Only" Club: J&J, BASF, B-I, AZ.


Readers, I must be missing several. Have you heard any good ones?


Update, 3/8, 2:35AM - Chemjobber suggests "Pfizer alumni," and a Twitter respondent says the preferred internal term is "colleague."

An anonymous commenter suggests "BioGoners" for Ex-Biogen employees.


*(Yes, I checked all of these out on Google, and all have >150 hits, except "Genentechers" (76), which I usually hear via FiercePharma)