Wednesday, March 7, 2012

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)

5 comments:

  1. A while ago, a group of former Biogen employees started a group named the BioGoners...

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  2. I believe the term of art is "Pfizer alumni." I find that an unfortunate euphemism.

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  3. i.e., you "graduated" into unemployment?

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  4. Now remember, "colleague" is to "Pfizer" as "comrade" is to... aww, never mind, I'm not going to go there.

    But yes, "colleague" is the Pfizer word for "coworker."

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  5. Pfizered and Dow-sized are two that come to mind!

    ReplyDelete