First month in the basement of biochem

Posted June 14, 2008 11:44 PM | 3 Comments

Wait, it's already been a month!? Time has flown unbelievably quickly, even by Time's standards.

I haven't really talked about my new job yet. I've been hoping to find a lab job for quite a long time, though I really only applied for a few. First it was the cold study sample processing position, but I of course was in Mexico when they needed to interview me. Then I applied for a couple of random positions I found on UW Job Center. No reply on either. Sometimes I think these people in charge of hiring aren't very organized and/or nice. When I was hiring for the Herald, not only did I contact everyone who applied and didn't get the position, but I called them and explained exactly why I decided how I did. Oh well, not everyone can be that awesome...

So anyway, in late April or early May, I asked Eric to find out if there were any jobs in the Biochemistry Addition building. I was ready to take just about any lab job, understanding I'd almost certainly be a lowly paid lab assistant doing menial tasks and nothing more. Most such jobs involve a substantial amount of dish washing, and I really didn't want to do that. Hence the preference for the Biochemistry Addition building. They have a dish washing facility, so labs don't have to wash their own dishes.

Eric brought me a list of labs losing undergraduates soon, as well as contact information for a lab hiring for someone to work with mice. That intrigued me, so I looked on UW Job Center to see if the position was listed, and to my dismay, it had been for two weeks. That told me I'd surely not get the job and it was probably filled. Just in case, I e-mailed the lab manager, Wendy, about the position, and then I heard back from a different woman the same day. We exchanged a bunch of messages and she seemed interested, but then there was almost a week gap after she told me she'd write back with a time for an interview. Then she said the position was filled. And I was back at Square 1.

It was exam week, and I wasn't worrying about the job thing for a while... but then I got a message from Wendy saying I should come in for an interview. I was confused, but didn't hesitate to accept the invitation. I went for the interview Friday morning, and after more than an hour, I left with instructions to e-mail Carol, the woman under whom I'd be working, with my honest thoughts and concerns.

Before I made it home to help Yufei move some of his stuff to my apartment for the summer, Wendy called me asking why I'd left without talking to her. I said she was occupied and I didn't want to interrupt. Wendy told me they want to hire me. Confused again, I returned to do paperwork. Yay!

Wendy instructed me about the five training courses I need to do for various certifications from mouse techniques to working with radioactive materials. I went home for the weekend and returned by Monday to begin working. It went great, and has been ever since.

I should also mention the research involves testing the effect of vitamin D and a D analog on diabetic mice in Hector DeLuca's lab.

Tags:

• Carol K,
• Eric K,
• Matt H,
• Wendy H