Avantages
Good experience to work with a whole gamut of personalities from the desirables to the not so desirable. They have three buildings and they call you whenever you need to come back to the lab immediately or if you go over your break time for a few minutes. Since, they were monitoring my every move, it was very convenient for me I didn't have to think much. In retrospect, I should have given them my number as I often ate out. It was also great how they corrected my interpretation of assays and experiments that I prepared and did myself without their close supervision. I like that close attention to detail and micromanaging aspect of the job. From time to time, time permitting, they would schedule time for sermon time, or as I would like to call them 'come to Jesus' talks. This mostly revolves on our short comings understandable since we are the baseline. If we don't perform well the company doesn't either. No mention of managerial or scheduling short comings, since they're perfect, very understandable. How do you expect your bottom line to be perfect if the management isn't perfect. I've been told to give out 110% but the salary is up to me to negotiate with HR, management has no input. I support this mentoring aspect as I am given room to grow as a negotiator. Over all the words of encouragement are a welcome addition, which brings out a certain passion, a ferocity if you must, out of me to muster every fiber of my being to improve and overcome said shortcomings.
Inconvénients
If I could go back in time I wouldn't change my experience because of the people I worked with. Implicit reference for lay offs are abound. The one that takes the cake though was when we were told we could be replaced with high school students with pipetting skills when they require a bachelor's degree in the job description. I think they need to alter the job posting to reflect that. The other memorable one was when a disgruntled employee stole important pieces of equipment. Word of Police Searches abound. Scheduling is quite chaotic. The shifting every two weeks from morning to afternoon was bearable. Asking for a change in the scheduled projects to make it more efficient either takes too long or goes unheard. Management has no control over it. No upward mobility unless you go into a managerial or supervisory role. More education does guarantee an escape from the lowest jobs. I'm just not sure how long it would have taken and I wasn't going to stay to find out. HR mostly ignores any attempts to talk or negotiate with them. They sweep problems under the rug. In the first month I worked their I found out how little my input mattered. I went in and asked questions regarding aspects of an assay and why they were the way they were. It was pointed to my face implicitly that I do not have enough education to be asking these questions, that they have done this a number of years and they work. No explanation of why they work or any consideration to my questions were given at all. There was a running joke in the lab that the suggestion box was connected to the shredder. Overall A++ for underhandedness, unorganization (not a word but you get the point), condescension, motivation to find another job, and slavery.