[vmelkon]

I am considering getting an entry level job as a lab technician or QA or something of the sort. I live in Montreal and there are a bunch of pharmaceutical companies around here.

I have searched with terms such as "lab technician".
Are there other keywords that you can suggest to me?

Also, what entry level jobs have you held and what were your tasks?

There are certainly high level jobs such as Senior Chemists and so on, but that is not what I'm looking for. That's the kind of offers that I see

[Arkcon]

Companies are a little inconsistent in what they label these sorts of entry level jobs.  I definitely seen entry level analytical QA/QC-type positions labeled Chemist I.  Lab Technician may mean an entry level chemist type position, but it can also stand for ... well, chief glassware washer and laboratory consumables stock person, so you shouldn't just limit yourself to the Lab Technician title.   Once you look at the position, especially the pay rate, you will know when Chemist I is entry level.

[JGK]

Also, the lab sector in Montreal has lost a lot of positions recently. I have friends there and know of several companies who have downsized an/or closed labs.

[vmelkon]

Besides cleaning glassware and managing the stock, what other tasks would an entry level person do? What kind of equipment did you work with as an entry level person?

For example, I saw an old job offer where you clean the lab, prepare slides (I guess microscope slides), archive the samples.

Also, the lab sector in Montreal has lost a lot of positions recently. I have friends there and know of several companies who have downsized an/or closed labs.

That sucks. I did read in the newspaper 2 months ago about a pharma lab closing. I didn't understand why since the article doesn't discuss what they do and what their problem is exactly.

[JGK]

The Pharma/Biotech workd is a complicated one.

As Pharma development is a costly affair (billions) for developing a new drug. Manyy pharma companies have merged the streamlined their resousces reducing their now double size R & D capacity by downsizing.

For example Glaxo merged with Wellcome forming Glaxo-Wellcome and stramlined. Smithkline (& french) merged with Beecham pharmaceuticals and stramlined

The Glaxo Wellcome and Smithkline-Beecham merged to form Glaxo Smithkline (GSK) and streamlined futher.  Virtually all of these mergers resulted in some job shedding.

Meanwhile Small biotechs are usually started with venture capital funding and for many years have to achieve certian "milestones" to receive futher operating capital. Failure to meet these milestones is a common cause of the failure of such ventures.

[Jasim]

Without at least a 2 year degree and some experience, or better a 4 year degree you may have trouble getting an entry level position in industry. Your best bet would be to investigate work/learning opportunities with research universities. If you can get a position working in an academic lab, you'd be able to get some experience to back your resume.

[zs3889]

Without at least a 2 year degree and some experience, or better a 4 year degree you may have trouble getting an entry level position in industry. Your best bet would be to investigate work/learning opportunities with research universities. If you can get a position working in an academic lab, you'd be able to get some experience to back your resume.

Are we going to get paid by these academic labs that you mentioned if we are working for them? Or is it just going to be like undergraduate research, where you learn and work at the same time, and there will be no paycheck at all? 

How do we even look for any academic lab that is hiring?

[Jasim]

I started off in a work study position receiving a small pay, though I have heard of some volunteering and later moving into a paid position. My position turned into a full paid position later on.

There are some companies that offer an immense amount of training upon hiring. It seems to me that it is more dependent on whether or not the area has the talent to fill needs. In my area the lack of experienced chemists is likely a factor in my company taking inexperienced graduates and training them.

Unfortunately, even in my area the economy is such that many academic labs are not hiring and are even letting people go or closing altogether. Most academic labs run off of research grant money. Much of that grant money comes from government institutions like NIH. The recent trend of budget cutting and austerity is affecting academic labs in a very bad way.

With a lack of education and experience I would start by offering to volunteer in local research labs or at universities. Often times (especially with a lack of money going around) academic research labs will jump at the opportunity to get free labor. Many of these same labs have it as a part of their mission to educate the next generation of scientists.

If money is an issue you can try volunteering for a month or two and hope it either turns into a paid position or you can get some experience and make enough friends in the industry to help you find a job in a lab. Networking from getting to know people in an academic lab is also a huge benefit. Many of the same people will have strong ties to local industry and business and may be able to assist you in finding a position that otherwise would not be available to you.

[vmelkon]

Without at least a 2 year degree and some experience, or better a 4 year degree you may have trouble getting an entry level position in industry. Your best bet would be to investigate work/learning opportunities with research universities. If you can get a position working in an academic lab, you'd be able to get some experience to back your resume.

For a technician position, that seems like a lot of years of study. I'm talking about just simple technician positions like you have in the IT field where you study a short amount and you just do certain tasks in your workplace.

[DrCMS]

For a technician position, that seems like a lot of years of study. I'm talking about just simple technician positions like you have in the IT field where you study a short amount and you just do certain tasks in your workplace.

In my experience the postions you describe from the IT field do not exist in the chemical industry.  The minumum entry requirement for lab based positions is usual a degree.

[Jasim]

There are some lab technician positions in industry, but they are kinda like Sasquatch. There are a lot of photos of him out there, but no one can actually confirm his existence.

And the technician positions at university research labs that I mentioned in my post ARE those positions. But you have to go through a university typically, to end up in a teaching lab. You are not going to find such a position in industry.


EDIT: I'll just say that for those types of industry positions, you need the right friends in the right place. Networking is everything.