One of the technicians in my lab, who is incidentally one of my carpool buddies, is leaving to start grad school in January. I'll be sad to see her go because I really enjoy her company in the car. Her replacement, another woman, is starting next week. That keeps the tally in the group at 3 men and 7 women.
This new person is the first in a very long time, maybe ever, who has been hired without knowing someone in the group. For many complicated reasons, it's difficult to advertise for the super soft money, short term lab positions that arise, so either summer interns stay on for some extra time or someone knows someone who is looking for a bench job. It's like a small scale old boys' network, except the perpetrators aren't boys and the reward is a one to three year technician gig. In this kinda under-the-table talent acquistion system, sometimes a person leaves before a new person can be identified, so process knowledge is lost and training is arduous; people who weren't responsible for the abandoned job have to teach the new person how to do something that they don't know that well themsevles.
I'm glad that they hired someone new before the current person leaves, that she's already been working for several years and not fresh from school, and that she's a woman. I'm looking forward to meeting her when I get back from the conference. I hope she's cool.
2 comments:
Sounds like she's a good new hire!
That reminds me, I probably start looking at undergrad applications in order to replace Undergrad1 and Undergrad2, who will be graduating in May!
Yeah, these things always have to be done so far in advance, don't they.
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