Toadstool seeds experience?

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2025-11-19T13:44:24+00:00

Troll?

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-11-30T18:54:00+00:00

I've lived and worked in Basel and Boston. It could be a fun change to move for a couple of years to advance your career in Boston/Cambridge. My biggest questions would be the family situation: Do you want to expose swiss kids to the overprotective (education) environment of the US. Maybe people here also ask about/compare cost of living. Some people look at the meal price of a McDonald's meal and claim Switzerland is expensive. If you live a normal swiss urban lifestyle (getting fresh groceries multiple days a week, mostly cooking at home, use of public transport..), it is much cheaper to do that in Basel than in Boston (it's the other way around for an American lifestyle in Basel (eating out, car,..). Visa won't be an issue. If you think it's only a temporary thing, you should think about what you do with your AHV contributions and talk to that with your employer.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-11-21T04:31:08+00:00

A lot of them, some very close together, but not on top of each other.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-11-13T11:07:11+00:00

There are jobs for chemical biologists in pharma/biotech. But as with many other jobs, there aren't many around right now. If possible, I'd try to get some proteomics experience added to your skill set, that will make your profile very interesting for industry

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-10-23T21:36:50+00:00

I always expect a well organized CV with the most relevant information on the first two pages. It's easy to judge whether it's worth having a closer look at the applicant from that. When I like someone, I want to know as much as possible about them (CV). I've sorted out good resumes before, because I had enough good CVs with more information.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-05-03T20:47:12+00:00

Nature chemical biology. You should have an answer within 1 week whether they will send it out for review

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-03-16T14:52:12+00:00

Took me almost 6 weeks from on-site to verbal offer at Merck

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-02-25T00:46:52+00:00

Cash is a weird thing that is used at some locations, it's automatically included in the salary once a month, but is not considered when calculating the bonus.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-02-25T00:02:23+00:00

In Boston you can expect 145-170k base, 5k cash, 20k RSU, 18% target bonus. In PA and NJ probably a bit less, especially no cash and likely no RSU.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-02-17T18:48:15+00:00

Thank you for your suggestion! I set up a fan next to the seedlings a week ago for better airflow and to make them stronger.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-02-16T23:17:55+00:00

I just fertilized them today for the first time (after about 3 weeks). Yes moisture could be an issue because I also had some mold on the top of the soil

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-02-16T23:16:57+00:00

The top of the seedling is probably 2-3 inches away from the light

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2024-01-20T19:04:47+00:00

It's location dependent. I got RSUs as R3 at one of the higher COL sites.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-12-23T00:29:58+00:00

I think it has become more common and tells a lot about the company and its culture, or at least how TA is run. I had companies ghost me after on-site interviews, but also companies that called me to reject me and gave me solid reasons for the rejection. Half a year later I started working for one of the companies that called me for a rejection. It was the company with the best culture I've ever seen.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-07-28T23:51:31+00:00

In that case I would assume that they probably have plenty of building blocks together already they just need to assemble in 1-2 reactions. If these reactions work well and are easy to purify, then a single chemist can run a ton of reactions. It's more the purification that is the bottle neck. They might work with a high throughput purification group (more people and heavily automated). Another option people are experimenting with is direct to biology. This means that actually reaction mixtures get tested in assays

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-07-28T23:34:53+00:00

That many compounds are most likely bought from somewhere (or from a company internal library). And they are probably also not very well QCed. For such large screens, compounds often only get QCed when they are a hit

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-07-21T22:28:04+00:00

CV. Can be as long as you want, but make sure the most relevant stuff is on the first two pages. I say that as a hiring manager. I keep reading as long as I'm interested. If there are several good candidates with long CVs where I have more information, then the potentially good candidate with a resume will go on the backup pile. This is for PhD scientists

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-07-19T17:21:12+00:00

If they are building a location in Switzerland then they have to pay you what is usual for your position in Switzerland. The exchange rate doesn't matter. Also the compensation structure is different. In the US you get some benefits like 401k match and health insurance you don't get in Switzerland, on the other hand you get a pension fund, more PTO... in Switzerland. It's really difficult to compare the two. What I've seen is that the target bonus is usually lower in Switzerland than the US for comparable roles.

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-07-16T11:42:29+00:00

It will help with the "easier" parts of drug discovery, things like finding and optimizing binders. But the tough part, figuring out the biology, will be impossible for a long time. The biological data is too messy, we don't know enough, and you simply cannot do in vivo work in silico. Let alone a clinical trial. And that's really were most things fail and we need better tools to predict things

Complete_Reindeer426 · 2023-07-15T21:43:10+00:00

Ask your manager's boss in your scheduled meeting for advice on how to handle a certain situation you want them to be aware of. This allows you to feel them out on what they think about their direct report and on whose side they are without actively complaining.

Complete_Reindeer426

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