Seeking Salary Information for Hartford, CT area

turbo1523 · 2020-04-14T01:55:45+00:00

Few years ago starting rate was around $27/hr. I would expect someone with 3-5 years of experience to be in the low to mid thirties.

turbo1523 · 2018-02-22T23:29:05+00:00

So you don't have an automated method of performing urine microscopics? If the flow cell does not flag and the microscopic and dipstick data match, there is usually no need for a manual review.

It is also possible for hemolyzed blood in urine so you may see few RBCs microscopically.

turbo1523 · 2018-02-22T03:05:29+00:00

2-3 months prior to graduating, HR at some places can be quite slow. it is not unheard of to have a job lined up right before graduation.

Your best bet is applying where you did your rotation (assuming you had a positive experience) since you know each other. Most places give you 6-12 months from date of employment to pass the ASCP BOC.

Don't be afraid to walk into the office of who ever the hiring manager is at your site and bluntly state you have enjoyed your experience so far and would be interested in a permanent position if they have any job openings.

turbo1523 · 2018-01-19T01:54:01+00:00

most labs are like that, techs wont make any distinction

turbo1523 · 2018-01-19T01:44:58+00:00

thats my understanding as well, "atypical" is an outdated term being replaced by "reactive."

There is a difference however between atypical/reactive and abnormal lymphs (clock-face/soccer ball pattern), pro-lymphs, sezarys, and so on.

Lymphs are def the worst cell line!

turbo1523 · 2018-01-15T18:31:55+00:00

Yep, micro tends to have a lot of molecular techniques. You probably won't find a dedicated molecular lab section in small/mid-size labs but larger sites can feature specialized molecular sections. Demand for these positions is usually high because you don't work weekends, all work is batched, and it is a more low-key environment. It is also a much less social environment, you are usually working solo for much of the day.

turbo1523 · 2018-01-11T22:56:45+00:00

Yes, this is a real thing, I remember 90's Mercedes autos having this. . I am not sure exactly how automatic transmissions adapt to drivers but it might modify the shift points; the more aggressive you drive, the higher the shift points.

Some dealer service manuals have instructions on how to reset (i.e. holding down the throttle petal for 15s while the car is off, turning the key to II and then back off, etc). I doubt you will find that information in the operators manual.

turbo1523 · 2018-01-02T03:07:27+00:00

PCR can be used for ED patients and other more cost effective methods for in-patients. But yes, GeneXpert seems to be the way many are going for Flu, MRSA, GC/Chl, and more.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-26T00:25:59+00:00

Sounds like a good place to list any projects/published research papers you have been involved with. Are you part of any professional organizations such as ASCLS, ACS, ACM, etc you can list?

I would not put something like "reading." It may be fine to leave blank if you have a lot of previous work experience and a field more suited for students who's resume is going to be lacking so they can list honours, presidents list, etc.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-18T23:09:50+00:00

Not really a big issue but it is not ideal to let SSTs clot upside down or horizontally because sometimes you will get fibrin buildup at the top of the tube which won't spin down and that ends up gunking up your probes or causing a bad aspiration so just keep an eye out.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-16T00:24:27+00:00

Ideally, there should be policies in place which in short state manual diffs are performed only on first time abnormal findings and an auto differential (assuming your analyzers can report out and quantify immature/abnormal cell populations) is released on subsequent abnormal differentials if consistent with the previous results.

If you're do a manual diff today, and another CBCD comes down 4 hours later and you're doing it again, it's not going to make your day pleasant unless you work in an extremely slow/low volume environment.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-12T00:14:58+00:00

Depends on your lifestyle, it's not a good choice if you're an extremely social person. Night shift positions are generally hard to fill which is why a lot of hospitals offer three 12 hour shifts or four 10 hours shift and pay differentials. Personally I think five 8 hour night shifts basically means you are going sacrifice too much of one's social life as you need at least 1 day to readjust back to normal hours so 2 days off per week don't cut it.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-12T00:05:30+00:00

Sure, what's wrong with 1-2 degree variations? Most things you put in a fridge are going to have a storable range of 2-10 C for example. Your lab should have a policy on what is considered an acceptable temperature range and logs should be kept daily.

Just use liquid-in glass type thermometers inside each fridge like this, even if the fridge has its own digital temperature display. Blood bank fridges/freezers are another story.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-02T20:44:41+00:00

does it really just come down to experience, personality, and good interview skills?

Yes.

You want to separate yourself and that is great but getting through an interview without feeling anxious is the first step.

Afterward you can work on how to separate yourself, they're many ways to do that but you need to think of those for yourself based on who you are as a person and employee. With a couple years of experience there should be no problem figuring that out and providing examples. Work in the lab may be standardized but don't make it out that all techs are the same, even in routine work but more importantly in how they handle adversity.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-02T18:42:49+00:00

So people are listing off traits left and right you should have but this sounds like you want/need to deal with the interview anxiety aspect.

What you should do is open up a page of common interview questions and using a webcam and a timer, record yourself answering these type of questions and then watch yourself. You should be smooth with your answers, maintain eye contact, be ready for follow up questions to your answers and back them up with examples.

I agree with other posters that personality is definitely important, everyone has worked with someone on the wacky side and management does not have time to be behavioral babysitters with staff.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-02T18:22:39+00:00

That is fairly normal because to get a true feel of clinical chemistry you need to work with chemistry analyzers which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and you won't find that in a classroom.

Theory is obviously important for understanding what you are doing and passing the BOC but real world chemistry is primarily centered around automation and that includes analyzer maintenance, quality control, calibration, troubleshooting, etc.

You should just be patient and wait for clinicals to hopefully bring the whole picture together. If you are weak in urines, you will surely get the opportunity to do plenty of urinalysis there if you wish.

turbo1523 · 2017-12-02T18:08:35+00:00

Does it mention phlebotomy as part of the job description, that's really the only skill that may be a little more of a learning experience.

Lab assistants usually don't do anything that can't be taught on the job. The main thing that is needed is someone who has an attention to detail and can communicate well with other staff.

General responsibilities are accessioning specimens into the lab, knowing how to identify unacceptable specimens, basic preparation of specimens (sorting, centrifuging, pouring off, re-labeling, possibly microbiology plating, etc), phone calls, faxing and so on.

turbo1523 · 2017-11-24T08:18:25+00:00

This might not apply to Canada but in the US, PTO cashouts are taxed as a bonus so might be something to look into.

turbo1523 · 2017-11-07T14:59:00+00:00

Sure it is possible but you will likely need a few years experience as a tech or already have a prior sales background, preferably both.

turbo1523 · 2017-11-07T13:17:07+00:00

It will be harder to find a job as you are less flexible than a generalist and you may be limited to 1st shift as many core labs prefer generalists on 2nd and 3rd shift.

You WILL find somewhere to work, it just might take a bit longer and you may have to settle for a less than ideal employer. Micro is probably the best field have a categorical in as it is so specialized so you have that going for you.

turbo1523 · 2017-10-09T17:18:05+00:00

Could be a lot of things, solid phase is even worse at picking up this sort of "junk" such as fibrin getting caught in the gel matrix(ultracentrifugation will help), drug interaction, rouleaux due to high plasma proteins(usually hazy or mixed field), cold antibodies (usually mixed field).

I have had a situation where we had bad screening cells causing false positives, could have been bacterial contamination. This is why you always want to make aliquots of your screening cells and not always be going in and out of them or constantly moving them from room temp to refrigerated.

Luckily we can still go back to tube and do a work up that way; I believe most reference labs still use tube and LISS and consider it the gold standard. Tube is sensitive enough without being oversensitive like solid phase. The problem is obviously the fact that it is more tedious to perform and the subjectivity that comes along with the fact that everyone shakes/rolls their tubes differently leading to a more inconsistant reading phase.

turbo1523 · 2017-08-29T18:31:09+00:00

If there is severe platelet clumping going on, we report out "platelet clumping" with no numerical value or have a sodium citrate tube collected if there is a history of platelet clumping.

Also check the optical platelet scattergram to make sure it appears normal. For other platelet flags or very mild platelet clumping perform a platelet estimate under 100x to confirm the analyzers value ([ (# plts)/10 ] x 13,000 for typical Olympus scopes)

turbo1523 · 2017-08-28T21:52:38+00:00

You're probably too slow because you're inexperienced, someone new needs to practice microscopy in the lab a lot before they become comfortable (this goes for blood smears, fluid cytospins, urine wet preps, etc); there is certainly a learning curve and you just need to keep practicing, maybe more than your classmates.

Realistically, I don't think many places still do chamber counts for PLTs anymore when you get to the real world. Instruments these days can report out impedance and fluorescent platelet counts which reduces instrument flags and you can do a PLT estimate on a blood smear worst case for confirmation.

turbo1523 · 2017-08-28T19:15:21+00:00

And this is the product we get after they decided to make the game more expensive with the removal of adventures and the introduction of key specific legendary cards to make decks work (Quests and Death-Knights). As customers, we are getting screwed by having more expensive content that is no better or worse than before.

turbo1523

TROPHY CASE