Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it. Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!
Comments
You've got to put up with a lot of rules and regulations that in my view do not add value to projects. We no longer have job security. If you come to the lab now you'll be TCP2, which is no better than what you'll get on the outside. Medical in retirement has turned into a pile of ashes.
Come for a job, but not a career.
I'd rather do "science in the national interest" than work in industry, but I wish there weren't so many obstacles to getting real work done!
Working for LLNL, all you are doing is filling the deep pockets of people like Riley Bechtel and the well paid lab executives running LLNS.
With dollars shrinking and nuclear weapons in disfavor, whatever work remains will be at LANL.
If you can get a job there now, don't miss the opportunity.
Perhaps we are just talking with ourselves, taking turns sending in questions.
Pros
Some really cool niche science
mature scientific workforce (they know much more than you would think)
ability to pull diverse scientist together to solve problems
Very professional scientific staff
Lots of flexibility in with your time
Internal support (mostly tied to kisssing butt, like every else)
Cons
High overheads
unmotivated support staff
Insane rules and regulations
little access to journals
limited access to facilities and computers depending on nationality
low moral workforce
Poor management not based in scientific realities
job market is tough right now, esp academia. so i'm considering it at least as a job for a while until things clear up. would be nice if I found something that I liked for a longer term
http://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf