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Best and brightest

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By scooby
Anonymous wants to know:

I was wondering if people would recommend starting a career as a scientist at llnl right now. Is there any benefit left over going to private industry?

Comments

Anonymous said…
After helping win the cold war the mission of the lab and the funding for the lab have become tenuous. I don't have a crystal ball so I can't predict the future, but I don't see any bright rainbows on the horizon. Come to the lab for a JOB. Get some experience. But don't come for a career, the golden age of this lab is now in the rear view mirror.

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.
9/13/2009 6:48 PM
Anonymous said…
There is no advantage to working at LLNL vs. industry. If the job suits you, take it. If another job comes along that suits you better, take. That's all there is to that.
9/13/2009 9:56 PM
Anonymous said…
In my experience, the lab offers decent pay, interesting work, cutting-edge resources, and some very bright colleagues to learn from. The downside is the absolutely absurd amount of bureaucracy and overhead.

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!
9/14/2009 9:50 AM
Anonymous said…
If you can get a job in private industry with stock options, then you have a chance to work hard and get rich.

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.
9/14/2009 10:34 AM
Anonymous said…
There are no longer careers at LANS/LLNS. I spent the last 30-years working in the nuclear weapon program winning the Cold War at LANS only to be forced out of the weapon program by Brett Knapp. I'm now at TA-55 cleaning the floors. Forewarning to new employees is that you no longer have input on where or what you will work on at LANS/LLNS. I am absolutely DEAD SERIOUS about this. LANS/LLNS will make that decision for you, thank you very much. Take your CAREERS elsewhere!
9/14/2009 9:37 PM
Anonymous said…
Anybody seen the employee engagement survey that is being done over at LANL? Is LLNS planning a similar effort to gauge the opinions of our employees?
9/15/2009 9:39 AM
Anonymous said…
Starting at LLNL? Depends. Are you a younger, just out of college recruit, or an experienced professional in a career change?
9/15/2009 8:06 PM
Anonymous said…
The best part about TCP2 is that it is totally portable. Whether it takes you 6 months or 6 years to find a better job elsewhere, you can leave with everything.
9/15/2009 8:17 PM
Anonymous said…
The Lab is dying. Once nuclear material is gone and the Superblock is closed, the rest of the weapons program will not be far behind.

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.
9/15/2009 8:19 PM
Anonymous said…
The DOE energy labs are the place to be.
9/15/2009 9:55 PM
Neko said…
Best and Brightest? God, I hope not. I would think that the best and brightest would not look at a sinking ship with any hope.
9/19/2009 9:37 AM
Anonymous said…
8:06 here. My queston was not answered, which makes me think whoever wrote it wasn't looking for an answer, or to start a career at the lab. It was quite an odd question as well, because if they just read the blog and lanl's they would have answered their own question.

Perhaps we are just talking with ourselves, taking turns sending in questions.
9/19/2009 10:43 PM
Anonymous said…
If you can get hooked in to a niche area that will allow you to publish or work directly with sponsors in can be pretty good. You must be very motivated to work here and set clear goals for what you want to do. Otherwise, the lab offers a blend of the worse of industry and academics.

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
9/22/2009 8:11 AM
Anonymous said…
thx for all the advice... sorry for the delay, to answer one question i'm younger starting college recruit with phd. they say wouldn't be able to externally publish due to nature of work...

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
9/27/2009 7:17 PM
Anonymous said…
Do phd's really write like that these days? No wonder China is kicking our donkey.
9/30/2009 7:01 PM
Anonymous said…
Yeah, its how we write. Here's a paper a colleague published recently:
http://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf
10/06/2009 1:52 PM
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