Long time no see again! It’s time for another update, this time only taking me about five months to make than my previous six….at least I’m improving upon my pacing?
Hopefully, though, this will be the last of my extended hiatuses as I now return to some semblance of routine in my life. The last three months have been busy, but it’s all worth it because I am now a Laboratory Technician for MGC Pure Chemicals America Inc.!
Professional
Gowan Milling LLC.
I had a good time serving as a Quality Control Laboratory Technician for Gowan Milling LLC. I found the experience enriching and valuable, and I forged many bonds with my coworkers. But the time had come for me to say farewell as this new opportunity with MGC is more aligned towards my interests as an Analytical Chemist. However, I will remain grateful for Gowan Milling LLC. as they supported my development up to where I am today, and I hope that I was a boon to them as they were to me.
MGC Pure Chemicals America Inc.
It’s been about two months since I joined MGC Pure Chemicals America Inc., and I have to say that my first impressions were positive and have remained so since then. My debut and transition was smooth, and I enjoyed a warm welcome from my coworkers and manager. I still have quite a bit of training to do, but everyone’s been understanding, and my supervisor has been a fantastic mentor. For all the nightmare stories I hear of other people’s careers, I dare say that I am quite lucky to have a great work environment and be among good company.
My current position is somewhat similar to my previous one in Quality Control: I receive samples, conduct tests on them, and analyze the results to see if they are within specification. The big difference is that I now work with completely different analytical instruments – no GCs and HPLCs to work with this time around. However, the methodical discipline and work process from my last job rhymes enough for me to settle in easily. I do find that I tackle a lot more paperwork than ever before, and I can just “feel” the micropipette on my hand outside of work after using it so many times daily.
Personal
I’ve had the benefit of living with my parents during my previous employment, but now I live independently for the first time since adopting my new position. It’s an interesting experience from only having to worry about gas and a comparatively very minor monthly rent (that basically pays off just the costs of feeding me) to a plethora of bills, insurance, food budget and preparation, and so on.
Cooking especially has been a new concept for me to grasp; I can and have made simple dishes (no, Ramen doesn’t count), but I have never designed an entire meal plan to account for my nutrition on a long-term basis. Fortunately, prior research serves me well, and a little resourcefulness goes a long way, especially if you have the power of the Internet on your side.
If I have any recommendations, Budget Bytes stands out in my mind – relatively simple, but palatable enough recipes as well as providing a financial breakdown on the ingredients. I usually stick with the slow cooker recipes as I prefer to cook in bulk and microwave later, but I find them satisfactory, especially the Jambalaya.
Other than that, I have been settling in my apartment. It isn’t much, but it’s as home as it can be. My personal routines have not changed much other than a simple rearrangement of my schedule so that they may fit. I will admit that I have become a little indulgent eating out with my financial freedom and thus packed a few more pounds than I like, but I am now established and have been diligently following an exercise routine to improve and maintain my health.
Language Development
Now that I have a regular schedule, it’s a lot more feasible and comfortable to engage with my hobbies.
However, I have been placing greater emphasis on reviewing my current material and ingraining new vocabulary into heart. It turns out that language learning is a lot more exciting when you have a lot more words to work with. I have been upgrading my flashcards where I include a sentence with the relevant word in context. These sentences are of my own design and simulataneously help me apply my grammar into practice as well as memorize the word outside of translated isolation. I guess those sentences you find in those English dictionaries really do have a purpose…
Mastery of the material is further enhanced by my recent tutoring with another friend of mine in Japanese. I am no replacement for an actual academic setting, but I can teach the basics, and in my lesson design and homework assignments my own understanding of the material has increased. I plan to implement this approach for my own Vietnamese studies to see if it helps expediates the learning process.
Chemistry
Initially, I was planning to attend the Fall 2020 National ACS Meeting this August, but several things threw a wrench into that plan. As I have a new job, that pretty much means that I have to start from scratch earning PTO (Part-Time Off)…and you can’t really get THAT much under a mere two months starting the job. And even if I did, well, the current pandemic has forced the National Meeting to adopt a virtual format instead.
True, I could have just watched the conference online instead, but paying the same price for attendence to access it online felt rather unappetizing…I’ll save up for the Spring Meeting next year instead.
In the meantime, I have been burning through my backlog of ACS Webinars I’ve been meaning to watch, mostly consisting of networking tips and improving upon my online brand. I found this webinar in particular to be worth watching.
However, now that my professional situation has changed, I no longer have a compelling reason to pursue networking to the degree I did before – having achieved my original objective in landing a new job. It’s still important, but that can take a backseat as instead of focusing on advancing professionally in chemistry, I can enjoy learning about the actual applications of chemistry.
Website
I have mentioned in my last Update back in April 2020 that I planned on releasing an article on my first year working as a Quality Control Laboratory Technician, but I shall instead write about my first 100 days instead as a Laboratory Technician for MGC Pure Chemicals America Inc. as I feel that the position is much more representative of the chemistry field and therefore more useful for any aspiring chemists out there. I am about halfway there by the time you read this post, so stay tuned in about two months!
In the meantime, I’ll be writing up some more informal posts sharing my thoughts, opinions, or even a little bit of advice here and there. It’ll serve as good motivation to write even more content (and avoid the droughts I’ve been dishing out for months as a time) as well as to really engage with my interests so that I’ll have content worth sharing in the first place.
Once again, thank you for your time and interest, and again, I wish you well out there in these….peculiar times.