senior scientist

scientist

associate scientist

sample manager

software engineer

Frontage Laboratories

A typical day with Frontage is not substantially different than most small companies, intimate work environment, friendly colleagues, but despite this the cons certainly outweigh the pros. The company works primarily for external clients, and because of this the daily routine can vary from abysmally boring to insanely complicated as  deadlines for projects can appear without warning. The work done is not enjoyable and are primarily turn key processes, much of the company employs trained chemists but the majority of the work done in the formulation is mind numbingly boring and unenjoyable. The most enjoyable thing about working here is certainly the people, those you work with make the place bearable but most of us are biding our time for something better to come along and have no faith or loyalty in the company, nor do we enjoy the job. There are good days, but it is too often any initiative gets shut down or ignored so it is much easier just to think of this place as something temporary until a more appealing option becomes available.

Don't take this place for more than it is, a job.

I would say the best thing of working at Frontage was the opportunity in being promoted from Lab Tech to Associate Scientist. The people made the work experience less stressful. With that being said, this company does not care for their employees but rather money they make. Upper management makes all decisions from home not once knowing what hard work is being put by employees in the lab. It is shocking with how this company is still running with how awful conditions the labs are in. Supervisors try their best to accommodate their group but with little help since they are always pressured by management for meeting unrealistic deadlines. If you are looking to gain experience, get it and look elsewhere. There are so many people that are trying to leave but with political play, it is difficult for some to leave. This place had potential but if they continue to stick to their ways, they will continue to lose good workers! 

Very Asian culture. If you are looking for recognition or typical sales “encouragement” or yearly incentives at an internal sales conference…this isn’t the place. Very frugal leadership. Good place for mentorship if you are new to role. Team members are kind,  but if you aren’t doing well- you and everyone else knows. They speak openly about others performance…or lack there of to colleagues. Made me uncomfortable to hear how much certain leaders didn’t think my peers were doing their best- their performance is not my business…perhaps that’s a conversation to be had with them instead.
Holidays PTO insurance 401k are all typical and standard. Work life balance is good as long as you set the expectation up front…if you regularly work a ton of crazy hours then they will expect it. 

Frontage is not the place to be. They have a very poor 'training' program (i.e. does not exist). Management will assign a very overworked and underpaid scientist in the same group as you to 'train' you for about a week or so then management believes that you are ready to take on projects that were left behind from other scientists who had left the company. At this point, you are on your own and receive little to no help on managing these projects and getting the lab work done.  As a result, you leave work each day very drained and exhausted only to have to do it all again the next day. In addition to this, management always promises of raises or promotions, but they are never readily given and you have to fight very hard for them. All in all, you should really consider working elsewhere.

As mentioned in the title, this job is one giant mess. There are no consistencies with the way the place is managed. You can be told 3 different sets of directions from 3 different managers and not know how to process. With all of it not even really making a difference at the end of the day . Management is very lackluster. You have to fill the job role of so many different people every single day and not see a single penny extra for it. Absolutely no promise for either getting a bonus, promotion, or a raise. Extremely unorganized. Also they have an open office plan and its awful. Everyone practically shouting at each other when they're sitting next to each other. People openly cuddling with other employees at their desk and loudly not doing anything because there's literally no work to do anyway. People eating, slurping, and chewing loudly at their desks. It's just awful.

This direct consulting experience provided me with the ability to directly assess the contributions I made to the client and understand the impact of those contributions to the client's bottom line. Yet, this gun-for-hire relationship does not allow great reward for those contributions, even if they were unique and resulted in much greater valuation to the product being developed.  Working for the client Company would have granted much greater recognition for such contributions and the impact on the product being developed.  In such a small Company, I learned not to expect such recognition as the market impact is unpredictable and likely to be small.  Regardless, it is always uncertain the level of impact of such contributions as it is very early in the process.

I was fired for a situation that never happened. I worked my butt off there and one day no warning I got pulled into the office. The management told me that I was being let go due to an attitude while sanitizing toys one I never learned how to do that. Two I was barely even trained while on my training period. They let two dogs get into fights because no one warned me or told me not to run the two dogs. It’s not safe or a healthy work environment. I hated it there and the way I was treated. Mentally and physically I was always ruined. I was so underappreciated. I always offered to stay late or come in early. I still haven’t gotten paid my full paycheck and it’s been a month and a half. 

I'm at the company under a 3 month contract, and after a month, i noticed why the turn around rate is so high (1 month). There is no training, and the expectations for employees are set extremely high. Understanding this is a CRO company and knowing that this type of company is very high paced, i didn't expect to much work to be put on me so quickly. Second week, i was in charge of 3 projects and was expected to finish them in a few days and perform perfectly even though i've never had prior experience with this type of testing procedure. I love the work i'm doing and the amount of learning provided, but it is not a place to have a career there. It will drive you insane

A lot of freedom and flexibility in hours, there's very little regulation on your work or time other than management/QA review.  This also means that positions get a lot of responsibilities and projects.  Consistently understaffed, more people seem to leave than get hired, and new projects are more common than new hires.  People leave because of the lower pay, slow rate of promotion, having to juggle many responsibilities, and the poor upper management that makes the average employee's life harder.

If you can get past that, nearly all of your coworkers will be very friendly and helpful.  It's a fine first job since you will get a lot of experiences to put on your resume.

Management here is a joke. They speak to you in a very unprofessional way when they don’t get what they want. HR doesn’t take complaints seriously even when the same manager is being complained about. Safety for pregnant women doesn’t exist unless you fight for it. You get asked to help with something once and all of a sudden that’s now your required task going forward without pay raise at any point and without evening out your new work load. I did learn a lot of lab skills here but that was because of the coworkers I had and myself. If you’re looking for longevity and a company with good core values save yourself the frustration and look elsewhere. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Senior scientist 4 salaries reported	$87,400 per year
Scientist 14 salaries reported	$63,143 per year
Associate scientist 9 salaries reported	$49,444 per year
Sample manager 4 salaries reported	$20.17 per hour
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$23.33 per hour

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