senior technician

laboratory technician

senior laboratory technician

software engineer

technician

Integrated DNA Technologies

I got hired to IDT after college, and it certainly took the shine off. The work is repetitive and involves no actual science on your part, just pipetting and starting machines and whatnot. I have definitely lost skills and knowledge by working here. If we couldn't listen to things on our phones there I'd have gone crazy, and even then we can only have 1 earbud in (I got away with 2 because our manager literally never went into the lab). Worked there faithfully for 2 years, and even though I was the top person on my shift for a year and a half I never got promoted to scientist 2 or team lead. Not that that's any great boon, it's an extra dollar or two an hour, and you take on a lot more responsibilities. That's about the limit to job growth there as well, terrible advancement opportunities. Also very political, you need to be very careful who you talk to. Once our manager wrote us up for writing food puns on a potluck sign up sheet, saying she'd "worked hard on it". Also terribly slow at approving time off, reimbursing you for expenses, etc. Pays employees $15-20 an hour while we make $50,000 worth of product/hour.

Pros:
Management doesn't do much, so at least you have the lab to yourself
Gives you a couple days of paid volunteering time
Gives paid leave

Cons:
A lot of holidays you need to use your pto for
no unpaid leave (if you run out of pto they'll fire you)
no science, just repetition
Poor management
Almost no chance for advancement
Overcrowded break facilities
Political
Lots of red tape

I got hired to IDT after college, and it certainly took the shine off.  The work is repetitive and involves no actual science on your part, just pipetting and starting machines and whatnot.  I have definitely lost skills and knowledge by working here.  If we couldn't listen to things on our phones there I'd have gone crazy, and even then we can only have 1 earbud in (I got away with 2 because our manager literally never went into the lab).    Worked there faithfully for 2 years, and even though I was the top person on my shift for a year and a half I never got promoted to scientist 2 or team lead.  Not that that's any great boon, it's an extra dollar or two an hour, and you take on a lot more responsibilities.  That's about the limit to job growth there as well, terrible advancement opportunities.  Also very political, you need to be very careful who you talk to.  Once our manager wrote us up for writing food puns on a potluck sign up sheet, saying she'd "worked hard on it".  Also terribly slow at approving time off, reimbursing you for expenses, etc.  Pays employees $15-20 an hour while we make $50,000 worth of product/hour.

Pros:
Management doesn't do much, so at least you have the lab to yourself
Gives you a couple days of paid volunteering time
Gives paid leave

Cons:
A lot of holidays you need to use your pto for
no science, just repetition
Poor management
Almost no chance for advancement
Overcrowded break facilities
Political
Lots of red tape

What is the best part of working at the company?
The job description in my department is very clear and the job isn't too difficult. Its pretty routine and monotonous, but how somebody described it as a factory like job in science is accurate.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I don't have a specific thing to claim is the most stressful, but maybe dealing with the random faults that come up or perhaps talking to supervisors, but it isn't bad. However, I know that it can be very department dependent, but my specific department is not bad.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
As stated previously, this role is very monotonous and there are many different roles/products that go through each department. Its not a difficult job, but just a lot at times. Also, it seems to be that there is definitely a range of experiences based on departments where some departments are better than others (based on workload, supervisors, etc). 

There might be some cliqueness, but that is partially human nature and for the most part people are agreeable to work with which is all I can ask.

I really enjoyed working at IDT and made tons of friends here. The pay and benefits were not outstanding for production scientists, but the facility has a gym, wellness program, and a shared vegetable garden. I also enjoyed working a very regular schedule with little overtime, ideal for anyone with a family or hobbies. Many different shifts are available, with generous differential pay for anyone willing to work outside of banker's hours. Opportunities to advance are somewhat limited (or at least take a very long time), so a lot of people move on to medical/graduate school, other jobs, etc. after a few years. This is a great place to get a first job to pick up experience, though, and some people do really enjoy it and stay for a decade or more.

I have moved through several departments in the Coralville locations, from production to QC to process engineering. The one thing they all have in common is poor management. On several occasions there was admission to the fact that the only reason people were promoted was because of their longevity with the company or because nobody else applied. This has led to many managers being inept at doing the one thing their job entitles, which is to manage a team. Then these people become "lifers" and there is absolutely no chance for mobility.

On top of this, because the location is in the Midwest and there isn't much around to move up to, the pay scale has remained stagnant. Every job I have interviewed at outside of this place has offered me more. The only reason I have not left yet is because of my schedule flexibility and PTO.

Danaher has piloted this company straight into the ground. A culture centered around bureaucracy that is "lean" in all the wrong places. Upper management collects massive paychecks while contributing nothing. The people doing the actual work are overworked and underpaid. The treatment of workers is downright disrespectful. Top heavy with admins who have no business in a lab, let alone running one. Structure is made confusing and convoluted on purpose - they do not seek to advance anyone. IDT had adopted a strategy of "turn, churn, and burn" and their lowest tier of people "operations" is borderline mutinous. They have chased off their best minds and are in the process of chasing off their hardest workers. A strange business strategy, they call it "DBS" because they love their acronyms. 

Tasks are challenging enough to keep interest but the pace is easygoing and stress levels are low. Coworkers are easy to get along with and workplace satisfaction is high. Onboarding process and training is well-paced, and training processes are consistently being improved by team leads for more effective outcomes. Your input as a line-level employee is always considered and the door is always open to speak with management about performance, career advancement, or anything else you may wish to speak about. Minimal lifting required, mostly lightweight items with tools to assist with heavier items (rolling carts, handtrucks, pallet jacks, etc.). Only negative I can say is the pay could be better.  

Management plays favorites, long time employees tend to only get promotions. One RSI that I knew who worked there had been there for 5+ years and they refused to promote him. Many unproductive meetings which means less time in the lab doing actual experiments. I experienced harassment from one specific employee that had it out for me from the beginning. Also, there is a “clique-like” culture and if you don’t fit that, you are immediately isolated from all the other employees. The training was nearly non-existent, mostly just let me loose to figure it out myself. The only good thing about this place is the pay, but the benefits aren’t that great. I worked here for a year and had to leave due to the toll this company was taking on my mental health. I would not recommend working here. 

We column load 96 well synth plates, DNA/RNA synthesize, deprotect the oligos, place them in hot/cold bath for an extended amount of time, dry the plates down, resuspend them in water or hepes depending on if it's DNA/RNA, we test there optical density levels, and if everything passes it goes to the tube room where it each well in the depro plate receives its own tube and label. Solution from depro plate is then transferred to the each individual tube on the rack it's assigned to, dried down again on what we call our IVAPS, capped after their dry and then shipped off to the customer who ordered the oligos. The night crew I work with are overall enjoyable to be around and work alongside. I learned a lot about DNA synthesize, oligos peaks, and so on.

Daily visual management meetings with various associates
Review emails
Project meetings
Work closely with other departments

Good management but not in all areas. Some managers are very hot/cold and treat others poorly unless you bend over backwards to please them. Some upper management will steam roll you in meetings and talk down to you. 

For the most part the workplace culture is good. 

Hardest part is getting people to follow the processes and procedures that have been put in place. They are there for a reason.

Best part is working with my team and making things better.

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