scientist

data scientist

intern

research associate

software engineer

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Over all the work is personally rewarding however compensation is poor relitive to the responsibility and the stress it puts on employees is alot. 

This may sound negative but keep in mind I continue to choose to work here, here is the stuff I wish I understood when I joined. 

The Bad:
You are essentially a freelancer or contractor within the company easily disposable. After a year you are expected to find your own work within the company. You need to add in the neighborhood of $350,000 of value per year to cover your salary. However you will only make the national average of your feild this is due to the fact that the company bakes overhead into your salary which is 5x8. 

Value can be added in a few ways:

Most commonly early career scientists work for senior scientists applying their skills directly to projects. While writing perposals and trying to win their own work. 

Senior scientists need to work for free to write proposals to the department of energy to win projects. Many will be $500k, and will last a year, then they need to hire several Jr and senior scientist and pay for equipment. They might cover 30% of their time and need to donate hundreds of hrs of time. 

Finally management, you will get 25% of your time covered to manage 8-12 people, you will still be responsible for all your other duties (no raise)
They will cover 75% of your time to manage 80-120 people. 

This is all good and we'll however it is difficult to cover all your time without going over. It is common  for projects to go over budget, budgets not be granted, or politics to change and cause your projects to disolve. To combat this you need to learn to get really good at somthing specific, and be really flexible, and try to keep yourself busy in excess of 20%. What this means is you will work like a dog but you will still have work win the wells run dry.

Just like running your own business you have to find the work yourself, do the work, budget, repot findings, hire other workers to work on your projects, deal with delays, and you are on the hook to ensure you can make it all happen all wile working under the burden of pnnl burocracy. Does this sound like a normal job? The only thing the company does is giving you a place to do the work that the DOE can hire. Management is only there to keep them from getting sued. everything else is on the shoulders of Sr. scientists. 

I have no personal problem with this work model if we where compensated apropriatly to meet the stress and responsibility put on us. Instead they are constantly nickle and diming us NOT keeping up with inflation or even salary with the same title lets say a chemist NATIONALY! Even though there is much more stress an responsibility put on us than a chemists in a normal job. 

Why I stay:
I stay because I am passionate about the work and I enjoy it. I interface with world experts in highly specialized fields working on cutting edge technology that will one day change the world in a little way. I find it rewarding challenging and exciting. I wake up excited to solve today's problems getting one step closer to a solution. It is also quite flexible as hrs beond 40 can be used later, and we get 3-5 weeks of PTO that helps maintain a healthy work life balance despite donating much time.  

Advice to job seekers: 

Don't let the bad discouraged you from applying, but it is important to know how  this place works so you don't get taken advantage of. 

1) network network, it's truly not what you know it's who you know. You can learn what you need to know once you lean your niche. If you need work or advice you need people that trust you and that you trust. 

2) understand that management's goal is to get you cheap you are seen as disposable unless you could be gone and have a skill they need.  

If you are an intern or post bachelor keep in mind you are often being hired with no intention of being hired as staff you are being hired because you are basicly free labor because you have no overhead costs. To get hired as staff you will need to force their hand. To do this work for as many people and projects as you can, bring a skill nobody has and work for 2 groups or divisions if possible. This will create a bidding war for you when the time comes to be hired.

3) money speaks. Win projects that nobody elce can this is how you secure your place. And establish a reputation in the lab. 

4) be nice to everyone, think before you talk, dress well, operate with integrity, learn as much as you can. Have fun! 

5) basicly be the best employee you can possibly be and be careful because PNNL will attempt to abuse you in any way that you let them. it's all about a give and take gaining leverage to get what you need. 


I'm sure I missed some but that's the main stuff. Hope this helps. 



Pros:
Best support staff of any job I've ever had -- I took this for granted until I worked in defense contracting where it's 100% shutup and DIY
Excellent training and onboarding experience 
Bureaucratic things get done quickly (within 1 or 2 days) compared to defense contractors (where things hang for weeks or months due to 0 support staff)
Super transparent charge code information,  you can literally see all the details on a project and who and how much was charged! Even as a postdoc or intern this info was transparent -- definitely not the case in defense!! Lol
I really liked my manager, he was hardworking, honest and compassionate 
Very interesting projects
Not as profit-driven a culture as defense contractors, although steady funding is 100% necessary to survive here
Much kinder and more welcoming culture than defense contractors
Best heath benefits (govt-level benefits even for postdocs) of anywhere I've ever worked, I'll never have benefits like this again in my lifetime lol

Cons:
Extremely stressful unless you have an in-demand skill that can be charged on a lot of projects to fill out your timecard, e.g. being the go-to mass spec guy
Hard to have consistent work otherwise and you need to charge 40 hrs week, so it can get tough
Get thrown at a lot of disparate projects (cheme, compsci, bio, geo, pchem, etc. all in a single week) that you may have zero background in just to fill your time card and "network", I likened it to be a desperate out-of-work actor willing to take any role to pay rent (read: this can get very demoralizing)
Political and can feel like a popularity contest to get gigs
Often requires security clearance for better job stability 
Richland sucks (read: worst place I've ever lived) and people constantly come and go due to unstable funding and/or location, so it's hard to keep friends



For myself, a typical work day entailed checking on our test organisms (crabs and lobsters) to make sure they were well taken care of (well fed, clean tanks etc.) Then I would finish the rest of the day doing any number of tasks my particular position required, such as process test video, conduct online research, write drafts of animal care protocols, that sort of thing.

During my time there, I learned a great deal and acquired invaluable experience, for example, Dungeness crab REALLY love turkey meat. I was able to work with and around many different researchers, and overall had a lot of fun.

One of the best things about working for and around biologists, is that we are just about the most laid back and easy going people you can imagine. So the work environment was very low-stress, and if you needed to, you could take a ten-minute break, go out onto the dock, and watch the sea-nettle jelly fish float by, trying for all their worth to fight the current.

For myself at least, there was not hard part to the job. There were times I was challenged (like trying to fix a very stubborn leak in our pipes) but nothing I would categorize as hard.

The most enjoyable part of the job was working with the various organisms.

There is a huge learning curve at PNNL.  It really takes a year before you really understand the systems and culture. The campus is lovely and very large w. several new buildings soon to be opened and nearly 5000 employees. 
The pace is fast, very fast.  It can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to it.  Very helpful and friendly staff, especially helpful when you're in the 'learning' stage.  Management is fine...some better than others...but many travel so much that there's a disconnect.  

Lab safety is increasingly important, so if you're a researcher, expect to have someone looking over your shoulder, at least for a while  

The Lab (as it's referred to) is divided into 4 directorates.  Some directorates have better funding, so job security isn't a problem.  Others are facing cuts due to the priorities of the current administration; climate scientists and biologists aren't in the best position.  My job was cute due to lack of funding in FY18.  

The benefits are good, standard health, life and dental insurance and 401k.  Also, if you're non-bargaining, you get paid every Friday, which is fantastic.  

As I mentioned, the learning curve is steep, so they tend to prefer hiring administrators and support positions from within so they can hit the ground running.  Most positions post internally, but eventually they shake out and outsider can at least get their foot in the door.

I spend most of my time in the laboratory synthesizing various macromolecules. Within my first year, I pretty much operated at a technician level. PNNL does not have the funding to support permanent technician staff so they hire post-docs on a temporary basis to fill in the gaps. After a year, I started writing papers and was allowed to participate in the design of new projects. Access to equipment and instrumentation requires alot of red tape and the competition in limited funding within PNNL creates a non-collaborative community. My project manager is continuously stressed due to yearly limited funding. Less than 30% of post-docs are offered a position. The biggest benefit of working at PNNL as a post-doc is the salary and included health benefits. I have many colleagues who are post-docs at universities and I grimace every time they inform me of how little they receive as a PhD. Universities obvious exploit post-docs while PNNL provides fair compensation during the transition from student to employee.

PNNL is a great place to work for technical professionals who are motivated, resourceful, self-starters.  There is one part of the culture which is managing the laboratory, and another part of the culture which does the technical work.  The technical side is very good; the management side, spotty.  The hardest part for a new scientist or engineer is getting aligned with projects that have funding to cover your time.  If you are fully funded, life is good; if you loose your funding, not so much.  I've seen very successful, talented senior scientists and engineers at the end of their career loose program funding due to changes in DOE priorities (driven by administration changes).  It was very difficult for them to make a large career shift into a new area and stay funded.  Funding irregularities can be a motivating factor for some technical staff to transition towards management.  The management team is very woke, so if your world view differs from theirs, there is little respect for you; somewhat condescending at times.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people are absolutely first‐rate to work with. Friendly, intelligent, and ambitious. I feel lucky to have been in the same room as them, and learned a ton during my time there!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
As a national laboratory, national politics have a very direct effect on your working environment. When government shutdowns occur or funding priorities shift, it can cause immense amounts of stress.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Friendly, cooperative, and innovative! There are occasional sour moments, especially with respect to lab bureaucracy, but these are necessary evils, and your coworkers are there to help you through it all.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I think of which projects I am on that require my attention that day, and set aside time blocks to code, write, or attend meetings as needed to progress on them. I take occasional free moments to speak with coworkers, network with new folks at the lab, and find more projects to contribute to.

I did this internship at PNNL from Jun to Aug in 2016. During this period, I was asked to develop a web application integrating multiple public datasets and displayed them in a  meaningful way which facilitates the process of data analytics for domain experts. I teamed up with two other interns to implement this web application. I was working at the backend while the other two focused on the frontend side.

In general, it was nice working there. My host cared about his interns very much and was resourceful every time when we had some problems regarding how to proceed with the project. I also learned a lot about how to collaborate with colleagues of different backgrounds, which I think is very important. 

The hardest part of this project is that at the very beginning, the customer who provided the funding for this internship program did not really have a very clear idea about what they really wanted us to deliver. It took us a while to communicate with them to determine what we should implement for this project.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Good pay rates and benefits, pension available 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I had terrible management. They promised work life balance but denied reasonable accommodations during family difficulties. Also if you don’t have a fully funded billet, you have to keep hunting for and interviewing for work, even though you were hired full time. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
People are expected to work more than 40 hours a week. It feels like going back to high school, it’s difficult to find your niche and until you do, your work suffers. Very research funding based. Technically it’s run by a non profit but everything is about funding 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Go to my private office with no windows, try to work for 8 hours but mostly hope my leaders provide the feedback and reviews required so that my work can progress. Their slow pace makes
progress nearly impossible.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is very good at producing results, but not very good an retaining researchers. There is a significant turn around because people are hired without a plan to pay them. This would not be a problem if there was a way for those with funding to find employees that fit their needs, but there are not so people with funding will hire new people.
The facilities are excellent and there is plenty of opportunity to do some real science. Initially things will be a bit slow because there is nobody who's job it is to train you in the use of the equipment and you are not allowed to use the equipment until you are trained. I recommend turning to people who are in your group. They will be able to help you navigate the minor pittfals there are and avoid internal politics if it should ever become relevant.
Overall it is not a terrible place to work, as long as you are realistic about you situation.

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