research assistant

staff scientist

research associate

veterinarian

senior hvac technician

Texas-Biomedical-Research-Institute

Dream Job
Educational, learned something new everyday.
Triage and treat wound or other injuries, as clinical animals present for routine or emergency surgical intervention, facilitate the preparation of the patient by establishing an IV, intubation and administration of gas anesthesia.  Prepare surgical site, maintain the animal in a surgical plane of anesthesia, through assessment of the patient and support equipment.  Keep written documentation of the animal’s progress and enter information into the animal data base.  Operate standard clinical support equipment.  Equipment includes, tattoo equipment, animal identification and retrieval equipment including microchip insertion and scanning equipment, thermometer, centrifuge, scales, EKG, X-Ray.  Report broken equipment to the appropriate supervisor; maintain equipment within the clinic as necessary.  Perform surveillance testing and collect samples (TB, parasitology, virology, bacteriology and genetics) as program directs.  Apply fundamental mathematics to determine drug dose (anesthetic agent or medications), Project amount (volume, number) of drug necessary per administration to complete the designated length of treatment.  Proficiently administer drugs by multiple routs (SQ, IM, ID, IV, and PO).  Assist in preparation of animals for pathologic evaluation, prepare appropriate documentation, and acquire sampling requests, samples as directed.  Able to euthanize the animal under the guidance of Veterinarian as needed.  Follow through routine observations of group housed animals under production for signs delivery, dystocia and post partum complications.  Perform daily observations on singly housed animal.  Observations include but are not limited to the assessment of clinical conditions, feed consumption, normal behavior, stool consistency. Report abnormality to supervisor or veterinarian to further guide the clinical treatment, also perform other duties as assigned.  




The organization is said to be undergoing a complete overhaul to become more current.  They are getting rid of "old" staff and/or hiring is unfavorable to the local San Antonio community residents.  Poor management/executive leadership is displayed and a clear "bureaucratic favoritism" (elitism) with clique-management styles and no true collaborative structure between management/ executive and non-management staff.  Very volatile culture; no one seems truly happy at work; they fake it or know it's is just a temporary stop before moving on (whether voluntary or involuntary/ forced out).  

HR (human resources) department is truly not a resource for humans, it is a h311 resource.  The HR practices seem very sketchy and there is no real advancement career paths; whatever you are hired as you stay unless HR approves the writing of a new job for you to apply for (good luck with that).  Remember the cliques I mentioned, job creation is also based on favoritism.  Many critical areas remain understaffed and overworked.

Maybe in 5-years, this place will be better?  But who knows if it will have the same executive/management.  Don't be a smoker; you will pay a "sin" tax/fee on top of your health care deduction!

* Employee-centered culture with an emphasis on open communication, job empowerment, and trust!
* Comprehensive health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for your family (and even your pets)!
* An incomparable employer-funded retirement plan with 7% retirement funding starting day 1 (and increases upon years of service)!
* Generous paid time off, with 14 paid holidays, including Winter Recess (paid week off the last week of December)
* On-site medical clinic, wellness incentives & paid prescription drug resources to promote health management!
* On-site gym & wellness programs!
* Flexible work arrangements for work-life balance!
* Dynamic learning environment with opportunities for professional development, mentorship, continuing education (tuition reimbursement), and leadership programs to help you thrive both personally and professionally.

I was hired as veterinary research technician and everything what I did was 90% of husbandry, moving heavy cages, changing cages and cleaning areas another 5%.
And rest of 5% was blood draw, rectal swaps etc. 
I was expecting more medical stuff to do, but If I would like to be animal keeper, I will probably go to the Zoo. 

My supervisor was awesome lady, my lead technician was the most horrible person. Never ever tells you, good job.
I heard only do this, do this one, you are to slow, etc

This company is very good with all benefits or if you working at the lab, but if you are down there and you tried to go up to different position it is hard and takes years.
I was able to go to the lunch after 5 hr of hard work, this is against the law. I had barely time to even go and take a drink if my lead technician was not behind my back.

It really depends on where you are. If you want a nice cushy job then head for research and administration. They have the mean salaries of 6 figures. Anything below that (and you will be treated like you're below it) is just a constant beratment. Staff and pay are scarce, so you'll end up doing the work load of a couple people and will never be compensated for it. Your requests and pleas will always fall on deaf ears, you will not have a healthy work/life balance. Half the buildings and equipment are always broken/out of service so you'll end up being behind on your daily tasks. They can't spare any of the millions of dollars they get every year from donars or other granted funds to repair or replace buildings/equipment. They just build new fancy complexes while housing for the animals is secondary. I have so much more but I think I'm done for now. 

The benefits are good and I learned a lot by working with these animals. However, this place cares more about their budget and "strategic plan" than they do their employees and animals. Layoffs and "early retirement" are frequent, so there's no job security. The pay for animal care staff is terrible; I had to work a lot of OT to make a livable wage. There are annual raises, but it's not a significant amount of money. It's very difficult to get promoted. Most of the animal care supervisors are awful (I highly recommend avoiding the chimpanzee team if you decide to work here). Animal care staff input is not taken into consideration when it comes to remodeling. There seems to be cliques and favoritism within management and their employees. This place also turns a blind eye to scientists that bring in a lot of money.

Administrative staff seem ignorant of the work that goes on to care for our animals and knows little about the animals in general. This typically leads to staffing shortages and poor allocation of resources. It also leads to generally low pay and HR will sometimes even give certain positions the incorrect job titles so as to keep salaries low when they do market comparisons (My position is research assistant even though I coordinate parts of animal care, other company would label my position as behaviorist/behavioral specialist) All this leads to varied quality of animal care across the facility and quality of car levels being below standards. 

The work being conducted at TBRI is solely to enhance and save lives. I've not met anyone that worked there that does not care deeply for all the animals under their care. It is hard work, with much of the work outside in the elements. If you work directly w/ the animals, expect to walk 5-7 miles every day. There is new Senior Leadership that has shown that they are 100% committed to improving the culture at TBRI. How many CEO's sit down with the entry level employees and candidly asks for their opinions? If you work hard, you can advance within your career ladder. It is a little more difficult to jump to a different ladder.

No matter what role you get here, be prepared to wear a lot of hats and stay in late nights.
The yearly employee evaluation for promotions and raises is a joke, it’s a very subjective system, regardless of what they say. People in non-science roles are more likely to get better raises since the stakes are lower and the work is less critical for them. 
Pay is not great. 
They host some fun events here and there, it’s obvious that they care about their employees, but people still quit very often. The people itself make this place great. 
Managers are reluctant to approve PTO, there’s always a “high priority” taking place. They do take better care of their animals than the employees. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Payroll Coordinator . I enjoyed working with all departments 
and getting to know what the do. I liked hearing the scientist speak and sharing about their findings. It was a great place to work.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The manual entries of 420 timesheet..haha. Making sure all of them where in the system 
and your checks and balances were in place.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment was great, but there was a difference between the Scientist and Administration. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Checking timesheet answering calls and emails, working with HR and special projects.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research assistant 3 salaries reported	$32,977 per year
Staff scientist 3 salaries reported	$67,703 per year
Research associate 1 salary reported	$46,442 per year
Veterinarian 1 salary reported	$121,650 per year
Senior hvac technician 1 salary reported	$38.00 per hour

Working at Texas Biomedical Research Institute: Company Overview and Reviews

Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Texas Biomedical Research Institute Ratings

Popular jobs at Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected