(no subject)
I'm almost through with my first week of my new job. The first two days didn't really count for much because they were spent doing orientation and HR sort of stuff, but yesterday and today I was in the lab the whole time, starting to learn how to do all the stuff I need to know how to do. I've been shown a lot of different things so far and it is all sort of jumbled together in my mind at the moment, but I can at least do the daily quality control checks on the centrifuges, scales, and other equipment, and I've pretty much got accessioning down too (accessioning being the receipt of new blood into the computer systems and hanging the blood to start the first-step filtering). I think I pretty much understand how to do most of the processes, actually; my problem at the moment is that I mix up when to do which process. Not in a timing manner (like "this is first, then this, then this"); in the way of "which process does this particular bag of blood need to go through?", because so far they pretty much all look very similar to me, but depending on what products are being made from each whole blood item, there are different processes to go through.
It is very much awesome, though, simply because I just love being in a lab. Labwork was always my favorite part of science courses, and now I'm finally getting to do that again, this time getting paid for it rather than paying for it. The other people in the lab all seem pretty cool and it is a generally laid back environment (outside of the actual work itself, of course; there is a mountainload of documentation that must accompany each step of every process and be adhered to rigorously). I've met a few of the graveyard shift as well (I am coming in at 6:30 A.M. right now, and graveyard is generally off at 7:30, so they are there when I first get in) and they seem just as cool as the day shift people who have been training me so far, so besides the adjustment to the new hours I don't think switching to the graveyard shift next week will be a big deal.
I will miss getting to go to Denny's on Wednesday nights though. Last night was the last one of those I'll be going to for the foreseeable future. I made sure to give Ron (our regular waiter) an even bigger tip than normal because I won't be going back for a while. He deserves it for having to put up with the crazy people who show up at Denny's in the middle of the night.
It is very much awesome, though, simply because I just love being in a lab. Labwork was always my favorite part of science courses, and now I'm finally getting to do that again, this time getting paid for it rather than paying for it. The other people in the lab all seem pretty cool and it is a generally laid back environment (outside of the actual work itself, of course; there is a mountainload of documentation that must accompany each step of every process and be adhered to rigorously). I've met a few of the graveyard shift as well (I am coming in at 6:30 A.M. right now, and graveyard is generally off at 7:30, so they are there when I first get in) and they seem just as cool as the day shift people who have been training me so far, so besides the adjustment to the new hours I don't think switching to the graveyard shift next week will be a big deal.
I will miss getting to go to Denny's on Wednesday nights though. Last night was the last one of those I'll be going to for the foreseeable future. I made sure to give Ron (our regular waiter) an even bigger tip than normal because I won't be going back for a while. He deserves it for having to put up with the crazy people who show up at Denny's in the middle of the night.