Life Technologies Employer Reviews

Detail-oriented professional with seven years of experience in the biotechnology industry. Motivated team player with exceptional work ethics. Thorough understanding of GLPs, GMPs, quality systems, cell culture techniques, good documentation practices, standard operating procedures, laboratory equipment validation and maintenance, laboratory information – more... systems and sample management.
Excellent sterile technique. – less

Detection of pathogens and drug resistance mutations in multiplexed formats is of great value in clinical research. Currently, several technologies are available for disease gene mutation and nucleic acid based pathogen detection. However, few of them are suitable for detection of large numbers of pathogen targets with high sensitivity, detection accuracy – more... and fairly fast workflow. Assays with such criteria are desired for use in pathogen detection and screening. To address this need, we evaluated the Ion Torrent technology for this application. The Ion Torrent technology is a new sequencing platform developed by Life Technologies that can be used for high throughput sequencing. It uses semiconductor chips with high-density array of wells and a parallel array of semiconductor sensors to perform direct real-time measurement of the hydrogen ions produced during DNA sequencing reaction on the chip. This technology enables the direct translation of genetic information (DNA) to digital information (DNA sequence), rapidly generating large quantities of high quality data. In our study, 41 pathogens were amplified, pooled and sequenced on Personal Genome MachineTM (PGMTM). These pathogen targets include some of the most contagious infectious agents such as the herpes virus, human hepititis virus, SARS coronavirus, influenza, human adenovirus, bacillus anthracis, and CMV mutants. We demonstrated the ability of the Ion Torrent to detect all 41 pathogens in the samples accurately, as well as drug resistant mutations in CMV, thus the PGMTM system could become a valuable tool for different clinical applications. My specific contributions to this project was carrying out the amplification of the 41 targets using PCR and pooling them. I also analyzed the sequencing data produced by the Ion Torrent, determining whether the data produced by the Ion Torrent was accurate or not. – less

Good people, management is okay but good people have left or been let go

Review production schedules and assure that all components are available for production, review backorders and assure that all backorders with available inventory are filled and address the root cause. If truly a backorder determine the earliest availability date and inform customer service.

To be the best we must enlighten each and every customer – more... experience.

The hardest part was unable to meet customer expectations due to issues outside your control.

The most enjoyable part was my co-workers and when the plan goes together and the the best value to the customer. – less

Good work environment with immediate benefits (but high deductible) and lots of vacation time (for permanent employees). However there is a lot of monotonous data entry. A typical day would be spent almost entirely on the phone taking call after call. Customer service is not very interesting and does not provide much opportunity to learn about products – more... or other parts of the business but you will develop better soft skills working with customers. There is a lot of mobility and new positions open frequently. Everything possible is measured and recorded but the standards set are reasonable. There is a LOT to memorize about systems and procedures. Compensation is not very high but they do treat their employees well. – less

Long work ay full of walking and picking products. Option between an half hour lunch or an hour. Questionable managment structure.

Well educated and experienced employees. Good culture amongst employees. Reasonable work / life balance.

Once a great company to work for changed by budget cuts that eventually impacted every employee. Made a lay off feel like a breath of fresh air...

This is for the Life Tech in Frederick, Maryland. There, with their management, you're expected to work the full 10 hour day and if people called out that day then you're also expected to work even longer to make up for them. During the winter if you showed up and your other co-workers didn't, you were usually made to stay even 12 to thirteen hours, – more... or even overnight. Sure, the extra money was great, but at the end of the week you're so exhausted from constantly running around doing orders for people that you have no energy to do things on the weekend. But you have to, because any normal person has errands. The management there was awful, with a few exceptions. However, the co-workers were great, amazing people. I got so close to so many people who would drop everything to help me out. It was unfortunate, though, KNOWING they were going to leave soon since it was only a temp job. Overall, working at Life Tech led me to meet great people, but also taught me that there jobs out there that can just make you miserable. No room for advancement unless you're the top manager's best friend, no benefits, no time to do anything outside of work, and awful management. I'm so glad I don't work there anymore. – less

I worked for the Custom Primers Lab of Life Technologies, in Frederick, Maryland for many years. I was among almost an entire staff of Technicians were leadoff when the lab was relocated to California last December, 2011. About 28 staff laid-off with severance package.

The lab was a financially high throughput DNA synthesis lab. Every day is another – more... enjoyable, but tough and challenging production day. It was a first moving work environment. They also provided us with a safe working environment. The great management team I work with all these years did all they could to train everyone on safety and quality production for customer satisfaction. I have learned so many biotechnology skills all of which are stated on my resume work experience and cover letter.

My coworkers were basically my second family per-say. We all worked as a team. If one is really a true team player this was the best lab to practice it. I have never had any problem with any one I worked before. Even though I was compensated well for my work, the most enjoyable part of this job was the people I worked with. We had a diverse work group, which make Life Technologies one of the best places I have ever worked.

With good work ethics there is nothing I would consider too hard to do in the lab. This in part due to the fact that we were given all the training, tools, material, courage, and protection needed to make our job easy and productive.

Even though I am no longer working for Life Technologies, for a reason beyond my control I will not hesitate to recommend any one to work for this wonderful Biotechnology company. I will work for this company again should any opportunity arise again for me. – less

Good company to grow with, friendly co-worker, understand managements, enjoyable every work day, great work place.

Life Tech was a nice place to work for 10 plus years. I had great co-workers and really enjoyed my work in quality control. The hardest part of the job was keeping up with constantly shifting priorities in a very fast paced environment. The most enjoyable part of the job was being able to juggle all of the priorities and still do high quality work. – more... I enjoyed the high throughput environment. I had really terrific managers during my time at Life Tech. They were supportive and helpful and easy to talk to. – less

It was a very nice working environment,
Well educated scientist, good customer care, quality products, employee benefits were good, management was fair.
Job was very satisfiying, up with the new technologies.
Co workers were professional,
hardest part was leaving the company since it was sold.
I learned alot from experienced scientists.

Great environment to learn and participate in the biotechnology manufacturing process. A typical day at work usually consists of operating machines that synthesize custom oligonucleotides and rotating through different stages of the production processes. The lab has frequent personnel changes and a lot of interaction with coworkers.

in austin tx
rich in resources, materialwise or human powerwise
OK but slow

I definitely put 110% into both of the positions I held at Life Technologies. Though the hours were long, I enjoyed developing different strategies to work smarter not harder. I also learned to become much more efficient by understanding who on the team possessed which strengths, including myself, and building upon those. The hardest part of my most – more... recent position was deciding which tasks to delegate and to whom, and the most enjoyable part was seeing those I had trained or influenced in one way or another, succeed. – less

This company was very technologically ahead of it's time when I worked with
this group. I enjoyed working with the people in the legal area
because it was very detailed work and many different situations
to work on at times. I supported the Legal Secretaries and the Vice President
in New Projects as well as existing Patent areas. I scheduled meeting – more... rooms,
did FedEX and presentations based on faxed information from Managers.

Everyone that I worked with on a daily basis was pleasant and professional.
The work involved accounting, editing, slides for speeches and meetings, etc.
and travel as well as PowerPoint presentations to Europe because of travel
locations for the Executives and their itineraries. – less

Life Technologies was a good company that I worked 10yrs for the management was great, helpful, and I was able to move up in the company. The company did a lot for their employees.

poor training . uses temps mostly. not a good experience. Nothing good to say about my time there.

I like working for Life Technologies. They pay good salary. Some career development was provided.