Career predicament

[u/VON-sko]

Hello all. I am currently in a predicament deciding between two positions. I have been working as a laboratory technician now in a commercial assay lab doing primarily wetlab and instrumentation work for about 4 months now. My current schedule is 14/14 and my commute is about 6 hours. I decided to apply for a similar job at an actual mine closer to home, about 2.5 hours with the same schedule. I got a response and offer for a 7$ pay increase with camp accommodations, but the offer is for sample prep which feels like a step back rather than wetlab which I’m currently doing now and more comfortable with.

I wanted to get some opinions on what to expect should I accept the offer, what upward mobility would look like and whether anyone has had a similar experience.

Notes: i am based in Canada and I have an environmental science degree but post grad life led me to my current position. In the perfect world I would like a job closer to my field, would the mine present an opportunity into the environmental field if I play my cards right?

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[u/Hoboterror]

I’ve worked with a few people who went from assay lab to environmental, so it’s definitely doable (depending on the company). Sometimes it’s just waiting it out until there’s a position that opens up, but you’d be able to get some experience specific to the site and meet the enviro team which should give you a bit of a leg up.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about starting as sample prep - that’s going to be common for most site assay labs as the intro role. Getting sample runs done quick is the name of the game, and bucking ends up being a bottleneck a lot of the time. I would ask what the growth is though and how long people usually spend prepping before being trained on other assaying jobs (they should have a plan to cross train at the very least).

If you are serious about getting into an environmental roll at a mine, this is a good way to get mine site experience vs working in a commercial lab and trying to transition. There’s always a small fear within mining when hiring someone who’s experience has primarily been outside the industry or in a city, because they don’t know the drain of shift work / living in a small town / working on a site.