I interviewed for my dream job at the USDA a few months ago. I was second choice. I held out hope for months. Finally found out the other guy accepted. Fine. It’s research I really believe in even if I don’t get to be the one to do it. The research proposal I put together for the application excited me. I hope they take some of my ideas into consideration, I’m not precious about them. I want science to thrive.
Now as far as I can tell on the research unit site there are no active employees. And even though I didn’t get the job it still makes me so mad. I guess it’s slightly better than getting the job and relocating and then getting laid off 3 months in but still the fact that myself and my unnamed competitor went through a really rigorous application process to run a research lab only for it to be for fucking nothing makes me so mad. I don’t know if they actually laid off all employees but they definitely laid off probationary employees (>3 years) and all the effort that goes into those probationary years, the funding secured to build a lab and a research project and hire post docs to get fucking nothing from it is such a goddamn waste. One of the probationary researchers I know was laid off was an analytical chemist and do you KNOW how expensive a GC-MS is??? The analytical chemist I worked with at UC Davis liked to say his lab was the equivalent value of a cul-de-sac of homes in Davis.
Plus agricultural research is by nature of agriculture SLOW. Shit takes time to grow. So much fucking WASTE by shuttering USDA-ARS sites. I know it wasn’t just Davis. I have a USDA-ARS job search alert that has gone dark.
When I interviewed and asked about the election they said they had some concerns about Trump but agriculture was so bi partisan that it was very unlikely that the election would have a major impact on the department.
Fuck Elon Musk, fuck DOGE, fuck Trump. I’ve been dealing with this shitty ass job market for over a year trying to leave my terrible startup and the potential for government work felt like a miracle. The people who achieved that should not go through being put out like that. Plus you know fast paced industry jobs won’t want employees used to the pace of government bureaucracy.
I just I know there’s so much bad going on but this one hits close to home.
Also the research project was mitigating the effect of wildfire smoke exposure on grapes and other west coast agricultural products so enjoy further enshittification of your west coast fruits and veggies because it’s certainly gonna not stop being on fire there.
Man I went on my yearly vacation to Washington wine country right after the interview over the summer and the small wineries I visited were so excited about the research the USDA was doing.
It’s so fucking stupid
