u/DaveSauce0

I'm not necessarily in the job market right now, but I've always wondered if making the transition to pharma is worthwhile.

I've got nearly 20 years of experience at various OEMs and panel builders for equipment. I know my way around panel design, programming, servos, HMI work, etc. Even done some vision and robot projects. I know my way around machines pretty well.

Only things I don't have much experience in is SCADA and process industry stuff, which I know is a big disadvantage for pharma.

My current job is at an OEM and it's a pretty easy gig, though occasionally boring. We have technicians so we don't travel but a few times a year. We don't work much over 40 hours/week.

It's pretty good in that respect, but the pay is... uh... not great. But I've convinced myself that I'm taking a lower paycheck in exchange for a job that isn't too tough on me or my family. The work/life balance is great, so I'm hesitant to give it up.

Thing is, my area is surrounded by pharma manufacturing. And it's getting more every year. Like, not even out in the boonies anymore... a lot of it is in the suburbs.

I've always heard that pharma is kind of boring. Regulations require reams of paperwork to do anything. Pays pretty well I hear, but the downside is you're more of a paper pusher than an engineer. No idea how true this is, but it's the image I've gathered over the years.

I know the biggest thing missing on my resume is GMP experience and S-88 experience, as well as Delta V/etc. I presume a lot of that is on-the-job knowledge that is hard to pick up otherwise.

Is pharma something worth getting in to? I'm not necessarily concerned about my future job prospects in my current career trajectory, but with the growth of pharma in my area I feel like it might be a good career move.

edit:

So I should note: I'm a degreed engineer, but I know the pharma space has a lot of MS and PhD level people in it generally, so I don't know if I'd fall under engineer or technician in this space. I know a few people who work in the R&D side at the PhD level (process development and MSAT) and I know that side at least is a very different scale in terms of job title vs. education level.

So I used to have a supervised installation running on a spare ~15 year old laptop. Then I did a stupid thing and decided to try to convert it to HAOS, and... the whole thing shit the bed. Can't boot that laptop even from the USB anymore.

I got a different laptop, and I'm able to at least consistently boot the USB Ubuntu and image the drive. Seems like it should be working, but every time I boot it goes to a grub prompt.

I'm not strong with linux so I'm pretty lost here.

Here's my issue/situation:

When I use "method 1" installation, after restoring the disk image I get a giant partition of free space. No idea if that's right or wrong, but it seems wrong. Anyhow, I shut down, remove USB, start up, grub prompt.

Then I tried to use the efibootmgr tool as recommended by the install tutorial, and that at least puts a HAOS entry in the boot order in the BIOS, but when I reboot I still get a grub prompt.

So I re-did the restore disk, and then before I shut down I used the efibootmgr tool. Still get a grub prompt.

So then I tried method 2. Turns out you can install belena etcher in the live USB OS, so I did that method.

Now after doing that, I get a bunch of partitions showing up in the disks tool, not one giant partition. Figured that was a good thing... looks like something was actually written this go around.

Shut down, remove USB, start up... grub prompt.

Do method 2 again, and this time use the efibootmgr before shutting down.

Still get a grub prompt.

So what on earth do I do here? I'm sure I missed something, but my google skills are failing me here and I can't seem to find a way to fix this. I have no idea how to use/navigate grub, so I'm struggling here.

Thing is the grub prompt doesn't say anything. Doesn't complain about anything, no errors, just... a prompt. Some text about what you can do with it, but that's it.

(tl;dr at the end, a lot of background/context here)

I booked an international vacation for the family for this summer. The return flight connects through ATL. When I booked, the connection was 2:50, which I felt was about perfect for an international-domestic transfer. Plenty of time to get through everything at a relaxed pace, and even grab food before the next flight, even if things got delayed.

But a few days ago they changed the schedule for the flight out of ATL, so now our connection is 1:48. By all accounts, this is technically longer than the international-domestic MCT, but realistically it seems awfully tight. We also planned on doing global entry on-arrival interviews for the kids, so that would go out the window.

I know it's technically doable, if everything goes right, but I don't typically plan for everything going right because there are way too many variables here. I get it, Delta is on the hook for rebooking if we miss it, but I don't want to have to go through that process.

Fortunately there's one more flight out of ATL after that, so I went to change it for peace of mind.

Here's where things get difficult. When I click the "complete booking" button on the Delta website, it gives me an error saying that the flight is sold out. I tried this a few times in case the exact fare I clicked on got scooped out from under me, but no go. I tried it on the Fly Delta app, but that gave me some weird error as well, so I can't figure out how to change it on my own.

So I try using the web chat window and... I'd say it was bad AI if it weren't for all the grammar mistakes. And that's after I told the "virtual assistant" that I wanted to talk to a person and it connected me to someone.

Instead of helping me change my flight right off the bat, the "agent" spent a lot of time arguing with me and trying to convince me that my connection is OK because the MCT is 30 minutes. Which I immediately called bullshit on, but they doubled down and tried to convince me that 30 minutes was enough to deplane, clear customs, wait for my bags, re-check bags, clear security, and get to my gate...

My friends I wouldn't take a 30 minute domestic connection through ATL if I was on my own and only had a carry on, let alone an international-domestic transfer with checked bags and kids in tow... I've had precisely 1 easy connection in ATL where my next gate was literally next to the one I landed in. Outside of that, it can easily take 15 minutes to go from gate to gate if you get unlucky, and if the departing flight is on time then the doors will be shut 15 minutes before departure... Maybe my math is off, but the remainder here seems to be approximately 0 minutes to do everything else.

tl;dr: In any case, the "agent" told me that I am unable to change this on my own because it's international and that I need to involve an agent... I can't change just that one flight, I need to basically cancel/rebook the whole itinerary, and I just can't do that on my own. They eventually agreed to help, but I backed out because I just didn't trust them anymore.

So is that correct? Do I truly need to contact Delta customer service? Or am I clicking the wrong buttons on the website/app to make the change? I really don't want to call Delta on the phone, but it seems my electronic options are limited here.