Five years a QC Analyst but no HPLC experience

[lucashood]

I'm in my current role as QC Analyst for the past five years and I am quite unhappy with my development these past five years, I want to move on from the company I'm in but the first question I get asked is if I have HPLC experience. I have studied a little about it in uni buts that was all theory, is there any resource I could avail of that would basically allow me to get through an interview?

[Consumer Products Guy]

Lucas Hood (always wondered where you went after "Banshee" ended) - actually GC and HPLC are much more similar than they are different. I'm experienced with Agilent equipment and software, and their GC and HPLC softwares are identical except for the one column about instrumental conditions.

Both use fluids to push components through a column. Myself, we had Agilent (HP then) come in a train our entire department in 1980, then we developed our own test methods and validated them; things may be easier these days with computer searching.

Training a person to operate HPLC and do simple troubleshooting is simpler by far than learning method development. I'd suggest an HPLC hands-on training course, but you might need to fund that yourself.

Or try convincing a prospective employer that at one time you didn't know GC either, but have capacity to learn (like Dana Andrews did in end scenes of "The Best Years of Our Lives", 1946).

I trained about a dozen people in our company in HPLC who had no experience; unfortunately, I don't seem to have that tutorial document any longer, since retirement, I could maybe check...

[James_Ball]

When I started with my company 25 years ago, they had one HPLC and nobody that knew how to run it. I took on the task with only the basic theory I had from college and what magazine articles I could find plus the instrument manual. Now I run several HPLCs and even the HPLC/MS/MS, all self taught. Today it is even easier with the internet instead of having to find articles and books wherever you can.

Start by searching Basic HPLC and you will probably find many hits for beginner level tutorials. Some professors even put their classroom presentations out on the internet in slideshow formats that make it easy. Work your way up to the more advanced applications and you should be able to talk to an interviewer on a level that is adequate. While you really can't beat hands on experience, literature research does go a long way to getting you started.

[mattmullaney]

Good Evening,

I strongly recommend almost anything John Dolan and/or Lloyd Snyder have written, Shulamit Levin's web site and the following web site as starters:

http://www.chromacademy.com/

The free content here is very good--the courses (I've taken them) are excellent. Not hard to find good courses. Rayman Wong is a fine HPLC instructor, don't know if Rosario LoBrutto and Yuri Kazekevich still teach their course now and then, but it is another good one. Of course there is also LCResources--I've taken their courses as well.

Best Wishes!