postdoctoral researcher

mechanical engineer

mechanical technician

electrical engineer

operator

TRIUMF

What is the best part of working at the company?
Pension, the ability to learn about the research happening there.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Highly disorganized work environment.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Unsupportive and depressing workplace to be in. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
While working there, always be on the lookout for another place. Layoffs at TRIUMF are VERY common and often with no notice given or even a reason for a layoff. It is extremely common to be walking through the halls and meet someone at a desk one day, and the next day you'll see the same desk completely empty, never to see that person again. 

TRIUMF is not a company that has any kind of revenue generated. It is solely and entirely reliant on Federal funding and because of this, budgets there are extremely tight. If there is anyway for TRIUMF to save even a sliver of a dime there, they'll do it and that includes getting rid of people. Because of this, don't ever feel like you have any value there cause you don't, and this is instilled throughout TRIUMF's company culture. Starting out there you'll be extensively shown how inclusive of a  place TRIUMF is to work at but this is all smoke and mirrors and is not there at all in practice.

I worked in a team that was very connected to many other departments in TRIUMF and there I started to see how disconnected all the management is. No one there interacts with one another, or if they do, they do so reluctantly. This makes it very exhausting whenever you try to figure anything out it usually leads to dead ends and frustration in your daily duties with little help available. 

At TRIUMF you work in a  high radiation exposure environment. This can definitely be stressful and people will tend to deal with the stress in their own way. For me, I would take walks on my lunch through Pacific Spirit Park which helped me, but others tend to do more direct and push their stress on colleagues. This was very common in my department which compounded stress constantly on me to a point where I was asking myself "why am I here?"

My final note about TRIUMF is that the HR there is a textbook case lesson of how "HR is NOT your friend". A lot of what HR does and the way it treats employees is what I would describe as "sketchy "and even pushing the lines of legality. If anything happens, getting legal advice is highly recommended or going to a regulatory body such as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) which governs TRIUMF is a good call.

You can get a stable career out of working here with great pension plan, paid time off, and benefits thru Sunlife via UBC.  There is an incredible amount of knowledge to learn, especially if you like nuclear physics. However you must apply to internal job positions in order to get promoted.  Work-life balance is good but engineering salaries are below average and there is no mechanism within HR to get that addressed.  The past 5-7 years of management has been focused on changes at the top end, but much change to the bureaucracy is needed to improve the working life of the ordinary employee.  There are a few staff that are painful to deal with.  Triumf is funded by a fixed amount of money from the federal government and careers and project speed are severely limited.

Pay is certainly not great, but the work-life balance is great. Management below the C-suite and above technical workers is exclusively scientists. This leads to some good eggs and a lot of people who have no idea what it means to be a manager, with most seemingly taking the role for the title/paycheck.
Most sccientists seem to see technicians as grunts who do grunt work, and this feeling gets passed on to their students. Get used to getting told what to do by 19 year-old co-ops and spending the rest of the time cleaning up after them.
C-suite and Scientists are at odds and don't seem interested in working together. Despite being an research institute there is little room for collaboration and siloing of departments is celebrated.

The research and projects are interesting; however, new management is trying to change the culture into a fortune 500 manufacturing company. Unfortunately this is not what a scientific research facility is all about and does not apply. LEAN, 6 sigma and 5S stifle research and only put up walls when ideas are supposed to flow.

Great place as a stepping stone in your career; however, get out and apply your new knowledge in industry. Basically a physicist's playground with no understanding of the real world.

Management and the HR department don't stick up for the employees.  BULLYING is a big problem in this organization, management and HR just turn a blind eye to this issue.  This department in particular is dysfunctional, decision making is all over the map and those who are suppose to be 'senior' don't seem to really know what they're doing. Then again management doesn't really seem to care about quality work, so if you're just looking to collect a pay check, then you just might fit in nicely.  BUT WATCH YOUR BACK!!!!!

A series of unfortunate administrations led to the demise of what once was a nice lab to work and have a career. If you want a corporate job without checks and balances, this is the right place for you. Any scientific output is stalled by a chain of command that lacks adequate hand-on experience and even numeracy, refuses to heed to expert advice and have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Joined as a student for 1 year working with as a computational research assistant in the theory group. You'll be mostly working in the main building if your in the theory group. Has lovely facilities including a convenient little self serve cafe onsite. Everyone was very friendly and support from staff was excellent. Always felt welcome and the location in Vancouver is great, its by the water which makes a beach walk after work easy. Finding accommodation can be hard in Vancouver tho.

Very Boring Place to work. Work seriously UNChallenging. May be a fun place to work if you're a physicist...that's it. It used to be a place full of serious jerks making working there extremely stressful. If I were you I would give this place a pass.

I got a chance to work with some of the most brilliant minds of my generation and the generation leading our particle physics and nuclear physics research.
Working construction was more interesting for me than sitting in front of a computer waiting for 10,000 calculations to compute.
At points I was notably lacking guidance in what I should have been working on.

The people who actually keep the place running are the tradespeople, technicians, and (some) engineers.  There are a lot of bright folks in these roles, but unfortunately the only way to move up the hierarchy is to play the internal politics game.  Lots of wasted time, low morale and lack of motivation.  But pay and benefits are pretty good, thanks to apparently unending government funding.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Postdoctoral researcher 8 salaries reported	$69,925 per year
Mechanical engineer 5 salaries reported	$79,543 per year
Mechanical technician 5 salaries reported	$62,631 per year
Electrical engineer 6 salaries reported	$98,562 per year
Operator 1 salary reported	$55,505 per year

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