CHEM-465 CHEMISTRY SENIOR SEMINAR Job Hunting Assignment Due Wednesday, September 26, 2001

As a senior you will need to more than think about what you will be doing after graduation. Ten or fifteen years from now, when you look back on your senior year, you will see that the decisions you made and the actions you took this year will likely have had a significant influence on the course of your life. "Taking a year off" after graduation has become a way to defer decisions and actions by many college students. Now is the time to take stock of your options and make some commitments. While these are things only you can do, Chemistry Senior Seminar and this assignment will help you think through some of the possibilities, provide focus to your actions, and hone skills you will need.

Many of you are, or soon will be, looking for employment. This assignment is intended to help you in that effort. Exercise your job fantasy. Look for that dream job on the Internet, at the Career Services Center, in magazines, or in newspapers. Find one advertized job that looks like a position you would like to apply for soon or after further education.⁽¹⁾Then answer the following questions:

Why is this job interesting to you?

Gather some specific background information that you would need before applying and interviewing for this position?

What strengths and weaknesses do you think you have relative to the advertized position?

What could you do to make yourself more competitive for this position?

In no more than two pages, provide answers to these questions and turn in your responses at the beginning of class, Wednesday, September 26.

Please append a copy of the advertized position and indicate its source. Be prepared to discuss your answers in your group and with the class.

Some related material you might be interested in reading:

The 2 August 1999 article in Chemical and Engineering News [77(31), 28 - 39]  discusses salaries and  the status of employment in chemistry.

ACS Professional Employment Guidelines

ACS Career Services for members

Some of you may wish to read a special advertising supplement in the August 13, 1999 issue of SCIENCE magazine (285, 1090-1131) relating to Career Opportunities and Graduate Programs for BS and MS Scientists. The section includes on page 1110 a photo and commentary by Dr. Sally Camper (1976 BS Chemistry, University of Delaware) now in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan.

¹ One of the department's 1998 graduates is employed in a job she found as the result of this CHEM-465 assignment.