CHEM-465 CHEMISTRY SENIOR SEMINAR Career Paths for Chemists and Biochemists

As a senior you will need to do 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.

The most comprehensive web site that considers this issue - and many others - is found here. Be sure to examine the uplinks and the reverse links to this very detailed (and eye-straining!) page.  The Alchemist's lair  also has a summary of information on designing a major, deciding on a career and more.

Careers for the Chemically Educated

The career paths for chemists and biochemists are many and diverse. How does one decide what path to take at this point?

The first step is to carefully assess your strengths and interests. A good place to start reading is the reprinted article "Take Charge of Your Career." I also recommend very highly that you take a careful look at the more broadly focused National Academy Press site for science and engineering graduates located here. As part of  any assessment you make, decide on the importance of research work to you.  A good, but brief, assessment program for science and engineering is available.

The Graduate School Path

Research is the issue upon which the career paths open to chemists and biochemists first diverge. If doing research is your life, graduate school is probably a very good idea.

So you are clear on the need to go to graduate school. Great, but you have a good bit of work to do, and soon, as graduate school applications are due in January for the best chance at getting into the best programs. You'll need to take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) and possibly the GRE advanced chemistry exam, as many graduate programs - especually the most competitive ones - will want to see GRE scores for admission. You'll also need some letters of recommendation from your professors, so now would be a good time to start to line up support. Then, your next job will be to write (or e-mail) the schools for admission forms, though a few are now on-line.  Some of the details asociated with grad school admissions are demystified in this article from the ACS.

Even if you are clear on the decision to attend graduate school, there may remain a lot of other issues that come in to the decision on where to apply and whose offer you accept. Maybe you have the whole thing figured out from discussions with friends or a faculty advisor, but if you aren't sure how to find the right school for you, you'll need to do a little reading. Some additional work is a very good idea if you aren't clear on the areas of specialization available or you haven't gotten wind of the expectations involved in life as a graduate student. Also be aware that, just as American business is changing, so too is the American research university, and with it come changes in research priorities and the funding of research.

The ACS now has a comprehensive site on the application and decision process, but there are also a few interesting articles published in chemical journals over the past decade or so - and because the process of selecting and applying to graduate schools has not changed all that much, this information remains fairly current. An ACS article covers the steps to take to start the trip toward a decision. Another ACS article covers some of these issues from a different perspective. Admissions and the very important decision between competing offers are covered in another reprinted article.

There are often a lot of misconceptions about graduate school. Here are some very brief responses to a few common ideas about the grad school path. A nice site worth some exploration has links to a wide range of topics and a rated list of resources for holders of advanced degrees in the sciences, information that could be useful in deciding on schools and researchers to consider for that advanced degree.

The Immediate Employment Path

OK, maybe life as a graduate student is not for you. You are not alone; an increasing number of BS and BA graduates end school with the Batchelor's degree. There are many ways to make use of your skills. But what careers are open to you? Well, you may want to start with the ACS site on careers in industry. There are also brief summaries of career paths from the ACS.
And here are a few non-traditional career stories.

You still have work to do: Your task over the remaining time that you have in school is to locate a position suited to your needs and interests.  But first, you'll need a resume with brief coverage of your training, background and skills. That resume should be acompanied by a cover letter. You should also line up some faculty who will write letters and respond to calls from possible employers concering your qualifications.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a concise assessment of the skills needed and opportunities available for chemically- and biochemically-trained researchers.  Be aware of current trends in the marketplace and market and hone your skills appropriately.

A fairly colorful  listing of possible careers for chemists, professional organizations and a generic list of employer areas is available here. There are many similar ones such as these from Portland State, Manitoba, Drake and North Carolina. Our own UD Career Services has information, too. Princeton has a similar site which is of interest because it also has a page describing where some of its alumnae landed and Duke has a very good site that considers the different paths available to chemists. You may also benefit from interviews of working chemists, such as these.

One way to land a position is to attend a job fair, either on campus or at a chemical meeting. ACS national and regional meetings and other major conferences all have these interview opportunities. If you go, and your information attracts attention, you'll meet with a recruiter. The interview process and what recruiters look for are covered in several brief web articles.

Finally, when you land your job, realize that the work does not end: you should plan to continue to sharpen your skills and to keep curent. Here is an article with some suggestions on starting a career in the chemical industry; many of the concepts presented here work regardless of the details of the work involved.
 

The Professional School Path

You may have an idea of how a chemistry degree can be used here, but if not, there are a few links describing uses in law. Here are some basic links to careers in law, medicine and (via the MBA) business. If a professional degree is the goal for you, you may already have a good idea of what you want to do. The choice between law and medicine (or others) is generally made at the point of application. You'll need to take the GRE exam and another exam appropriate to your choice of profession (MCATs for medicine, LSATs for law, etc.). You'll also need letters of support from your professors and, like graduats school applications, you will need to spend some time applying to schools that interest you. And, there will almost certainly be an interview as a part of the admissions process.
 

Society Links
 

Several chemical societies have career-related sites:

Job Spectrum is the new ACS site. It is very comprehensive and well laid out.  Most of it does not require ACS membership for access, though the salary comparator does.

The Royal Society of Chemistry also has a site for members.

Science also offers a site that is more of an employment service for AAAS members, but its Nextwave site offers interesting and controversial inforation on careers.

Getting and Maintaining Credentials in the Chemical Sciences

Chemistry and biochemistry does not have a formal exam that certifies the degree holder as a chemist or biochemist. How does one get credentials and keep expertise?

1. Earning a certified degree (and you are doing that already, in most cases...) says that you took the courses that you need to be a practitioner.
2. Maintaining society membership - and reading the society journals and magazines - helps keep a newly trained chemist or biochemist current. Here are some links to society homepages:

American Chemical Society
Royal Society of Chemistry
ASBMB
IUBMB
 

3. Maintaining expertise by staying current in the field(s) where you have knowledge and experience while remaining broad enough to embrace changes and new challenges.
Conferences are ways to network and to remain aware of new research in a technical field. Several societies and publishers have meeting locators.

What about the Money?

Salary considerations remain an important consideration. The ACS publishes an annual salary survey.  There is also a very useful survey of employment trends from 1999 that covers issues (restructuring, outsourcing, shifts in the nature of firms hiring chemists, etc.) that remain important today although the numbers in this survey are out of date. A more comprehensive version of this report (pdf) is also available.

Related Material

S. Tobias, D.E. Chubin and K. Aylesworth, "Rethinking Science as a Career", Research Corp: Tuscon, AZ, 1995.

"Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond"  National Academy Press: Washington, 1996.

"Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists," National Academy Press: Washington, 1998.

"Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences: Issues for the 21st Century: Report of a Workshop", National Academy Press: Washington, 2000.

"Women in the Chemical Workforce: A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable", National Academy Press: Washington, 2000.