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Harmless
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Registered: 7-12-2010
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Bachelors Degree
Hello people
I am a little confused about my degree and this forum pretty much has one of the largest communities of chemists/chemistry enthusiasts.
I am currently pursuing a Bachelors in Chemistry (It has a large focus on Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry). I love my course and find it incredibly
fascinating. But graduate study is not something that I am planning to pursue. Over the past few weeks I have been hearing from people about how
undergraduates in chemistry can never really get a "proper" job after graduation and that there is a dearth of jobs for a person holding just a
Bachelors.
Now I'd like to hear from you guys what you think are the opportunities available for a fresh graduate. And does it make sense in these current
conditions to continue pursuing a degree in chemistry?
I'm studying in Europe, don't know if this makes any difference.
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psychokinetic
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Hello and welcome to our dungeon
I mean, uh, lovely forum.
Great you're doing chemistry  . In terms of what you can do with a Bachelor's
degree, I suppose it really depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to do jobs that require the knowledge of a Bachelor, then awesome -
and if you do well there may be chances to learn on the job and get into more stuff.
If you want to skip straight to the heavy stuff, you need to take a detour via grad school, really.
There are always opportunities, and it depends on what you do with them.
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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entropy51
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A lot of members gave advice about this in a recent thread.
BromicAcid spoke with the voice of experience: Quote: Originally posted by BromicAcid  | | A bachelors degree in chemistry entitles you to a job. A crappy job. A bachelors degree and honest to goodness skill will let you go anywhere.
Just make sure you know where you want to go before hand so you can put forth the pointed effort necessary to advance. |
You might want to follow that link to his post and read the rest of the thread.
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DDTea
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I wouldn't call a year-old thread "recent."
Here's something to consider though. There is an overall dearth of jobs for chemists right now, so it's a total employer's market. They can get a
B.S. to do work that only requires a high school diploma, and they do just that! So at just the Bachelor's level, you may find yourself working the
night shift in some production job or doing wholly unfulfilling work at first. Once you have 1-2 years of experience on top of your B.S. though,
people will start taking you seriously.
If you want a good career, though, definitely go for a graduate degree--especially if you enjoy what you do. However, be warned: nothing is more
pathetic than a Ph.D without a job and with zero experience.
"In the end the proud scientist or philosopher who cannot be bothered to make his thought accessible has no choice but to retire to the heights in
which dwell the Great Misunderstood and the Great Ignored, there to rail in Olympic superiority at the folly of mankind." - Reginald Kapp.
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smuv
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If you don't get a PhD or at least a masters, focusing on Organic and Biochemistry will not put you in a very good position to get a job. With a BS
in chemistry expect to get a job as a glorified technician. I am not saying, everyone gets these jobs, but it is the norm. Remember, starting salary
of BS chemists is $37K on average (aka ~ $17/hr), companies don't expect much from BS chemists.
For the record, the starting salary for Masters chemists is about 50K, and 70K for PhD. IMO it is definitely worth it to go to school for the ~1.5
years it takes to get a masters. Remember, just about every extra month you spend in school working on your masters will be equivalent to increasing
your salary for the rest of your working life by at least $1000.
Good luck.
[Edited on 12-10-2010 by smuv]
"Titanium tetrachloride…You sly temptress." --Walter Bishop
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psychokinetic
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37k/a is a lot more than I already earn 
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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undead_alchemist
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Off topic I know:
10 years ago I was doing tech support at the cable company and it worked out to $18 per hour.
Lasted only 6 months before they started to downsize in a big way. Still in the end I collected around 30K after EI.
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Harmless
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Helpful advice.
What I think I will be doing most probably is that I will try to get some sort of job for a while after my undergraduate degree and gain some
experience and money (Cause I will need it if I plan to go for my graduate degree).
This blog post has some really interesting comments about Chemistry PhD's.
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/08/11/if_youre_not...
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DDTea
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That might be a wise choice. A lot of companies will pay for you to get a graduate degree.
"In the end the proud scientist or philosopher who cannot be bothered to make his thought accessible has no choice but to retire to the heights in
which dwell the Great Misunderstood and the Great Ignored, there to rail in Olympic superiority at the folly of mankind." - Reginald Kapp.
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ADP
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Three years ago I was seriously on path to pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemistry. For reasons discussed above I chose the route of chemical
engineering so that I could still study the interesting stuff that I've always loved, but also get a solid job with good pay.
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cnidocyte
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I'm half way into getting a bachelors too but I don't really care what job I get out of it, I'm in it for the skills. When I become a skilled chemist
then god help us all.
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Cuauhtemoc
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| Quote: Originally posted by ADP | | Three years ago I was seriously on path to pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemistry. For reasons discussed above I chose the route of chemical
engineering so that I could still study the interesting stuff that I've always loved, but also get a solid job with good pay. |
I choose the same path, atleast here in Brazil pure chemists get no respect or decent jobs.
I'm more of an engineer than a scientist anyway.
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Saerynide
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Chemical engineering is a wise choice (me's a cheme), but be warned! It's not chemistry... Its more physics and mathematical modeling than anything.
It will get you a job though, and you will see and analyze the world in a different way after
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satisfy any applicable law, regulation or legal process"
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Magpie
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Speaking as a retired chemical engineer I think Saerynide has summarized academic ChE well.
Although a BS in ChE will probably open more doors to employment, and more diverse employment, than any other degree I have always felt that the job
of "process engineer" is most representative. Here's two current job openings for same:
https://board.recruitmilitary.com/jobs/530546?utm_source=Ind...
and:
https://cop.taleo.net/careersection/10000/jobdetail.ftl?job=...
And don't worry about the salary & benefits. They're almost always quite good.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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