Who is Chemjobber?
Chemjobber is someone who just recently found a job doing chemistry. Chemjobber has a PhD in chemistry, not that it matters. Chemjobber spent about 8 painful months finding this position. He's a little chagrined by it all, but pleased as punch that someone will pay him to do organic chemistry.
What does Chemjobber want to do with this blog?
1. Help other chemists gets jobs, especially in this awful job market.
2. Quantify exactly how bad the job market is for chemists.
3. Talk to other chemists about the job market.
4. Have a historical record so that in 2035, he can talk about the bad time that chemists had in ought-nine and how we survived it all.
Why C&EN News?
Chemjobber is weird -- he likes the printed word. Chemjobber is weird -- in grad school, he had a newspaper subscription. Chemjobber is weird -- he actually looks forward to the weekly arrival of Chemical and Engineering News.
Serious answer: it's the official magazine of the American Chemical Society. It appears to be the place where people try to find chemists to hire. While the internet is growing in its ability to help chemists find jobs, printed advertisements are still being used and are relatively easy to quantify.
Ultimately, Chemjobber would like to try to quantify chemistry jobs advertised on the internet, but that's really hard to do.
What's so damn weird about looking forward to the arrival of C&E News? I love reading that stuff even though I stopped paying my dues (I just read other people's).
ReplyDelete-uncle sam
Thanks, Uncle Sam. Seems to me a lot of people like to dog the magazine a little. While I get the urge sometimes, I like reading it.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel chagrined about taking 8 months to find a job. I know many well qualified chemists who have been unemployed/underemployed for well over a year now.
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad that we spend a significant portion of our young lives (the 20s) getting educated only to find that the jobs are not there.
Thanks, TMC. I don't feel too bad about it, but it sure was a lot harder than getting my postdoc.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that there's some small kernel of truth in some wistful thoughts about hours and hours spent in the lab in your 20s. I don't think on it too often, but it is clearly a sacrifice/tradeoff.
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