Thursday, August 9, 2012

Daily Pump Trap: 8/9/12 edition

Good morning! Between August 7 and August 8, there were 16 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 3 (19%) are academically connected.

New Castle, DE: Croda is looking for a B.S. synthetic organic chemist for a position performing organic/polymer chemistry. 3-7 years experience preferred.

Rockville, MD: The United States Pharmacopeia is hiring a bunch of chemists, mostly analytical, mostly experienced.

Does General Electric want chemists?: Well, sort of. For the search term "chemist", there are two positions available for experienced Ph.D. analytical chemists/material scientists, both in Niskayuna, NY.

ACS Career Fair watch: 20 positions available for the Virtual Career Fair, 58 positions open for the Philadelphia Career Fair later this month.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder and Indeed show (respectively) 247, 731 and 2,984 positions for the search term "chemist." 

6 comments:

  1. Is there a such thing as a B.S. synthetic organic chemist?

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    Replies
    1. Salary-wise? Most certainly.

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    2. Somehow, most of them have it in their head that they won't be able to get a job without getting a Ph.D so they're keeping the university research pyramid scheme afloat.

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    3. I have seen entry-level synthetic organic chemistry openings for bachelors in science and I'm surprised that I don't see more. Given that employers generally need hands more than brains, why not delegate the more mundane synthesis work to new grads? You know, the wet chemistry, workup, separation, structure confirmation. Let the more experienced chemists do the method development, validation, discovery chemistry, etc. If a sophomore working in their professor's research lab can be taught these basic synthetic chemistry skills, why can't a new grad in industry? It's a different way of thinking about talent: developing skills rather than demanding everyone "hit the ground running."

      Admittedly, I'm a humble B.S. with only dreams of organic synthesis as I toil in analytical labs. Is this thought process too naive?

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    4. I work with a B.S. synthetic chemist who was a former analytical chemist; they've got great hands (of course, they've had pretty decent training.)

      It depends on the position, and the fit. To me, it's perfectly reasonable for, in the growth of a company, for there to be room for experienced B.S. associate chemists. It's not unreasonable, in my opinion, that they can be/will be excellent scientists.

      But In Our Times, there's too high of a supply of out-of-work Ph.D. chemists; they're just in line, bumping others out of the way. Sigh.

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  2. BS Synthesis is usually formulation work, or some combination of SOP following with strong analytical/material property characterization work.

    i.e. DOW and PPG in my city regularly have BS positions "advertised"
    Things like Technical Services, that mention interacting with customers. Formulation for paints, adhesives, and coatings.

    Alternatively, there's the request for the BS with 5-10 yrs experience running some form of process/production equipment. I don't know if those people or those jobs actually exist.

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