1. HELPING CHEMISTS FIND JOBS IN A TOUGH MARKET. 2. TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHEMISTRY JOB MARKET.
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| It's sunshiny, right? Credit: Flickr user londondreamer2 |
What's the job market like for chemists? Dude -- it's always bad.*
How bad is it? How the heck should I know? Quantifying the chemistry job market is what this blog is about. That, and helping chemists find jobs.
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(*For the literal-minded, this is a joke. Mostly.)
I graduated in May with a Bachelor's in Chemistry.
ReplyDeleteI'd been interning for over a year at a company that makes consumer care products. They hired me as a Product Development Scientist a week after graduation and are paying me 25% above median for my geographic area.
Recession? What recession?
awesome! i was doing the exact same thing (personal care products) as an internship, but then decided to go work for johnson & johnson in QA, and then left and went to graduate school for organic chem, and I hate to say it, but I wish i would have stayed!
Deletei never knew how much i loved what i had until it was gone...
Paper said reaction turned yellow upon addition of triflic anhydride...and so reaction just turned yellow!
ReplyDeletePhone interview progressed to an in person interview next week. w00t!
ReplyDeleteThis is after 120 job applications submitted. I estimate only about 10% ever respond, even with a rejection. The ones most likely respond are involved with federal or state government or are a very small biotech company. The job interview will be for a federal and state agency hybrid. It's not on the GS scale so the salary was listed as "commiserate", therefore I'm anticipating a salary around post-doc level, but for a permanent job. I can live with that.
I sincerely hope the pay was "commensurate" and not "commiserate", as the latter is either an egregious grammatical error or an ominous sign of the work environment.
DeleteIt was a grammatical error.
Deletegot poster prize at ISMC 2012 :P
ReplyDeleteI was just told to expect an offer to come my way very shortly - for my dream job!!! I can't wait til it gets here! I've been looking for 3 years...
ReplyDeleteTotal synthesis of my daughter completed 2.5 months ahead of schedule.
ReplyDeleteWell, major congrats for that one.
DeleteI was excited just to get plain old S. cerevisiae to contribute to forming gluten and CO2 at 175 °C. You definitely beat that.
Well, the country I'm in right now is doing much better than the European average. It seems like we have competent people in charge of the economic policy. Though if Europe collapses we're screwed. Just to a much lesser degree than Greece.
ReplyDeletebiotech companies are gradually starting to hire synthetic chemists again, both at the entry and the more senior levels (I know this from the example of our company and the industry friends that I am hearing from; I was also contacted by some headhunters recently - the same ones who would not even bother to respond a year and half ago). The only problem is that the number of applicants is so much higher that group managers looking to hire would more likely go through contacts and friends to find a suitable job candidate rather than advertising (and triggering a deluge of applications from job seekers who originally came to US as posdocs and stayed in low-paying postdoc jobs over the last eight or ten years)
ReplyDeleteSince I was hired as an analytical chemist 4 years ago at a large water utility company, my salary has increased 23% and they are covering all tuition costs while I continue to pursue my graduate degree. Oh yeah... and just got married!
ReplyDeleteWell, I was just offered a position for the first time in over a year... but I would have to start on the day that my bankruptcy hearing was scheduled. Neither would budge on the date. Guess I have to keep looking. (I got rid of more debt in one day than I would earn in over a year at that place.) It's not like I didn't tell them when I could start!
ReplyDeleteI've also had a temp agency send me to two wrong addresses. I had a company pay over $1000 to fly me somewhere, have me interview with 7 people, and have the HR person miss 3 scheduled appointments he had with me, then not refund the taxi fare.
ReplyDelete