1. HELPING CHEMISTS FIND JOBS IN A TOUGH MARKET. 2. TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHEMISTRY JOB MARKET.
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.)
They're few and far between. I'm sick of wasting my time answering phone calls from some 22-year-old recent liberal arts graduate who has no idea what any of the technical terms in the job description mean and is relying strictly on keyword matches.
ReplyDeletePrior to LinkedIn, I had no idea that recruiters were so terrible. About once every 4-6 months, I'll now get a new recruiter contacting me about job opportunities. I'm a surface scientist. I've had recruiters send me postings in process engineering and marine biology and some that have required a high school diploma. Not exactly the definition of targeted advertising.
ReplyDeleteI recently had one of those experiences, where I actually sharply commented back to the recruiter, basically saying "you realize that this is quite outside of my specialization, right?"
DeleteHe did not respond favorably.
I cannot tell you how many phone calls I have gotten over the past year from financial institutions. Also, recruiters setting up a time to call me regarding a job, only to find out that what they really wanted me to do was join their job-search site.
DeleteThey are all worthless wastes of space. As useless to job seekers as to those trying to fill a position. Infuriates me that they exist.
ReplyDeleteA recruiting outfit would need to hire someone who knows something about chemistry, which is a more expensive proposition than the regular schlubs they hire. And the salaries for chem jobs are generally sucky, so they get diddly squat for hiring this chem-literate person to make phone calls.
ReplyDeleteIt's an indication of our economic status more than anything.
A recruiter once contacted me via linkedin to set-up a time when we could talk on the phone. I gave her a time. When the time came for the call I happened to be driving. I mentioned that I was driving when she called. She responded "So am I."
ReplyDeleteI've never met a recruiter who had the slightest idea about the field he was hiring for.
ReplyDelete