Happy Labor Day!

Photo credit: Unknown. 

Hope everyone is having a happy and restful Labor Day! Back to work tomorrow!

BREAKING: Unemployment at 9.6%, up 0.1% from July

Fresh electrons from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the official unemployment rate is 9.6%, up slightly by 0.1% from July. The broader measurement of unemployment (U6) is up from July as well; it is 16.7%, up from 16.5%.  Things are basically moving sideways right now.

More as time permits, and analysis rolls in.

UPDATE: The initial consensus is that things are improving (but slowly) and that the uptick in unemployment is happening as discouraged workers come back into the market. Thanks, as always, to Calculated Risk for the graph.

Cork rings: a collection of links

Some small and useful things this morning:

- Wavefunction's account of the R.B. Woodward symposium at the Boston ACS is excellent.
- Check out this interview with PhD Comics' Jorge Cham that Leigh Boerner conducted -- very winning.
- Liberal Arts Chemist has 2 interesting posts, including pictures of an accident at (yes) the Klapoetke lab.
- Happy 100th post to the Haystack! As long as I can read about getting rid of unsightly chin fat, I'll be there.

Chemjobber C&EN Index: August 23, 2010 issue

Industrial positions (non-academic, non-governmental):
Total number of ads: 0
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 1
- Ratio of US/non-US: 0
Area: 67 sq. cm.

Governmental positions (US, international):
Total number of ads: 0
- Postdocs: 1+
- Permanent positions: 1
- Ratio of US/non-US: 0/0
Area: 118 sq. cm.

Academic positions:
Total number of ads: 24
- Postdocs: 1
- Tenure-track faculty: 27
- Temporary faculty: 0
- Lecturer positions: 0
- Staff positions: 4
- Ratio of US/non-US positions: 31/1
- Area (square cm): 1142 sq. cm.

It's back!: Well, the Index had to come back. If only there were a big spate of industrial jobs to talk about. Sadly, there's just a senior associate position at Celgene. But it's in San Diego -- lovely city.
 
Fall faculty searches: The academic recruiting issue is coming, and the number of available professorships is beginning to rise in the back of C&EN. September 13 is the big issue -- I'll be analyzing that, when it comes. Nevertheless, this issue is the first in a while to have more than 1 page of text ads.
 
Small college of the week: Rollins College (Winter Park, FL; student population: 3,294, SA-LUTE!) is looking for an assistant professor of biochemistry. Hey, they have a 300 MHz NMR! So if living in the Orlando area sounds like fun, this position might be for you!

Daily Pump Trap: 9/1/2010 edition

Good morning! From August 30 to August 31, there were 16 new positions on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 4 (25%) are academically connected and 2 (13%) are from our friends at Kelly Scientific Resources.

Football!: Wildcat Discovery Technologies is a battery research start-up. They're looking for a B.S./M.S. research associate to help with the synthesis and analysis of new materials. It might be too trendy, but I find this position to be really neat. (Obscure reference sort-of explained here.)

Weeds: The University of Illinois is looking for a B.S. chemist who is interested in weed science. Specifically, they someone with  "a thorough understanding of analytical laboratory equipment and techniques for chromatographic analysis of plant secondary compounds and metabolites."

Mountains, too: W.L. Gore's facility in Flagstaff, Arizona desires a M.S./Ph.D. analytical chemist to work in their medical devices division. Required:  3 years of experience working in a regulated environment and demonstrated in-depth working knowledge of GCMS and/or LCMS analytical techniques.

Nanonanonano: Adama Materials in Hawaii wishes to find a M.S./Ph.D. polymer chemist ("with emphasis in advanced polymers and their chemistry, or related discipline with 5 + years of research and development experience (of which at least 2-3 years were in industry)." Interesting commentary for the job description: "University lab setting in a startup business environment (fast paced and potentially longer working hours meeting deadlines)." Great!

Conservation of a different sort: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art wishes to hire a Ph.D. chemist for a postdoctoral research position in the field of art conservation. "Previous experience in a museum environment is not required, but a strong interest in the visual arts is important." You can read up on the job here, with Leigh Boerner's great interview of a similar lab in Indianapolis.

Industrial ads in Fall ACS conference preview issue of C&EN (1990-2010)

# of Industrial ads in C&EN issue with technical program or final program

In an attempt to understand the relevance of the Fall ACS conference, I looked at the last 20 years of C&EN where the technical program or the final program appeared. I believe this issue is/was the issue that companies would use to advertise to job candidates. My tabulated results are here, where I note the number of industrial ads (non-academic, non-governmental), the number of pages those ads appeared on, and the issue date.

Looking at the charted data, there are a number of points to make:

The shift away from print: In 1990, there was no such thing as the internet. If you wanted to hire chemists, you darn well better advertise in C&EN or one of its few brethren. If you wanted to meet chemists at the Fall ACS conference, you'd probably use the relevant issue of C&EN. In 2010, that's not the case. I suspect many job advertisements have moved away from print. (And I'm guessing that ads on ACS Careers are a lot cheaper than a double-pager in C&EN.)

Merger mania: Reading issues from '96 and '98, it was vaguely amusing (okay, really funny) to read ads from companies that you know had been absorbed by Aguoron, no, Warner-Lambert, no, Pfizer. There's no doubt that one of the first places that the places savings were found was HR and its related expenses -- that would be reflected in the post-2003 (or so) numbers.

Golden ages past?: I suspect that the recent past (1997-2003?) was a local maxima of chemical employment, fueled by the 'irrational exuberance' of the late-'90s. Whether or not this chart is yet another sign of the potential and dreaded secular shift is yet to be seen.

A commenter's good idea: extend/adjust ACS dues waivers for unemployed members

An anonymous commenter notes that the ACS bylaws only allow unemployed members to waive their dues for 2 consecutive years. While I suspect that those 2 years might be able to cover most unemployment circumstances for many members, this Great Recession is marked by high numbers of the long-term unemployed (6 months +).

Why not extend ACS unemployment benefits to 3 years?

I can't imagine that this would cost a lot of money (maybe I'm wrong.) Isn't this exactly what you'd want from ACS? I think it's a good idea. What do you think?

Daily Pump Trap: 8/30/10 edition

Good morning! From August 25 until August 29, there are 61 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 24 (40%) are academically connected.

Well, there IS sun and sand: SABIC is one of Saudi Arabia's largest petroleum companies; they're looking for a number (4+) of positions, including a Ph.D. chemist to perform heterogeneous catalysis research. Tempting, I know.

Genentech: The Bay Area company wishes a senior scientific manager (Ph.D. w/10 years or BS/MS with 15 years) with analytical experience in GMP release testing.

DuPont: Their Delaware facility desires a Principal Investigator (Ph.D., 5-10 years) for research into organic electronic materials and OLEDs. Sounds like a good one.

Did not know that: One of my favorite things about the DPT is learning about new companies (that are probably enormous) that I didn't know about. Sasol North America is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. chemist with knowledge of inorganic/alumina chemistry to develop aluminum oxide products. "Experience in oilfield chemistry or chemical-mechanical planarization technology desired."

Why the faculty members bear some responsibility in the Texas Tech case

Chart by Chemjobber. Photo credit: Thomas Klapoetke

While I believe that the graduate student in the Texas Tech case bears the lion's share of the responsibility (and agree with Sam that he should have been removed), it's worth looking at the institutional factors.

Jyllian Kemsley linked to an 2008 article where she explored the safety standards that well-regarded academic explosives labs use, such as the Klapoetke lab (a frequent subject of Derek Lowe's Things I Won't Work With.) They are:

- a reliance on manipulating small quantities of material (no more than a few hundred milligrams), specialized equipment for dealing with small quantities
- "collective basic guidelines" and one-on-one meetings with the PI to reiterate them
- a buddy system, including peer review of upcoming procedures
- tiered access to amounts and kinds of energetic compounds, based on experience and lack of incident
- forms to force consideration of safety during experiments
- forcing out students who will not comply

By contrast, what is the sum total of evidence of training at the Weeks lab?

- Page 5 of the EHS accident report: "Laboratory staff stated they have had some training at one time or the other. The training was not complete and there are no records of such training."
- Page 11: "Said she had not been given any training."
- Page 14: "The type of training he received was given by [blocked out] had told him that he should wear a lab coat, goggles and gloves, but [blocked out] himself did not wear any of these items himself. No EH&S training was taken either.
- Page 17: "A Post doc (Raj) verbally told me how to operate the equipment. [Re safety training] Did not have any."
- Page 25: [With Mr. Brown himself re safety training] "No formal training. Just kinda you learn as you go thru the courses... But no specific training after arriving at the graduate school."

The Weeks lab was also short on safety equipment, with no blast shields and safes for the storing of energetic materials. Sure sounds like they were relying on the Finchsigmate academic safety rule: "Don't rub this on [your sensitive anatomy.]"

At the risk of repeating myself, this is why best practice literature is so important to safe chemistry for the young chemist. How will you know how to do things correctly, especially when your supervisors aren't looking out for your safety? Go to the literature, my friends.*

I find it frustrating that two clicks into "Prudent Practices in the Laboratory" (readable and searchable online here), one finds a detailed guide to handling explosive compounds. It gives very detailed instructions of PPE, engineering controls and work practices, including the tragic sentence: "In conventional explosives laboratories, no more than 0.1 g of product should be prepared in a single run... Special formal risk assessments should be established to examine operational and safety problems involved in scaling up a reaction in which an explosive substance is used or could be generated."

In so many ways, this execrable tragedy could have been avoided. Sigh.

*And if you can't find the literature, go to someone who can help you. I don't know how many times as a blogger, I've cold e-mailed people to find that they're incredibly helpful.

A bit of good news, perhaps: ACS job fair numbers

Good morning! The following numbers were reported to the ACS Council regarding the ACS Boston Career Fair:

Employers: 68
Number of positions: 484
Job seekers: 1066

Those numbers are better than the last two sets of numbers, especially the ratio of jobseekers to positions. An improvement from 5-to-1 and 10-to-1 to 2-to-1 is nice to hear. Hope that people had good luck finding positions.

UPDATE (8/31/10): The ever-helpful David Harwell (Assistant Director for Career Management and Development at ACS) (here, speaking for himself, not for ACS) e-mails to say that "We also recorded 770 interviews. Please note that this number only reflects interviews scheduled through our system. Some employers prefer to schedule interviews independently. Using our number, there were 0.7 interviews per job seeker."

Awesome Reader of the Century of the Week: Mike Tarselli

Michael Tarselli, for mentioning Chemjobber at an ACS Lunch-and-Learn on chemblogging, many thanks and congratulations! You're Chemjobber's inaugural Awesome Reader of the Century of the Week! You are undoubtedly awesome!

(Dude, seriously, thanks -- let me know how I can help with the job search.)

Daily Pump Trap: 8/25/10 edition

Good morning! From August 19 until August 24, there were 18 new positions posted to the ACS Careers website. Of these, 4 (22%) are academically connected.

Psst... want to work in an office?: Wolf Greenfield (a Boston law firm) is looking for Ph.D. chemists to become technology specialists (3 positions open), on their road to becoming patent lawyers. The salary is certainly attractive (90-100k.)

The Rocket City calls: Nektar Therapeutics has made regular pushes towards hiring process chemists over the last 3 years; once again, they are searching for a Ph.D. chemist with 5+ years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. GMP experience a plus.

Under the water tower: Novartis' Cambridge site seeks a B.S./M.S. chemist with 2+ years experience in mass spectrometry and separations for bioanalytical work. Looks like a good position -- good luck.

Northwestern: Their new drug discovery center desires an experienced analytical chemist to run their robotic medium-throughput purification technology. Sounds like a good job for a former pharma analyst somewhere...

Why best practice literature is essential to chemistry

Q: So what is the prognosis on your hands so far?
A: The right hand is pretty good. And the left hand is missing 3 fingers, but they say that's looking pretty good.

Q: How's your vision?
A: It's fine. It's certainly not as good as it was before. But it's certainly good enough to do everyday things. So I don't need to spot eagles from, uh... you know.

Q: Are you right or left handed?
A: I was left handed. I'll have to be right handed now.

-from the transcript of an interview of the Texas Tech lab explosion victim.  

Jyllian Kemsley has outdone herself again with a great analysis of an incident at Texas Tech University, where a graduate student made 100 times the recommended amount of a highly explosive material, nickel hydrazine perchlorate. When it exploded, he was severely injured.

While the sheer recklessness of the incident is pretty remarkable (as Paul Bracher points out), something that I find frustrating is the lack of training provided to the students by their research advisers. US government labs have been performing energetic materials research for many, many years -- there has got to be a wealth of literature available about how to safely handle potentially explosive materials.

When confronted with potentially hazardous operations, researchers should be constantly asking themselves: is this the best practice? What do people much more experienced and knowledgeable than I think of what I'm doing? What does the literature say about what I'm doing? Do I think this is the safest or best way of doing this? There's no reason for more fingers to be lost.

Daily Pump Trap: 2010 Fall ACS meeting edition

Good morning! There are 206 positions advertised on the ACS Careers website that are interviewing at the Career Fair. The following are the available statistics about the positions:

Geography: US (179 positions, 87%), China (14, 7%), India (6, 3%), other (7, 3%)
Education: B.S. (59), M.S. (27), Ph.D. (84)
Specialization: Analytical (43), Inorganic (17), Medicinal/Clinical (14), Nanotechnology (11), Organic (48), Pharmaceutical (58).
Level: Entry-level (51), Experienced (146), Internship (9)

Best of luck to all over the next week.

Talk to C&EN about your career switch

Susan Ainsworth is a senior editor at C&EN; she's looking for folks who have moved away from chemistry and gone into other fields. In addition, she would like to hear from people who have "an opinion (expert or otherwise) about retooling and its long term implications both to the individual chemist and to the industry at large."

Her e-mail address is S_Ainsworth-at-acsdotorg. (Obviously, remove the spamproofing.)

Friday chuckle

What's the problem with posing pictures in the lab next to sophisticated-looking equipment? Well, you might look a little silly to the knowledgeable.

(Photo from the New York Times. Original caption: Riccardo Signorelli, chief executive of FastCap Systems, which is developing capacitors using nanotube technology. Photo credit: Jodi Hilton for The New York Times.)

Why chemistry professors want to make more chemists

Faithful commentor Dr. Oaks mentions in a comment that "I also think advisers also should really consider fielding their grad students for more non-research related occupations." He acknowledges the problems with this thought by saying "If their students aren't towing the line, they don't get funding either."

I think that last is a big part of why more chemistry professors don't push their students to look outside chemistry -- it doesn't help the professor or her future group members, either in the present or the future. If your graduate students and postdocs go on and perform good science, there is some amount of reflected glory to be had; it's not a coincidence that the introduction of seminar speakers starts with a ritual recitation of the speaker's former kung-fu masters research advisers. The soft power from having lots of prominent group alumni in your contacts is pretty darn high.

If a chemistry professor was known for training people who left the field to be doctors, successful Wall Street analysts or high school teachers, would this professor win as much praise from their colleagues as one who had R1 professors and big pharma directors as their chemical progeny? I doubt it.

I should close this by noting that I like chemistry professors a lot and count my former research adviser as a friend. But they are rational actors, too -- and there is no shame in admitting that.

Daily Pump Trap: 8/19/2010 edition

Good morning! From August 17 to August 18, there were 28 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 3 (11%) were academically connected.

Big companies: GE, Kraft and BASF are looking. Good news, I'd think.

Making jobs that make jobs better: BASF is hiring a M.S./Ph.D. polymer chemist with 15+ years of experience to "[d]esign and develop new emulsion polymers for pressure-sensitive and flexible packaging and laminating adhesive applications." Just as long as they keep sticking!

Good things: GE is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. analytical chemist, desiring "[e]xperience with analytical and sensing methods for biological and chemical detection including optical and electrochemical sensing as well as direct spectroscopy." Sounds pretty interesting.

Once again: Gilead Sciences is hiring a B.S./M.S. medicinal chemistry associate (entry-level); this position is in Connecticut, as opposed to the home office in the Bay Area.

Hexion: This position in Louisville, KY is for an experienced B.S./M.S./Ph.D. polymer/organic chemist with "in-depth knowledge of organic and polymer chemistry" and "experience with thermosetting resins."

New stat: There were 9 positions advertised by very large corporate entities. Good news? We'll see.

What would you ask a chemblogging panel?

Carmen Drahl of C&EN's The Haystack pharma blog is moderating a panel of prominent chemistry and pharma bloggers, including Derek Lowe and Abel Pharmboy (David Kroll.) This Lunch and Learn is at the Boston ACS meeting on Tuesday. You can submit your questions here; she promises to pick the best questions and ask them.

Here are 5 questions that I would like to ask such an august group of chembloggers:

1. Who does the chemblogging world need to recruit to blog?
2. Who in the chemblogosphere deserves more attention? How do we fight epistemic closure?
3. Economics does not have any problem getting their professors to blog --  why is it so difficult to get chemistry professors to blog? Neither group lacks tenure, so that can't be the reason. (Is it grant-related?)
4. What does Derek's post on the recent metal-free coupling paper in JACS tell us about open-source science?
5. Is the chemical enterprise in long-term decline in the US - yes or no?

Daily/Weekly Pump Trap: 8/17/2010 edition

Good morning! From August 6 until August 16, there were 165 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 23 (14%) of these are academically connected.

Wow: I could be wrong, but this is the heaviest slug of industrial jobs I've seen in a while -- nice to see.

3M: Nice to see some larger companies looking for multiple positions; 3M has 4 positions available, including a senior scientist position for a Ph.D. polymer chemist with experience with free-radical polymerizations. "Expertise in emulsion/suspension polymerizations and processes" is also desired, as well as systematic problem solving skills.

Vertex: Once again, Vertex is hiring. Among others, they're looking for an experienced Ph.D. analytical chemist with experience in the pharmaceutical industry for QbD and CMC work.

FMC: They are looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be "the expert on metabolism chemistry and environmental fate of agroproducts in a global S&P 500 leader". You "will have a PhD in an appropriate chemical or biochemical discipline and significant experience in pesticide metabolism and/or environmental fate, with hands-on experience in a residue lab, preferably in an industry setting and ideally in agriculture." How many people in this country have this experience? 50? 100?

The most desirable position in chemistry?: The Australian Wine Research Institute is looking for Ph.D. organic chemists to perform "research... to establish the identity, formation and fate of volatile and non-volatile compounds that play key roles in sensory attributes and stability of wine, and develop the scientific framework for improvements to viticultural and winemaking practices."

Hmmm: WuXi AppTec is looking for a Ph.D. fluorine chemist to be their "Leader of Fluorine Chemistry Centre." I find it mildly interesting and distressing that WuXi is setting up internal research institutes while they seem to be going by the wayside in the US and Europe.

Broader look: Searches for "chemist" on Monster, Careerbuilder and Indeed.com show (respectively) 309 (down from 8/5), 647 (up) and 1,773 (down) positions.

Interview: a Canadian chemist looks for work

I recently had the chance of talking by e-mail with CanChem, who is looking for a position in chemistry in the Boston area. The following has been lightly edited and redacted for privacy. Here is his story, followed by a Q&A:

CanChem: I'm a rather new entrant to the world of industrial chemistry, being just [a few] years out from grad school in Canada where I received an MSc under [respected professor] in synthetic organic chemistry. I was lucky to get a job in Toronto shortly after my defense with a small start-up contract med-chem outfit (lucky as there are very few synthetic positions available in Ontario / Canada at any given time, maybe 1 every couple of months) where I was hired as a senior research associate. After [less than 3 years] in collaboration with a pair of start-up companies the contracts expired and no new ones could be obtained so the company closed up shop and laid me and the other chemists off.

During this time my wife moved down to Boston to pursue a law degree, and I've been trying to join her down there for a year now, and despite our marriage and generally jovial relations between Canada and the USA it's a protracted and relatively unfeasible process to get me residency in the States. As such I've been applying as an international applicant to companies, able to enter and work under the TN (NAFTA class) visa, without the headaches of the H1-B process, but that hasn't seemed to make a lick of difference. My previous employer was incredibly supportive when he heard that my wife was returning to Boston and provided me with his contact list for individuals and companies in Massachusetts, and it's only because of his connections that I've even had any face time with prospective employers. However, despite his help and applications to everything I've seen come up online and everywhere else I could think of, I've only had two interviews in 12 months, and I haven't seen the environment improving of late.

Chemjobber: Do you think US employers balk at the issues with immigration status or do you think they're pretty used to dealing with it?

CC: I've found it's depended on who it is; one job I was expecting an offer on got completely shut down because of internal policies regarding any visa sponsorship (TN or H1-B) for anything less than PhD, whereas another it it wasn't even a consideration. The first was a research institute affiliated with a university, the second was a mid-size company. From past lab-mates (Canadians) who've gone down in the last 5 years, I've heard that unless the company is totally new and the HR people don't understand what TN's are all about it's not been an issue to work.

CJ: How many positions have you applied for? What have you been hearing?

CC: I think I've sent in around 50 unique applications. About 45 of those have gone into the void, with two resulting in interviews, one getting a "no actual positions at this time" reply, and the other two being the "Thank you for your interest, we're receiving so many qualified applicants..." form letter.

CJ: Can you describe the employment situation for organic chemists in Canada? Am I right in thinking there's Merck Frosst (well, not anymore) and not much else? Anything in the western provinces? (pardon if that's a dumb question)

CC: I'm by no means an expert, but from my looking Canada has a small VC-funded pool of start-ups, maybe 25-40 (?) doing medchem, with about half being in Toronto, most of the rest in Montreal, and a couple in Vancouver / Calgary. There had been a good concentration of pharma research in the Montreal area (most biggies had a shop there), and while Toronto has many Big Pharma branch offices, very few do anything resembling chemistry. Gilead opened a site in Edmonton AB, and otherwise I don't know of much out west.

Organic chemists wanting to stay in Toronto have a few options; the hospitals and universities have small research institutions with maybe 100 total chemists in Toronto, there's Apotex doing process work with a staff of ~50, my former company, whose fine chemicals business employs 25 chemists, and a couple of other custom synthesis / off-the-shelf places with maybe another 75-100 chemists among them. People from my school have in the past 3 years either gone to a) the states (50 %), b) Apotex/my place/one other shop (15 %), c)  Merck Frosst (10 %... for now) or d) out of organic chem (25 %). When my company closed down my co-workers were either looking in the States (none of the PhD's had much faith in finding anything in Canada) or branching out in chemistry to stay in Toronto, or going back to school for something else. Online job boards have not held any organic chemistry positions for months now.

CJ here again. Thanks for CanChem for his frank and interesting insights into life as an organic chemist in Canada.

What do chemists do when they stop doing chemistry?

I am sure that most of you have been following the comments in the recent In the Pipeline thread "If you're not a chemist - what next?" The thread has generated over 160 comments and lots of people suggesting new fields.

I took a look at the answers and tried to quantify the 'next'? There were 35 answers where someone identified themselves (or someone they know) as a former scientist and their current new field.

In order of popularity, they are:

Computer-related work (computational science, programming, etc.): 9 (26%)
Other (conference planning, children's museum coordinator, gardening): 8 (23%)
Business (MBA, business development): 4 (11%)
Intellectual property law (patent attorney, agent): 4 (11%)
Regulatory affairs: 4 (11%)
Pharmacy-related stuff: 3 (9%)
Teaching (high school, tutoring): 3 (9%)

I have to say, I'm surprised by the relative lack of answers on MBA or IP law, but maybe they're busy? Interesting.

BREAKING: July unemployment rate at 9.5%, unchanged from June

Good morning! Fresh electrons from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the official (U3) unemployment rate is 9.5%, unchanged from June. Similarly, the broader (U6) measure of unemployment from July is also unchanged at 16.5%.

Looks like the unemployment scenario is mostly moving sideways these days. More later, as more analysis arrives.

UPDATE at 8:42AM: Thanks, as always, to Calculated Risk for the graph.

Daily Pump Trap: 8/6/2010

Good morning! From August 4 through August 5, there have been 28 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 6 (21%) are academically connected and none are from Kelly Scientific Resources.

More plastics: Nalco currently has 9 positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 3 are located in the US and the rest are either in India or China. In Chicago, they are looking for a Ph.D. chemical engineer to be a staff scientist. In Houston, they are looking a Ph.D. organic chemist with experience with water-soluble polymers.

Tour of duty?: BASF is advertising its Professional Development Program for new Ph.D. chemists and chemical engineers: "Two, nine-month assignments provide exposure to various technologies and career opportunities throughout BASF, while promoting the development of technical and professional decision-making skills and fulfilling specific business needs. Assignments can be located at many of BASF sites located across North America." Sounds like an interesting opportunity.

Electrochemistry FTW: DuPont is the latest to desire a Ph.D. chemist with experience in "thin film technology, device design, and characterization with relevance to photovoltaics, energy storage, or organic electronics applications." I should really do a post on this...

What IS that?: GSK is looking for a Ph.D. bioorganic chemist biotransformation chemist, with "extensive experience (minimum 3 years), knowledge and expertise on the use of isolated enzymes for small molecule synthesis." Oh, that.

And finally, a smallish company: Envoy Therapeutics (of Jupiter, FL) desired a Ph.D. director of medicinal chemistry, with 8+ years in the pharmaceutical industry and 4+ years of managerial experience. Hope the stock options package is good for you.

And a new feature: Searches for "chemist" on Monster, Careerbuilder and Indeed.com show (respectively) 704, 306 and 4,505 positions. Separating the wheat from the chaff (or vice versa) is going to be tough, but I'll try.

Chemjobber C&EN Index: 7/19/2010

Industrial positions (non-academic, non-governmental):
Total number of ads: 0
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 0
- Ratio of US/non-US: 0
Area: 0

Governmental positions (US, international):
Total number of ads: 0
- Postdocs: 0
- Permanent positions: 0
- Ratio of US/non-US: 0/0
Area: 0

Academic positions:
Total number of ads: 9
- Postdocs: 0
- Tenure-track faculty: 25 (?)
- Temporary faculty: 1
- Lecturer positions: 1
- Staff positions: 2
- Ratio of US/non-US positions: 28/1
- Area (square cm): 593

It's that time again: for the No Industrial Job senryu...

No industry jobs!
What is the solution now?
Another postdoc?

Ruff: It's not the "dog days" of summer yet, but it might as well be. Not many ads overall.

Small college of the week: St. John's University (Queens, NY, student population: 20,069, SA-LUTE!) is looking for a visiting assistant professor in organic and general chemistry. Want to teach at a half-decent basketball school? Here's your chance!

Daily Pump Trap: 8/4/10 edition

Good morning! From July 30 to August 3rd, there were 67 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of those, 14 (21%) are academically connected and 1 is from our friends at Kelly Scientific Resources.

Strong: Maybe I'm crazy, but there's good bit of recruiting going on right now. Of course, some of this is connected to the upcoming Fall ACS meeting.

A balm: Gilead Sciences, Inc. has been recruiting strongly over the lifetime of this blog. I don't know why or whether all of this is just a "fishing expedition." Nevertheless, they posted 11 positions on July 31st, including a position for a B.S./M.S. medicinal chemist (experience desired unknown.)

Um, thanks, I think: BASF is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. research scientist with a degree in "insect physiology, invertebrate toxicology or mode of action research." Yeah, the ACS Careers database is the perfect place for that.

Ohio by way of Tennessee: The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is looking for a M.S. chemist to perform research into inhalation exposure at Wright-Patterson AFB.

Space!: The Aerospace Corporation (sounds ominous, doesn't it?) is looking for a Ph.D. computation materials chemist to work on nanomaterials.

Hmm...: Spectrix Analytical Services is looking for B.S./M.S. analytical chemists to perform contract on-site analysis and separations of drug discovery compounds in Connecticut and New Jersey. Gee, I didn't know that your analytical team was another place where you could outsource -- seems like a bad idea to me.

Plastics!: Cognis Corporation is looking for a Ph.D. R&D manager with 10+ years experience in the manufacture of dimers, trimers and polyamides. Sounds interesting.

21 chemistry talks that you've been to (and some you haven't.)

One of the things I really miss about graduate school is the seminars. Even though I fell asleep through a good many of them, I learned a lot about chemistry and even more about effective ways of presenting accomplished science. Here are a few talks that I've been to -- and I'm guessing that you've been to them, too.

1. Here is a lot of data; I'm not sure what it all means.
2. Everything you know about subject X is wrong.
3. Everything you know about subject Y is right, but here's my spin.
4. This is work I did 20 years ago -- I think it's still interesting. Don't you?
5. I really want this job.
6. Man, I am SO NERVOUS.
7. I think this new methodology will be revolutionary.
8. I'm giving this talk to make you laugh. Why aren't you laughing?
9. Dude, I am super impressive.
10. There's some data in here somewhere -- mostly, I just have an interesting hypothesis.
11. you can't hear me
12. You can't see my slides.   [Highlight to see.]
13. I haven't practiced this talk, and it shows.
14. I memorized this talk, and it shows.
15. This slide is in the wrong place.
16. Dude -- you don't understand. I really want this job.
17. This slide is just wrong.
18. Isn't this idea awesome!!?!?!
19. You don't know it, but you just saw a future Nobel prize winner.
20. I'm out to get a professor in the audience.
21. This talk was designed to get you to fall asleep -- and look, it worked!

UPDATE: John from It's the Rheo Thing adds some excellent ones:

22. I've got all these slides that I've used over the years - let me talk about a few of them, then hunt around for a few more at which point I'll talk some more, and then I'll hunt around some more... (i.e., It wasn't worth my effort to prepare for you).
23. Did you see this new feature in the latest version of Powerpoint?
24. Did you see this other new feature in the latest version of Powerpoint? And what about this one? Or this one? (I know more about Powerpoint than any marketer alive!)
25. This is just an oral version of my newest paper published last month.

Daily Pump Trap: 7/30/10 edition

Good morning! From July 28 until July 29, there have been 24 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of those, 4 positions are academically connected (17%) and 1 position is from Kelly Scientific Resources.

Pfositions at Pfearl River: Pfizer is hiring 4 M.S./Ph.D chemists at the old Wyeth site for "scientists with experience in synthetic/semi-synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry of glycoconjugates, carbohydrates, peptides, protein modification, bioconjugation to work in the area of conjugate vaccine research and early phase development."

Paper!: Sappi Fine Paper is searching for a M.S./Ph.D. research scientist to perform research on coated papers in Westbrook, Maine. Education in "organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, or material science" is desired.

Water!: The Las Vegas Valley Water District is hiring a Ph.D. chemist to head research "related to the quality of water treated and distributed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority/Southern Nevada Water System." Good luck with that; the Colorado River isn't exactly getting higher.

Ink!: E Ink is looking for a Ph.D. synthetic chemist (0-8 years experience) for work on new organic materials for electronic paper displays.

So as I was sayin', part N.: IMRA America in Ann Arbor, MI is looking for a M.S. materials chemist to work on a lithium ion battery.

Help me understand... the UK chemistry job market

Hey, folks:

Seems to me that people have a difficult time finding work in chemistry in the UK; that Trevor Laird editorial is sure indicative, and I think I've seen other signs. Anyone want to tell me about the history of it (maybe the last ten years?)  Give me a buzz at chemjobber -at- gmaildotcom or throw in a comment.

Cheers, CJ

What's happening to pharmaceutical synthetic chemistry jobs?: the Lowe/Laird/Anon hypothesis

I. The past was better than now

In April of this year, Derek Lowe made a statement that I found interesting, but not proven: "there are far fewer med-chem jobs out there today than there were five years ago." Later in the post, Dr. Lowe tends to define the term by "the number of well-paid US-based positions at large pharma companies."

For the most part, I think he's right. The list of former large pharma sites listed by one of my commenters recently is too large to list and too large to ignore -- not all of those positions could have been resorbed by their parent/merged companies.

However, I have been unable to locate a census-type count of industrial medicinal chemists; to my eye, this would be the only way of falsifying Derek's hypothesis.

II. Now is not good. 

On July 16, Trevor Laird (the editor of Organic Process Research and Development) wrote a depressing and truthful editorial titled "Is there a Future for Organic Chemists in the Pharmaceutical Industry outside China and India?"  He discusses the current state of affairs ably; I suggest you read the whole thing. But here's the key portion:

"The impending closure of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) sites in the UK and Italy, and the announcement by Astra Zeneca of the closure of the Loughborough (Charnwood) site with the loss of 1200 R&D staff along with the loss of jobs at the Avonmouth manufacturing site mean that many scientists in process R&D in the UK are falling on hard times. At the same time, Pfizer has cut staff in Medicinal Chemistry and Process R&D at Sandwich, UK, after the merger with Wyeth and has reduced the number of manufacturing sites in Ireland and elsewhere. So in the UK, the three major companies carrying out medicinal chemistry and process R&D are all reducing staffing levels. Now, where do those out of work, or for that matter new recruits from universities, find jobs? I wish I knew the answer!... In the United States I am sure the situation is no better with many major multinationals announcing layoffs in the last year, and even the biotech sector is not immune to similar problems."

His advice to his colleagues? Find a CRO position or a job with a private pharmaceutical concern that isn't affected by all the merger-mania and keep networking. Good advice, but (as he would likely admit) there's not a lot of positions there, especially in the Western half of the world.

III. The future isn't looking too bright either

A recent comment (by the mellifluous sounding Anon906p071710) summarized his/her thinking this way:

"Almost every industrial chemist I know who has been laid off remains unemployed. I am in the biotech/pharma industry and know of hundreds of synthetic chemists who have lost their jobs as pharma/biotech/ag/chemical industry has moved jobs off shore/downsized and as biotech companies focused their little remaining money on clinical development.

The real question is: what is the unemployment rate of industrial chemists who did medicinal, synthetic, and other laboratory-based organic chemistry work? If you were highly trained as a medicinal/synthetic or other organic specialty, you are not likely to move into green inorganic material science without going back to graduate school.

Unless I am missing something, I do not see our industrial jobs ever coming back, so a whole generation of organic chemists will be lost, thrown out like so much useless trash. The profession will wither away outside of academic departments."

To me, Anon906p's comment really has two relevant parts: A) the industrial synthesis jobs aren't coming back and that B) retraining synthetic/medicinal chemists for material scientists is more-or-less impractical. I hate to say something so trite, but only time will tell. (I hope he's wrong.)

Derek Lowe tends to agree in his April post: "I hate to sound like this, but I think there's been too much of a shift in recent years for anything to undo it. Costs have gone up, drug-development success rates have (at best) not increased, and there are cheaper ways to get a good amount of work done which used to cost more. Which of these things are going to change back, and how?"

IV. What does this mean? 

I don't know -- nothing good, I suspect. Over the next year, I plan to try to figure it out. I hope you'll help me.

Daily/Weekly Pump Trap: 7/28/10

Good morning! Between July 14 and July 27, there were 90 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of those, 25 (28%) are academically connected and 1 is from our friends at Kelly Scientific Resources.

Want an academic career: ...that's not? The Washington University Department of Chemistry is looking for an administrative officer; a Ph.D. in chemistry is desired. Probably a nice job for a former PFE employee...

Awesome: Look, this is an awesome job for someone. Dugway Proving Ground (through Jacobs Technology) is looking for a M.S. analytical chemist to perform GC- and LC/MS on chemical warfare agents and their degradants. One of you has got to apply for this thing.

As he was saying: PPG Industries is looking for Ph.D. organic/polymer chemists; 0-2 years of experience is desired.

As I was saying: GE is looking for a Ph.D. electrochemist with experience in organic and materials chemistry for advanced battery technology.

Be Barry's boss: The Scripps Research Institute is looking for a president; you just need to have "national and international reputation as a scientist in any of the key TSRI disciplines such as structural biology, chemistry, cell biology, etc." and "a record of progressively responsible management of programs of considerable scale and complexity." Looks like you'd be Bill Roush's boss, too.

Interview: Dr. Fenton Heirtzler

Fenton Heirtzler is a frequent commenter on Chemjobber; he is currently looking for a position in chemistry. Recently, I asked him a series of questions on his job hunt. This e-mail exchange has been lightly edited and checked for accuracy by Dr. Heirtzler.

CJ: How long have you been looking for work?

Fenton: Until 2003, I was faculty at a university in England, which closed its chemistry program. So I returned to North America, and post-doc’ed for four years while applying for faculty jobs over here. For the past three years, I've also been applying for industry jobs. In the summer of 2009, I had a three-month appointment as 'Visiting Scientist' at Brookhaven National Laboratory. That is a really great place for science geeks to work.

CJ: If you were to estimate the number of positions that you’ve applied for, what would that number be?

FH: This year, I've been busy with an adjunct position at a university in central/southern New Jersey, where I'm also allowed to do my own research (volunteer basis) on a shoe string budget. So I've been applying for fewer positions in 2010 (there have also been fewer ones which are appropriate). For 2010, the totals are: industry: 9; academia: 9. For 2009, from September to December I applied for 119 positions at companies and 28 with universities (of which some were abroad). Most recently, I've been inquiring with academic polymer scientists and engineers about temporary positions to retrain in that field.

CJ: How many interviews have you received?

FH: Beyond the aforementioned period of time, I have had maybe four interviews with companies - but none since September 2009. From this year's applications for faculty jobs, there was one interview in April. Over the past three years, I've had six university interviews. Two interviews with government or military laboratories, but the positions were cut.

CJ: What emotions go through your head when you think about getting work?

FH: Anger. Depression. Frustration. Indignation that all the talk by Obama about "new jobs" and "science" does not include New Science Jobs. "Could have - should have - would have".

CJ: You mention age discrimination as something that you're concerned about. I have a feeling this is something that some of my readers are concerned about and that all of my readers may face at some point. Can you elaborate a little more about your concerns?

FH: Post-doc positions are slanted so that salaries for those who are more than five years beyond their doctoral degrees are too expensive for the P.I. to afford. I have even heard from faculty at Ivy League universities that this policy "prevents exploitation" (huh?).

Also, DOE laboratories (e.g., NREL, Sandia, PNW National Laboratory, Brookhaven and Lawrence Berkeley) refuse to appoint as post-docs those who are more than five years beyond their doctoral degrees. Of course, who wants to become a professional post-doc? Nevertheless, this is closing the door on a major re-training opportunity for US scientists. In spite of the occasional person who completes their doctorate at a later age, this policy still overwhelmingly amounts to age discrimination.

Finally, NUMEROUS advertisements for industrial positions stipulate that only RECENT PhDs are welcome.

CJ: Can you describe the day-to-day process of “getting by” financially? What has been the most telling part?

FH: Limiting myself to an internet job search of twice per week. Counting pennies. Applying for free medicine from Pfizer and BMS (why not a job, instead?). Registering for "Charity Care" at a clinic in a nearby city. Getting an "Energy Supplement" from the State of New Jersey to pay for gas and electricity. Hoping that I don't have to (again) raid my pension in order to pay the rent. Advertising as a private tutor on Craigslist. Otherwise, on a daily basis, I try to stay focussed through the aforementioned research program activities. Being my own PhD student :-)

CJ: How long will you keep looking for work in chemistry before you consider another field?
 
FH: Good question - the only retraining option that gets a lot of coverage is becoming a schoolteacher. Teaching without research I find to be intellectually repugnant. There should be other options for retraining those with advanced science degrees . But I love Chemistry.

CJ here again. Thanks to Dr. Heirtzler for the interview and best of luck with finding a position in these tough times.

Interview: Leigh Boerner, Just Another Electron Pusher

Leigh Boerner is the writer behind Just Another Electron Pusher, C&ENtral Science’s in-house jobs and employment blog. When she’s not a blogger, she’s a doctoral candidate in synthetic inorganic chemistry at Indiana University - Bloomington. I caught up with Leigh over IM and via e-mail over the past week; the following is a lightly edited version of our electronic conversation about science writing and her search for employment.

CJ: What have/will your peers done with their degrees? Where do inorganic chemists end up in industry? (Seriously, I don't really know.)

Leigh: They end up in a lot of places. A lot of people from my department have gone to either 3M or what used to be GE Plastics (now Saibic Innovative Plastics), which both recruit pretty heavily here. I had a colleague go to BASF which is essentially the 3M of Germany (he works on adhesives, I believe). Eli Lilly, which is just up the road, also hires a lot of organometallic chemists. (Well, they used to.) Synthetic inorganic chemistry is actually pretty dang versatile, since we tend to do both organic synthesis and work with air-sensitive metals, so we generally know dry-box and Schlenk techniques. We gots the skillz. I actually do quite a bit of organic work myself, since I make porphyrins. But since they're so photo-active, I know a lot of photochemistry and things of that ilk, too. When I started grad school, I ultimately wanted to do solar energy research for the DOE, and there was a girl here a while back that did get a job at a DOE lab in Colorado. So yeah, lots of options.

CJ: So are you thinking about science writing or something else? If you're a beginning science writer, what's the outlook for you -- are you going to be doing a lot of freelancing?

Leigh: Science writing, definitely. About 25% of me is also maybe thinking publishing....  I've been doing some freelancing. I turned in a story for a university mag yesterday. I've written for Science and The Scientist a bit. And I have tons of ideas, but it's just a matter of finding the time to write pitches to magazines, etc.

CJ: Do you think science writing is going to more or less lucrative than being a graduate student? I don't know the first thing about how much a science writer makes.

Leigh: Pretty much everything's more lucrative than being a grad student... It depends on where you work. When I interned at the OC Register, through AAAS, I made about the same each month as I do as a grad student. So that was an internship -- I would say about twice as much, for a beginning writer at a middlish paying type place.

CJ: What was it like working at the OC Register? What are the differences in mindset between a grad student and a reporter? Any insights you think chemists could gain from the media?

Leigh:  It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. I remember constantly missing the turn to get back to my apartment because I was so mentally exhausted every night. Things moved very fast, and I had to just kind of jump in and get my stories written, even though I felt like I didn't know what the heck I was doing much of the time. My editor was very much of the "throw them into the deep end of the pool" philosophy of teaching, and he was constantly putting me in tough situations to see how I would deal with them. The first interview I did on my own was like that. My editor and I were at UC Irvine, and had two interviews set up while we were there. The first one was fine, and my editor did most of the talking. On our way to the second one, he was kind of prepping me up for it, and said that the psychology prof we were going to talk to was notoriously hard to interview, because she never really spoke in plain English. And then he said, "but you're going to do it on your own cuz I've gotta go, bye!" And he was GONE. I stood stunned for a few minutes, and then dragged myself to her office and did the interview. And it actually turned out not so bad.

Working at the OC Register was also probably the polar opposite of being a grad student. Things always started slow in the morning, but got crazy in the late afternoon/early evening. And the week started out mellow, but got insane towards the weekend. I guess the biggest difference was how you're supposed to impart information. In journalism, the simplest way of stating things is always the best. But in science, generally the more jargon you use, the better. I'm forever irritating my adviser because my way of talking is not "scientific" enough. But my editor at the OC Register was always scolding me for "talking like a scientist."

Writing and grad school are similar in the fact that for both, you have to have a really thick skin. I remember my editor saying to me at one point, "You take criticism really well." When I told my adviser that, he laughed and said, "See? Don't say I never did anything for you."

CJ: Who do you read in the chemistry blogosphere? What would you like to see more? Do you have writerly inspirations?

Leigh: I read all the C&E News blogs of course, and yours, the Chemistry Blog, In the Pipeline, and the Skeptical Chymist. Aaaand that's about it. There aren't too many out there, sadly. I do miss The Chem Blog, and I would really like to see some more pop up like that, meaning ones that can really analyze papers well, but also have a sense of humor. And I think we need more chemistry blogs that speak on a lay-person's level, without being condescending. People do think chemistry is really cool, but I think are put off by the jargon. I think a very well-explained blog about chemistry background and current research would be a fabulous addition to ye olde blogosphere.

I do have writerly aspirations. My ideal job would be to write a column about general cool science things (but mostly chemistry) that would give me a reason to still play with chemicals. Have you ever heard of Harold McGee? He's a food writer for the New York Times, and also the author of a few books, e.g. On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook. In the latter, he actually goes into the lab and tries to figure out things like why egg whites get more foamy when you beat them in copper bowls. It turns out egg whites get kind of gluey sometimes because they're made up of a lot of cysteine, which contains sulfur. These form disulfide linkages, which kind of weigh the egg whites down, and make them more dense. But when you put them in a Cu bowl, the S tend to bind to the Cu instead of each other, which means they get really aerated and floofy and delicious for baking! The same thing happens if you add a drop or two of an acid, like vinegar or lemon juice. Neat huh?

Anyway, my point (and I do have one) is that I want to write stuff like that. Not about food, but about questions like, "why does X do Y?" Then be able to go in the lab and play and figure it out. Then write about it. Once upon a time, I did kind of do that. I had a science column in my university paper called "Ask Suzie Q. Scientist." Unfortunately it didn't last long, because the paper discontinued the Health & Science section shortly after I started the column. But for one of them, I did get to talk about embalming and what it does. Then I shot some formaldehyde into raw chicken, just to see what it did (after sitting for a bit, it bounced like a super ball). Now if I can just find someone to pay me for doing stuff like that, I would be a happy chemist.

I'd also like to write books. I have about six in my head, and I think they need to come out.

CJ: What's your non-chemistry media diet? Any papers or blogs that you particularly like?

Leigh:  I read my local paper every day, which tends to surprise my grad school colleagues. I also am a bit of an NPR junkie, and listen to All Things Considered and Morning Edition every day. And RadioLab, whenever a new one comes out (I am a RadioLab FIEND), and I catch Science Friday when I can. I read the New York Times, not every day but a couple times a week (esp Tuesdays, because that's when The Science Times comes out). I also read Science, Nature, New Scientist, Wired, Science News, Scientific American, and a whole slew of other science type magazines. I do also read a lot of general science blogs, like The Loom (Carl Zimmer), Not Exactly Rocket Science (Ed Yong), You Are Not So Smart (David McRaney), Neurotopia (Scicurious, although that's neuroscience, not general), and others too numerous to mention.

CJ here again. Thanks to Leigh for the interview and go on over and enjoy Leigh's blog!

Daily Pump Trap: 7/14/2010

Good morning! Between July 9 and July 13, there were 16 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 8 (50%) are academically connected.

Foam, my boy, foam: Rynel is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. chemist for R&D at their Wiscasset, Maine facility - sounds like you'll get regular phone calls and/or trips to Sweden, too!

Hmmm: Beta Pharma is looking for Ph.D. organic chemists with 5+ years experience for (I suspect) their New Haven, CT facility.

Sun and sand and...: CP Kelco is looking for a B.S./M.S. analytical chemist "to discover, conceive and develop new ideas, chemicals and systems for use in food, industrial and personal care applications... Expertise in food, nutrition and/or industrial application formulation in addition to the physical chemistry of biopolymers is a plus."

Bay area: Theravance is looking for a B.S./M.S. synthetic chemist with 1 to 5 years of experience. Good luck!

You have ten years to get yourself established: more from the ACS salary survey

Perhaps it's unsurprising, but it's one of those things worth remembering. After graduating, you have about 10 to 20 years to work before the Turk might come and ask you to turn in your playbook.

More interesting statistics on the 2009 salary survey:

- B.S./M.S./Ph.D. unemployment, respectively: 5.6%, 4.2%, 3.3%. Really? I would have expected the completely opposite trend.

- A bad, bad trend: the highest age decade for postdocs? The thirties, with 7.5% postdocs. Chemists aged 20-29 are at 5.9%.

- Highest age decade for part-time work? The sixties, by far: 9.2. While I suspect that much is by choice, I also surmise that some of it is involuntary, either because of institutional means (why don't you take this nice 0.5 FTE position?) and some of it is financial (your nest egg took a hit.)

- Check out these numbers for respondents under 40:

2005: 27.8%
2006: 33.0%
2007: 27.9%
2008: 24.4%
2009: 31.3%

This level of instability in the numbers suggests that there's something funny about that set of numbers. I dunno -- it just looks weird.

ACS salary survey: chemist unemployment at 3.9%, highest in 20 years

Both Rudy Baum and the excellent Leigh Boerner at Just Another Electron Pusher have posted on the newly released 2009 ACS salary survey data. More on the trends soon, but here are my keys to this data:

- The U3-like measurement of chemist unemployment is at 3.9%, which is the highest it's been in twenty years.
- The U6-like measurement of chemist unemployment (unemployed + part-time + postdocs) is at 9.6%, which is also higher than any rate for the past ten years (the report only has numbers back until 1999.)
- Median chemist salaries fell 3.2%. That's not good, either.
- After you reach 40 years of age, the likelihood of unemployment climbs unpleasantly. For chemists aged 30-39, the "U3" rate is 2.3%. For the next age deciles, the rates are respectively 3.9, 5.0 and 4.9%. The "U6"-like rate is even uglier, with part-time employment increasing significantly (6.5%, 7.9% and 14.1%)

I'll note that my bold prediction of last year came out to be a bit pessimistic ("U3" = 5%, "U6" = 12%). I'm happy to have been wrong.

More later, after I've had a chance to digest this.

Dunning-Kruger in the lab

What's the 'funding line' for a Big Pharma senior scientist these days?

A recent comment at In the Pipeline summarized something I've been meaning to think about for a while. AlchemistOrganique writes:

I suspect that the career fair at the upcoming ACS Meeting in Boston will be a zoo, regardless of job speciality (Pharma, Environmental, QA/QC). As if Boston weren't already a competitive job market for organic chemists, every grad student or postdoc from "top-tier" groups will probably be scheming to get positions that are suited for those with just the right amount of industrial experience. Any thoughts on what would be an "ideal" candidate for an entry-level position in MedChem or Process?

Academic readers will be familiar with the concept of the ever-rising "funding line" or "pay line" for grants submitted to NIH. What is the equivalent expectation for Big Pharma these days?

A cautious guess as to the (less than 200, I suspect?) candidates who were hired for entry-level Ph.D. positions for major pharmaceutical companies in the last 2 years or so (2008 to 2010). I suspect that (WAG):

1. most or all obtained their doctorates at very prominent universities from "name" professors.
2. over 75% had postdoctoral fellowships, again at very prominent universities or institutes.
3. the median CV probably had more than 6 publications during their academic training.

Readers in the know, what do you think?

Daily Pump Trap: 7/9/10 edition

Good morning. From July 6 to July 8, 15 new positions have been posted to the ACS Careers website. Of those, 4 (27%) are academically connected and 1 is from our friends at Kelly Scientific Consulting.

Mysterious?: Amyris Biotechnology is looking for a Ph.D. organic chemist for work in scale up in their process department. Why a biofuels company desires someone skilled in natural product synthesis is kind of beyond me.

Find the hidden aliens, too!: UES, Inc. is looking for a Ph.D. materials scientist for a postdoctoral position in organic and nanostructured electronic devices. 

Matsci FTW: Brewer Science, Inc. ("a leading supplier of specialty coatings to the microelectronics industry") is searching for 3 positions: process engineer, senior research associate and project leader. Sounds interesting and these aren't the first positions they've posted this year. 

Well, that's inconvenient: DuPont's Discovery Knowledge Center is looking for Ph.D. organic chemists (1-5 yrs. experience). The positions are in Hyderabad, India and you "must have legal right to work in India." Huh.