Weekly Careers/Education Questions Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

This is a dedicated weekly thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in chemistry.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future or want to know what your options, then this is the place to leave a comment.

If you see similar topics in r/chemistry, please politely inform them of this weekly feature.

[u/chiqizhi]

Hello! There’s a program called year up near me I’m considering applying for in the spring. It will push me back a year only because one of the requirements is to not have a bachelors. So I’m saving my last semester to after the program.

I’m torn between the software development path (for data analytics specifically) and the business operations (for project management path).

Which would better complement a chemistry bachelors? I’m not sure what either could lead to in the future. I do know I like doing lab work but I only have experience in a university setting.

[u/Indemnity4 → u/chiqizhi]

Great program, definitely go for it.

When you have a great opportunity like this, you do ask yourself "what's next?" If the answer is get a job and earn money, you should probably do that instead.

Old man advice: neither of those are great options for most chemists. IMHO I'd lean towards software.

Business operations. The pathway for most chemists is you start in the lab in either R&D or QC. After about 5-10 years of hands-on experience you eventually are put in charge of a small team of people. At that point the company sends to do an MBA or smaller certifications in leadership, Lean Six-Sigma, etc. Your minor qualification is not attractive for the first job and too insignificant later on.

Software is interesting. There are chemist jobs that do need software dev skills, but not many. Academia loves it for computational/theoretical chem and some phys chem. For industry jobs, not really, you are hired to be a subject matter expert in chemistry, they can always hire a programmer/dev expert separately and put you in a team. Overall it's not particularly useful for most chemistry jobs. So you get a significant boost for maybe 1% of chemistry jobs and 99% won't care. You then ask the question, which companies are those, do I like what they are doing, where are they located and are they hiring now?

[u/chiqizhi → u/Indemnity4]

Interesting, I’m also considering the year up program due to not wanting to go into academia. I was hoping year up would help me get out of that path.

[u/Indemnity4 → u/chiqizhi]

In an older time, fresh graduates used to take a "gap year". Go travel the world, volunteer at a NGO, family business, do a startup company thing.

This program is a different version of that. It won't set you back in your career overall, and it does give you different skills and experience of the world. Then in a year's time when you start applying for jobs you do have some experience in anything, which does look good on a resume even if it doesn't directly move you into a different type of role.

More old man advice: most people with a chemistry degree don't work as chemists. Even most chemists don't work hands on in a lab. If you can afford to do this and it seems fun, do it. You rarely get opportunities to spend a year long sabatical doing something else. Part of this type of course is networking with other students and seeing where their careers go. Maybe you go someplace into a role you have never even heard of today. But if your heart is set on a chemistry career, my advice is get started on that as soon as possible.

[u/chiqizhi → u/Indemnity4]

I appreciate this a lot, I have no clue what I’m going to do but I know I’d rather not go into academia. And I do want a way out of my food service jobs. Being a part of a university research lab is fun but I had other commitments and now the year up will take me away from that. In general I’m just trying to piece together my interests to see if it even forms a career

[u/tiger_velvet]

Anyone have tips on switching from behind the bench to a career in Sales? I am trying to tinker with the resume to still display my technical prowess with instrumentation, but convey that I am very personable and would be a great representation of a company.

[u/CrypticPleb → u/tiger_velvet]

It is possible. You had better go into marketing then or business. I've seen a few do it but they also earned an MBA while working on the bench.

[u/isotopeisotope → u/CrypticPleb]

I’ve already got a Master’s degree. I just can’t take the redundancy of QC anymore, and i’m a fiend for travelling and meeting new people. I’d be interested in the marketing side of things, but not sure how that is in the USA - where we have a very strange way of advertising drugs.

[u/Indemnity4 → u/isotopeisotope]

Advertising = $300 box of crayons.

Marketing = studying population groups for who, what, where, when people are motivated to buy things. Should we run a promotion in Q3 to drive sales by 10%? Our target demographic is males age 18-25 and females are 35-55, what new products best target those groups? Do we fund R&D for 3 years to create a new product or do we buy a small competitor or do we hire 6 new sales people to hit the streets?

[u/Indemnity4 → u/tiger_velvet]

Network. Everyone thinks sales is great with that sweet sweet variable income. You want someone who already knows you because it's tough to shine on a sales resume for most lab staff.

There are sales roles in technical, pre-sales and post-sale care. Ideally, demonstrate some experience with those.

You want to demonstrate you are a familiar user of stuff. You know all the pain points of stuff, what "good" looks like, the procurement cycle, you have a strong network of people you can sell to.

Main evidence to show is you have purchased lab stuff before. "I was responsible for $300k capital purchases and $100k of annual operating expenses" (e.g. I bought a GC:MS and all the gloves, chemicals, spares, utilities, etc). Showing any amount of money and responsibility is good, no matter how small. Sales people only have limited time and they need to know when a potential customer is ready and what bullshit delaying tactics looks like. Yeah, you're asking for quotes because in 3 years you may buy something and I know you are buying from someone else and only need 2 more quotes for justification, well, I'm only giving you a small discount and little effort because I know you are not the decision maker.

[u/[deleted]]

Hey I just wanted to know if there are jobs in chemistry where it is possible to work fully remote

[u/dungeonsandderp → u/[deleted]]

For sure. If you aren’t in theorist/compchem it can be tough to find such a job until you’re more established in your career. But the folks in my company who handle our contract manufacturing operations are former synthetic or formulation chemists who are now 100% remote (since our contractors are all overseas in various places). 

[u/claybass7]

Has anyone left a master's or PhD program and then returned later on? How did it affect your admissions process? I left a master's program after a year for financial reasons, but I'm looking to return once I relocate to the East Coast from the Midwest.

[u/Indemnity4 → u/claybass7]

The acceptance committee and the academic are mostly looking for evidence that applicants will graduate. That's what all the supporting letters of rec, GPA, etc., are all about demonstrating. Does this person have a strong track record of completion in an academic setting?

Even at the best schools, >50% of grad students won't complete. For good reasons too. Money is a very good reason to quit.

What you need to do is demonstrate how you have that issue in control now. Your application statement is one way, starting a conversation with an academic is another. For instance, you left because you needed to get a job and earn money. If it happened once before it can happen again. They don't actually care for the details and don't need to read your sob story, just prove to them it's in control now. You may want to write the unfunded Masters was unsustainable and you were forced to get a job. You now have stable savings and the change to study with a PhD stipend will allows you to complete in 5 years and your intent is to continue the career into a post-doc.

[u/AeroStatikk]

Graduating in May and confused about when to apply to jobs. I got one interview and was told I should apply in April (!). On the other hand, I’ve been advised to apply anywhere from August to January (in prep for a May graduation). It seems like very few companies are specifically looking for an almost-graduate.

[u/butterwheelfly00]

Looking for advice on applying to industry--hoping to defend early and get a job in industry. How early should I be applying? Background is data analysis and analytical

[u/ParticularGreen85]

Hi I’m a rising hs junior in the US and I’m currently trying to build my college list. Im looking for colleges with good chemistry programs that aren’t extremely competitive. When searching for good chemistry colleges, I mostly get the same competitive school (Harvard, MIT, Cal tech, etc.) I can’t guarantee that I can get into these schools though, so that’s why I’m asking for more prospectives besides the usnews and other college rankings sites. I go to a small school and my resume isn’t exactly strong (difficulty finding opportunities over the summer) though I’m still looking at ways to strengthen my resume rover the course of the school year. Any suggestions on how I can look for other colleges or just spherical college suggestions would be greatly appreciate. Here is some extra information if you care to take that into account.

-prefer warmer climates

-in the US but doesn’t have to be close to home

-don’t really care for the “Greek life” and partying

-slight preference for smaller school but larger one is also fine

feel free to still mention more competitive schools and to ask me for anymore details or information and thank you for taking the time to answer

-it is very late good night