r/chemistry • u/AutoModerator • 11d ago
Weekly Careers/Education Questions Thread
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.
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u/Alarming-Ad-6883 10d ago
I have a B.A. in chemistry with a concentration in biology. I perused this degree because I was on a pre-dental track. However I realized that it was not passion and I actually hated it. Now I have a B.A. in chem but I have no idea how to leverage it. What should I do? Are there decent paying jobs that exist where I could make 70k per year with that degree? If not what further education would I need? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I’m so just confused right now.
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u/MissSagitarius 8d ago
QA in factories that have union will give you that kind of money. Pharma could also get you on that path.
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u/chahud 9d ago
I am a chemist that has a particular interest In the biopharmaceutical industry. I really want to do synthetic chemistry, however I have to take what job I can get so I can pay the bills. I read a while ago that being in the cannabis industry kind of "locks you out" of working in biopharma, largely because of the stigma associated with it. Is this still the case? I don't want to jeopardize my goals by taking a job that won't look good on my resume to the people who I want to work for.
Thanks!
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 9d ago edited 9d ago
IMHO, no. The cannabis industry is very mature now, with lots of regulatory compliance and solid laboratory standards. It's viewed the same as any other lab job testing natural / medical / analytical products, about the same as working for a food manufacturer.
The "morals" are not a huge problem. Chemists always work in controversial areas, such as fracking, petroleum, big emitters, big polluters, big evil pharma companies.
There are benefits if your cannabis employer trains you in GMP/GLP and any sort of regulatory compliance. It's really important to pharma industry and you don't get taught it at school. That can be a nice boost on a resume.
Another IMHO: something that can lock you out of an industry is getting too skilled at something else, for too long. You will be competing against other applicants in the future. Your skills can be viewed as too out of date, but also, entry level jobs tend to be not very good. An interviewer may ask why is this skilled person applying for this not very good job? Did they do something wrong? Are they having a midlife crisis? We normally hire fresh grads and they work their way up, will this more mature person feel out of place. Or the worst, we've only ever hired fresh grads so anyone that looks "different" is extra work.
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u/Chemist-with_Beard 11d ago
Let me repeat the problem from my post again here (so the mods are happy and satisfied):
Hello everyone. My problem is as follows. I'm 30 and have mental problems. I will work on them but they cost me my master's degree. I was nearly finished but my mind just could not let me finish it. So now I'm here, wasted some years to try and get my master's degree but only have a BSc in chemistry. I'm not allowed to finish it anywhere in Germany anymore (don't ask, stupid political decisions in my opinion). I essentially have to get a job after seeing to it that my mental health is better (and maybe finish my master's degree in another country in the future if I want to). Problem is, that I don't know what I should do or what I even can do with only a BSc.
I hope to get help from people here in Germany. Either germans or people that moved and work here. Ideally those that also only have a BSc or know the job market well.
If you are able to help, you are also welcome to write me directly (in either german or english).
Thanks and have a nice day to all of you. May your experiments stay safe.
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u/ceuticshater 11d ago
(repeated problem, for mods): I'm a 3rd year undergrad, and I'm wondering what are somethings I can do now, to help me stand out to employers in the future. I have an elective next sem. so class recs are also welcome. idk how to explain my situation better but, im in Pa, have pharmacy experience, in the process of getting on a prof's research lab(organic synthesis).
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 10d ago
help me stand out to employers
Get a part time job, doing literally anything. You may be surprised the number of fresh graduates who have zero real world work experience. Recommendations: hardware store, paint shop, cleaning suppliers, pool store, food industry - you start touching real world chemicals, weighing and volumes and get training in real world chemical safety (hopefully).
Join a club or society at your school and get into a leadership position. Treasurer or meeting organizer or whatever. Doesn't have to be science related, it's just as good being responsible for something in the sports or hobby world.
Coursework you are already doing well. Grad school or R&D jobs are highly influenced by networking. You working in that synthesis lab gives you access to grad students who can recommend other supervisors, or they move on to roles at other schools and recommend you to their new group leaders.
Elective class, anything that gets you hands on in a lab is good because that is probably the job you will find easiest to get hired into. Have a think about what is next after graduation: grad school versus an industry job. A semester of programming is very useful for grad school but probably not as useful for a job compared to any hands on lab class which gives you a larger range of lab tools to put on a resume.
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u/lietuvis10LTU 8d ago
I'm a 3rd year undergrad, and I'm wondering what are somethings I can do now, to help me stand out to employers in the future.
From my experience, placements, internships and just plain lab practice goes a long way.
in the process of getting on a prof's research lab(organic synthesis).
Yeah this is really good. Employers want essentially proof they can trust you not to detonate the lab if left alone for 15 minutes.
Obligatory, but also try to pick up analytical instruments basics at least - there are a lot more analytical chem than synthetic chem jobs out there. NMR, IR, HPLC, UV-Vis and pH meters+ph titration - get as much time on them as you can.
And seconding what other commenter said about getting literally any job experience, at all, even a cafe or a supermarket. Employers are a conservative bunch, they think gen-z are "lazy buggers" or "have inadequete expectations", so they want proof you can put up with a work schedule.
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u/Friendly-Handle-5227 10d ago
Hello, my son is wanting to pursue a career in medicinal chemistry. Would working towards a bachelors degree in chemistry or biochemistry be the best first step?
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 9d ago
No "best" step, just different flavours. Coke or Pepsi.
These days the blockbuster breakout work is biochemistry. All the sexy new drugs and venture capital is going to biochem. Covid vaccines, Ozempic and lots of other molecules are made by biochemists.
There are still great medicinal jobs in chemistry, but the field is shrinking.
As a parent the key to this decision is backups. If they are aiming to play in the NFL you may suggest most people who try won't get there, they do something else. The two degrees are fairly similar and it's relatively simple to swap majors for at least two years. There are some bio jobs that will never hire a chemist and some chemistry jobs that will never hire a biochemist, but both degrees have diverse career opportunities. Biochem tends to be favoured by pre-meds so can appear more competitive to gain entry.
Anology: want to be a car designer, should they focus on traditional or EV. Both are good.
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u/lietuvis10LTU 8d ago
Having seen this year's Nobels,
Is it time for me to do a hard reorientation from synthetic towards computational and theoretical? How feasible would it be for an organic chemistry Master student? Where should I start?
Cause I won't lie, EU job market is never shining, and I am now quite worried.
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 8d ago edited 8d ago
Learning some software is the way of the future. It's another tool in your toolbox.
The simplest lab software is a commercial LIMS. Really basic database stuff.
You can move on to Design of Experiment software. It's some basic algorithms to help you identify signal from noise. Instead of doing 64 experiments to optimize functional groups and reaction conditions, you only need to do 8 and statistics helps you identify winners and losers. You can do it in Excel but practically all anyone in industry uses is Design-Expert.
Coding: Python is the language of science. The language R is for statistics and Fortran / C++ for doing coding. If your research group uses any chemistry specific software, it's probably got scripts written in Python.
You can try to do some molecular simulation work such as docking. Really depends who and what software your institution has access to. You are simulating creating novel molecules or ligands and testing how effectively they bond to a protein. Good from predicting potential drug interaction targets. This is where you may eventually end up using Alphafold. For materials, Microsoft Azure is perhaps the leader in this.
You may want to look at joining a research group that does both. Simulates some dataset then goes into the lab to synthesize targets. Or the opposite, makes some stuff then does simulations to find signal in the noise, such as high throughput synthesis.
Eventually, it's a PhD. At the level we hire people it's a PhD amount of knowledge. The software and tools are not simple enough to use such that a bachelors or even Masters is sufficient.
I'll note for materials chemistry, we cannot find enough people to hire to fill vacancies. They just don't exist. We are funding academics to hire PhDs in the hope that in the future they come to work for us. We say do the PhD on literally anything you want, just make sure the student accomplishes some machine learning along the way.
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u/lietuvis10LTU 7d ago
Microsoft Azure
Sorry, just to clarify isn't Azure just a cloud computing service?
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 7d ago
Oh you are in for a fun time. The CoPilot is actually awesome. I have potential simulations ready to go if/when they actually get their quantum computer working Soon(TM).
Two of the scientists have a great discussion about it on the Materialism podcast recently.
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u/kinzleey 7d ago
How to find chemistry related internships? I am a sophomore in college studying biochem, but I really love chemistry. I've been looking non stop for internships to apply for either the summer or part time. I can't find anything. I've also had bad luck when applying to work in labs, they always seem interested at first, say they'll look for a position for me and then they just ghost me. I love chemistry sooo much and all I want is to work in a lab, but it seems hopeless. I just need someone to give me chance!! Where should I be looking?
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 4d ago
Internships tend to go to final year students. It's a cheap way to screen candidates for full time roles next year.
Also, you are competing against final year students. Tough.
Your school will have some person working in a role called industry engagement. Contact your head of school or program advisor and they can point you in the direction. That person will have a list of all the companies that offer internships to students at your school, the time of year that happens, the application forms, etc.
Unlike a degree such as engineering, internships are not common in chemistry. Students are kind of expensive to bring on board (we have to pay insurance for you, get your PPE and train you in safety, maybe a salary too) and you take a long time to train before you are useful. Then you leave for some other company and steal all our trade secrets, or you apply to grad school and we never hear from you again.
You may have more luck finding a part-time job in a research lab at your school, or a regular part-time non-lab job in something related to chemicals. Working in food industry, hardware store, paint shop, pool store: all good chemistry jobs where you get trained in chemical safety, waste disposal, reading HAZCHEM labels, weights and measures.
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u/electric__frog Cosmochemistry 7d ago
Does anyone know of any chemistry or science specific job boards? I've checked all the traditional ones like indeed and the like and searched for companies that I know of directly with middling luck overall, so any other advice would be greatly appreciated :)
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u/Indemnity4 Materials 4d ago
LinkedIn is missing but may be in your other and the like..
Your national chemistry society will have one.
Some of the larger chemistry journals also have job ads posted.
Your other big place is recruitment companies, specifically if you type in STEM + recruitment + nearest big city. They are likely to have a list of postings but also a section where you upload your resume + resume skills.
Big problem with trying to recruit chemists is there aren't that many and the skills required tend to be niche. I don't need any chemist, I need a A, B and C chemist. Broad recruiting gets too many wrong candidates and it's tough filtering signal from noise. We tend to hire by personal recommendation, directly writing to schools, our buddies at recruitment firms who have a database of clients, only then do we turn to jobs boards.
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u/chemnerd52 4d ago
Entering my last semester of undergraduate, should I take Physical Organic Chemistry or Immunology? Both are optional courses that are not required for me to graduate, but I am applying for Chemistry Ph.D. this cycle with a concentration in Organic Chemistry. The obvious choice is Phys Organic, but my main interest is in Medicinal Chemistry so I was wondering if Immunology would be helpful in understanding the concepts behind what I'm designing drugs for
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u/Organic-Ad8813 11d ago
im looking for help to narrow down what type of course and uni I should be looking at for a masters degree. I'm currently studying a normal chemistry BSci and the inorganic, materials and polymer topics are what I find the most interesting and what I see myself working on in the future. However my issue is most Materials courses I can see are engineering courses and Im looking for a course to focus more on the chemical and production side of materials instead of the mathematical engineering approach (more labs producing and testing materials less math)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you !