Chemistry majors

[MSchemist80]

Post-docing is a career purgatory. It is the equivalent to what permatemps are in industry. There is little benefit to one.

[Chemistry_Guy]

Originally Posted by MSchemist80

Post-docing is a career purgatory. It is the equivalent to what permatemps are in industry. There is little benefit to one.

A postdoc is a brief, intense, trial by fire to see if a early career scientist has the tools to make an academic career. If someone tries to turn it into a career in itself, it is not going to work out well. In some fields it is an absolutely critical step in the academic life cycle.

My own postdoc was a fantastic experience. I was trained as a bioanalytical chemist but I postdoc'd for a physicist at a national lab. I was only there for 16 months, but I worked 12 hour days and forced myself to learn a lot of materials science and electrical engineering . We ended up publishing 7 papers, and I was able to give presentations in Hawaii, Korea, and Italy, not to mention nearly a dozen trips to D.C. to present to DOE and military personnel. Most importantly, I was interviewed and hired for the one tenure track academic job that I applied for.

To the OP:
Chemistry can be a great choice of major for a smart and dedicated student. It is not a good choice for someone that wants to get B's and coast to a comfy job. In general, science jobs pay less than health care jobs for individuals of similar academic credentials. A good chemistry student can easily choose to go into health professions upon graduation; I know because I write a dozen of their recommendation letters every year. A smart student with the passion for science can also make a great research career, it is just a bit less scripted than the medical or pharmacy route.

I understand why chemistry can get a bad reputation in some circles, as many of the analytical and synthetic jobs that have historically been high paying have been automated or condensed into simple procedures that can be performed by a relatively inexperienced technician. Research is very competitive, which means that "average" is not going to do very well.

[kickingprop]

Originally Posted by MSchemist80

Post-docing is a career purgatory. It is the equivalent to what permatemps are in industry. There is little benefit to one.

Going into academia as a tenure track professor (the only way to make a decent living in that field) is nearly impossible. I worked in a lab during graduate school with a very well known professor as my advisor, and two of the PhD's from our group did postdoc's at CalTech and MIT, respectively. One is now a tenure track professor at a well known private university in the midwest, the other, not doing anything in chemistry anymore because he couldn't find a professorship anywhere and didn't want to do another postdoc (as stated above, career purgatory).

I have an MS in organic chem, and if I had to do it all over again and knew then what I know now, I would have gone the ChemEng route. In fact I'm looking into a MSChE at UH program for professional chemists at the age of 38 to give myself a little better career trajectory.

[MSchemist80]

Almost all the career advice I see these days for PhD's in science are for "nontraditional careers" as an acknowledgement of the almost impossible odds of a tenure track job in academia these days (between 0.45-2%).

I almost certainly wouldn't have gone into science either if I knew how terrible the job market was and how appallingly bad the pay has gotten especially with the staffing agencies infesting the profession.

[Tinawina]

Chemistry is fine, but you have to pick how you want to apply it and focus on that. You can't just get a chemistry degree and see what happens, you need to build towards something specific while in undergrad. And plan on getting a grad degree of some sort so you don't end up a glorified technician.

I do think the process gets easier with a chemical engineering degree (in the sense you don't have to do as much planning ahead) but that doesn't mean a regular chem degree is a dead end.