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Hi,
My wife is about to start her Masters in Chemistry. I tried pushing her towards Nuring/Pharmacy but she has no interest in that and would rather study Chemistry. She convinces me that a Masters Degree in Chemistry has good career options but from what I know, it doesn't look that great. Sure, she can get a 40-50K starting job (if lucky) but that would be much lower than say 60-70K starting job in other field like Pharmacist or IT. we are based in the Dallas area.
Anyway, she wins the argument as always
Just wondering if there are any pointers on what path to take? So that even if she starts with a 40-50K, with experience and opportunities in that area of chemistry, she can have a much better career growth in future. We are focussing on courses/projects related to Organic and Analytical Chemistry - is that the right decision? And if so, which one among these two if we have to pick one?
Only that I would push harder for her to go into a health care profession.
The MS in chemistry is treated by employers as either worthless or equal to a BS + two years of experience. The career options at the BS/MS level are pretty bad to say the least.
The whole field is a staffing agency infested race to the bottom to see how low your labor cost/sample can be.
A lot of the jobs now are via staffing agencies so no benefits, $15 to $20 an hour, your job can end at any time with one phone call. Also the so called temp to hire jobs are just carrot at the end of a stick to get you to take and work hard at these awful jobs [only 27% of temp to hire jobs turn perm according to research by the WE Upjohn Institute for labor economics). The field is very dead-end and not worth the tuition or work.
I think the best option nowadays for science grads would be to get a high school teaching credential as teaching can pay much better and have better benefits than working in industry.
Go to indeed.com and type in "chemistry degree." Then filter by the salary level you want. This will show you what's out there and the requirements.
Then develop a list of every type of company that hires chemists. Pharmaceutical, energy, food, medical companies, etc. Go to their websites and look at their job postings.
In terms of subject fields analytical chemistry is where the jobs in the USA are. You can't ship your food or clinical specimens to China/India for analysis. The hottest techniques are LC/MS LC/MS/MS GC/MS GC/MS/MS, ICP-OES and MS for elemental analysis.
Organic synthesis jobs are drying up in the USA. I would not go that direction.
There are probably more "pros & cons" about the whole issue of ANY career decisions and the impact of REALISM than the specifics of what major one chooses.
What I mean is simple -- I would estimate that if anyone was made to actually track down and have an hour long conversation with even 5 or 6 people that actually have completed a major and have worked in a related career for at least 4-5 years LOTS of people would have MUCH MORE VALUABLE insight into what makes sense for their situation.
The OP is almost certainly correct that compensation and flexibility is FAR BETTER for women that earn a degree in Pharmacy or even one of the nursing specialties that involve advanced studies (typically nurse-midwife, nurse-practitioner, or nurse-anesthetist) BUT if the OP's wife has no desire to learn about those careers it does no good to harp on it. "Pushing harder" is TERRIBLE advice for not just career planning but also a relationship!
I would strongly suggest that the OP does make effort to connect his wife with those that have earned MS in Chemistry because it is largely true that it is a far more challenging to land a solid full time position and likely may involve negatives that no college professors would ever share...
I do not agree that it is a slam dunk that teaching in a public high school is a better career path, all of the high paying districts have FAR MORE applicants than they could ever hope to hire and the low paying districts also tend to have the worse conditions for everything from facilities and supplies to being on the "academic watch list" that forces non-stop focus on testing. Ugh.
I personally would recommend that anyone with the talent to earn an MS in any science instead focus on what steps they could take to earn a fully funded PhD -- there are numerous opportunities for fellowships that mean the recipients are PAID to earn their PhD which is MUCH better than going into debt to earn a MS !! Grants, Fellowships, and Awards - American Chemical Society
No flexibility in where you live? If not, I'd think long and hard about getting an advanced degree in an area with few opportunities. Now if you're willing to relocated to say San Francisco or Boston where Biotech jobs are booming that'd be another conversation all together.
1. For teaching - does a MS in Chemistry Degree help or even that is not much useful? Maybe she gets to become a teacher at a County college/2 year college (and in future a Univeristy) with a Bachelors degree?
2. If she goes ahead with Analytical Chemistry, does a Phd help or MS + 4 year industry experience would be much more useful than investing 4 years of life researching something very specific in Analytical Chemistry.
3. You mentioned about healthcare - apart from Nursing/Pharmacist, is there something else that would suit a person with (and interested) in Chemistry?
I would absolutely not recommend getting a PhD. Science PhD programs are running as a ponzi scheme nowadays churning out far far far more graduates than there are jobs for. Almost all companies will reject candidates who apply for BS/MS jobs with a PhD and the PhD soon becomes a stigma rather than a benefit where companies assume you are overqualified, too expensive, will leave any lesser job once an appropriate job becomes available. Believe me I watched the people in the lab I did my MS at graduate with the PhD and have such trouble getting a job you'd think they spent those years in jail for a felony.
Also your career is in the hands of your adviser and he/she can do anything to you. Some of them have very abusive tendencies and they are not held accountable. They may or may not have your best interests at heart. Some of the most dysfunctional and evil people I've ever met have been tenured professors though some are very nice and genuinely care about their students and want the best for them there are an equal number who use and abuse PhD students and post docs. I can tell stories that will make you recoil with disgust.
Your wife can always game the system and apply to a PhD program and leave with the MS fully funded. It is not like you are stealing you are either working as a TA teaching undergrads or an RA maintaining the lab.
As I said before, the OP should make an effort to get his spouse to spend time TALKING to folks that have gone down that path. That experience is much more valuable for this kind of decision than anything online...
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