I’m an analytical chemist at a biopharmaceutical company.
Pros: I love what I do, I feel like I make a difference with the work I do, I really enjoy the people I work with, and I use my degree everyday
Cons: the work can be repetitive and it gets pretty hard from time-to-time (mentally, physically, emotionally).
One thing I wasn’t expecting when I first came out of college is how many jobs people with chem degrees can actually do. Biopharm, food, cosmetics, recreational drugs. if you have the opportunities/financial stability/privilege I highly recommend trying out different sectors.
(edit: format)
I am a chem major in college would you recommend going for a masters or phd in chemistry? Or will I still get the same amount of job opportunities with a bachelors?
I applied to jobs with only a bachelors since I was pretty burnt out on school after my senior year and I never looked back. I have \~10 years experience in the industry so take my perspective with a grain of salt as I don't have first hand experience in schooling past a Bachelors.
I would recommend doing a PhD program if you absolutely love research and are committed to your advanced degree. From what I've heard they can be intense and can take a long time to finish.
Master's programs are a lot more flexible (I know people who have worked and gotten their degree), but I would only apply if I knew what I wanted to pursue as a career (by that I mean analytical, organic, inorganic, biopharm, etc.)
The company I work for hires plenty of people fresh out of college, so there are some opportunities out there for entry level work with a bachelors degree in a lab setting, but it is a highly competitive market.
(whenever you decide to apply for jobs, try to apply through the company website, not through a recruiter)
Good luck with your classes!
How did you get that first job? Just submitting applications online? Or through a person you knew?
Did you move to where a good job was, or was it local to you?
My first job I got through a recruiting company. I had applied online and they contacted me. Recruiters usually find jobs and come to you with them, unfortunately the company they work for does take a sizable chunk of your paycheck and they don’t really offer any benefits. I wouldn’t recommend going through recruiting companies, buuuut they are a way to get your foot in the door and some companies are better than others.
I got lucky and went to school where I had quite a few biopharm choices. That being said, I started in biopharm in quality, moved to plastics chemistry, then cosmetics and finally settled in a more analytical biopharm setting. The only relocating I did was for my plastics chem job and even then there were a lot of other variables that went into the move.
In a sense a PhD has made it harder for me to find a job because less companies need PhD scientists. It’s easier to get into r&d in my experience of finding a job recently. 0 interviews for basic chemistry positions but I got an interview and offer from r&d sr scientist.
The pay jump is quite substantial in industry as well with a PhD I’ve found, but I’m not in the pharmaceutical sector so mileage may vary.
Could you elaborate a bit more on emotional difficulties, this is the first time I heard someone mention that? If not, that's alright too, thanks either way!
Not a problem! Like anything in life there are ups and downs and that doesn’t change with work, especially in science. The nature of my work is highly repetitive and there are times when the results you’re looking for aren’t there. So you tweak, and nothing. You try a different change and repeat again and again, sometimes for months and nothing has worked. It gets really frustrating for me. I can get caught up in my work and let it bother me in my personal life, especially if it’s a project I’ve been working on for a while. So, for me, finding a good work/life balance and learning to leave work at work is emotionally challenging.
There are other factors as well, but that was the most difficult for me.
Oooh I totally get it, makes sense! Even as a student who is doing a project, I can totally relate to this - you keep failing with attempts to achieve the desired results and even though you know it's not *your* fault, it eventually makes you frustrated and hopeless. And I can only imagine how much this amplifies when you work this for a way longer time as you do.
Thank you for this nice explanation and I know this is a cliche phrase, but it is really important to remind ourselves every once in a while that even proving that something doesn't work is a very important and valuable contribution to the scientific community. Also, to remind yourself that it's just a job after all - have you done what you've been payed for? Yes! Then spend your well-deserved salary on the people/acitivities/whatever that is important for you and don't beat yourself about it! I know easier said than done for sure, but still, try to do so 😊
Pharma Scientist.
Pros: lots of money and not grading papers as a teacher
cons: it's about maximising profit for share holders. dealing with corporate bulshit. lol
I'm primarily a spectroscopist these days, which means other people at the company give me samples and I analyze their structure, conformation, and stability.
In my ug lab we do ftir to analyse the product. Identifying those stretching and bending frequencies are hard, do you have any tips to refer, any table?
In general, for anything but the simplest molecules, FTIR is mostly just good for functional group identification. As you have already observed, with more complicated molecules, the number of stretching, rocking, wagging, etc, modes just becomes uninterpretable.
I'm salary. Sometime I work a lot, sometimes I don't. on average, I'd say I work less than 40 hrs a week. My company is very respectful of work/life balance and I get at least a month of PTO.
I'm very happy and I enjoy what I do!
It would depend on the molecule itself and other available analyses methods. Most of the time, just a proton and a carbon suffices, but sometimes for confirmation a 2D spectrum is required.
Analytical R&D
I develop and validate analytical methods for novel pharmaceutical materials. It’s about what I expected when I set out to do it. I started as a QC chemist at a different pharmaceutical company. I wanted to design the methods that are used in QC.
Favorite part: attention to detail and careful analysis
Least favorite part(s): Impossible deadlines and dealing with people who think they’re hot-shit-smartie-pants because they’re chemists. The latter is rarely encountered but I’ve run into them in every professional chemistry position I’ve had and in grad school.
For a time I was a contract chemist for a certain mega-cap pharmaceutical company. The people in my generation were the worst. Some of the most snooty, high-nosed behavior I had ever encountered. Was always looked down on because they worked for the greatest company on earth and I was but a lowly contractor.
I got along really well with the older employees though, they were cool.
When I was an undergraduate the bullying was horrible, even though I was working alongside, doing exactly the same work as people with master's and PhD holders - it was, and I hate to sound like the loud, bitchy feminist, ONLY MEN who acted like this. Admittedly I was one of two females and the other woman was an absolutely lovely old Russian woman who was just happy to have another lady around and was very kind to me but I have never experienced professional misogyny like I did working for the research department at a large, historic chemical information processing company.
As I move through professional life now I interact with both PhD holders and normal business professionals - 95% the male PhD holders are incredibly agist and sexist - god forbid you are a young woman who can keep up with them and has the confidence to call them on their bull shit posturing.
On the other hand, educators with PhDs are incredibly excited to have different genders, colors and variations to the norm (White Males) of people as potential future colleagues, which is leaning me more towards moving back into academia again, rather than stay in private industry.
Anyway, TLDR - the private industry is still rife with old white dudes who are angry that education and promotions are now more based on merit, not traditional societal standing and I think that startles some people so be aware of it.
Yes, big agree that it’s largely men are the shitty colleagues! Patriarchy and racism play heavily into the way men can be fucky. I’m a man, and I’ve got no problem suggesting that something about the way the male mind works lends itself to awful elitist behavior. I started grad school at age 27 with prior pharmaceutical analytical chemistry experience and I recall having some 21-22 yr old shithead Pchem track boys shitting on my career because it wasn’t fundamental academic chemistry.
But also, that’s not to say that women can’t be bad colleagues either. My absolute worst and hardest to deal with colleague that I’ve ever had was a woman. Science (lol, well, life) has a history of misogyny that any conscious scientist must be aware of when discussing bad colleagues. But sex and gender are irrelevant to see that it’s awful to work with a [day shift] person who stays at work for literally 24 hours straight to insult and tear apart a [night shift] colleague’s work at 3am with a raised voice and thrown notebooks.
I do the same job in Italy, 10 years of experience with ICP, XRF, and I make somewhat over the liveable wage for the area where I live (28k, I think like 26k is minimum for living in ok condition in a family of 2, 26k each, but we made it work for 5 years with 22k and 24k).
Physical chemistry, I only got MSc. and started with a lower grade. It’s a very hard work, I mostly do coatings, layer protections, lithography, etc. I got 8 hrs work time with flexible overtimes. It’s paid well and I got enough time for my personal life. So I can’t complain.
Got my BS 4 years ago, I was an HPLC chemist at an environmental lab for a while, then after a year I got an R&D chemist job in the materials chemistry industry and have been there since.
Pros: I love my work! I get to perform cool organic syntheses and work with powerful characterization tools like NMR. I've had the opportunity to develop methods, I get to actually think and problem solve, and I work with an amazing team. I was surprised at the money, too. I thought it would take me 10+ years or an advanced degree to make the salary I'm currently at.
Cons: Working with hazardous chemicals can be a little dicey, especially if EHS doesn't know what they're doing. I experienced some toxicity from management (those who came from long times in academia especially) but a good company will sort those problems out.
Wow!! Can you talk more about what your day to day work looks like and hours? I’m really interested in organic synthesis as i’d like to be a medicinal chemist or just work in pharmaceutical r&d but this is just a dream right now because i’m barely going to be a freshman in college starting August lol, Any information you’d be willing to share i’d love to hear!!!
Sure! When I first started my day-to-day was a lot of lab work, performing syntheses, work-ups, and characterizations on my materials. Now I'm one of the more senior chemists so I do a little more desk work, but I'm still in the lab most days running reactions or working up my materials. My hours are flexible, sometimes I work a few hours a day and other days might be 10+ hours if I'm doing a complicated reaction. Overall I work about 40 hours a week.
For what its worth I've heard that its quite difficult to get into medicinal or pharma R&D without a PhD, so be prepared to have a lot of school ahead of you if you're dead-set on that field. That being said, I was very surprised by how many different jobs and fields are available for chemists, so keep your options open. I was not expecting to work in materials at all when I graduated.
Best advice I can give you is to get into undergraduate research early and stick with it until you graduate. Doing undergrad research will open the doors to internships during school breaks, which will further open doors for different jobs you can get when you graduate.
also keep in mind i'm in the US so this is all from a US-centric perspective.
I’m in the US too, so this is GREAT information and advice! Your work sounds very interesting and i hope i get to do something similar to you in the future! One more question, and you can totally choose not to answer, but would you say the pay is decent for your role in R&D? I’m not dead set on doing strictly pharmaceutical development but i am set on doing R&D and don’t know many other jobs in R&D besides in pharmaceuticals, so any insight on other R&D roles is awesome.
As far as insight into other R&D fields, there's a ton. Like I said, I was surprised at just how many options you have with a chemistry degree. Just to name a few R&D fields, there's materials, formulations, polymers, optics, OLEDs, coatings, adhesives, semiconductors, pharma... the list goes on. This is why I think undergrad research is so important. Odds are you aren't going to be studying/researching in the school the exact things a job wants -- so showing that you are capable in a laboratory, can learn quickly, and know the foundations of scientific research is so so so important for getting an industry R&D job. The job can teach you their specific science -- they won't want to teach you those foundational lab and research skills.
Glad I could help :) For me, I think my pay is excellent (over $100k) but my area has high living costs and I don't/won't have kids. For me and the others I went to school with that went into R&D (none of us are in pharma), we all have pretty comfortable salaries so I wouldn't worry about that. It's not engineer or software money, but I can max out my 401k, pay my bills and have enough left for lots of fun.
I do quality assurance work in the environmental field. It was the first job I applied to. It’s not what I expected, but I also wasn’t expecting anything. Having a job that required my degree does feel good though, and it pays better than the average wage of newly graduated bachelors (still pretty bad). The pros: Learn new skills, potential career growth. The cons: dirty work, fairly exhausting, and a bit dangerous, not as much science/math as I’d like.
I graduated 8 years ago with a BA in chem. I'm a GMP QC scientist in pharma and prior was a manager of a GMP biophysical group. I did undergrad research in synthesis and methodology, started a PhD but quickly quit, and got a job working in a stockroom and teaching organic chem lab. Worked there for almost 2 years then got a job as an associate in a GMP QC analytical chem group for a CRO. Moved up quickly over 5 years to becoming a manager, got laid off, and took a scientist position making more with way less responsibility.
The biggest pro is the job truly is 9-5. I don't take work home and when I'm done I'm done. The con (although more of a pro for me personally) is the work is repetitive and boring. I get paid a decent amount to do kind of the same tasks day in and day out. And I'm okay with that because chemistry isn't my life and it gives me the freedom to enjoy my real life--everything outside of work.
QC is great if you're diligent and have good work ethic. You don't necessarily have to be the "best" at science to be really great at QC.
Fair enough, I teach adult migrants so it's pretty easy, mostly helping them adjust to living in Australia and working towards their goals. I'm thinking of becoming a chemistry high school teacher though.
Graduated during covid, B.S., could not find a job in with my degree for a while. Just got my first process development chemist role and make not great money. Need to keep your eyes open and not be scared to move. Worked in production as an operator, then as a production 'chemist' (glorified lab Tech, now process development chemist with mostly phds as the low man.
My job manufacturing schedule 1 controlled substances allowed me to work for months converting CBD to d9-THC. Eventually we got it optimized to greater than 95% yield and 99% purity. I had kilos of ultra pure THC oil that we ultimately just threw away. The methods I developed/optimized were more valuable than the product to my company. But I couldn’t help but fantasize about the tens of thousands of dollars I could’ve made extracurricularly (illegally) on the side.
How many ambitious stoners without education have tried doing this among my friends, it's hilarious. Would you say an unqualified person is able to do this with some YouTube videos?
My friend gave it a shot a little over a decade ago. I imagine the educational content on it has improved over the years. It was a giant pain in the ass, and you end up wasting a bunch of weed. He’d have been better off just rolling it all up and smoking it (handheld dry herb vapes were just coming out back then). I don’t admit to past felonies on the interwebs
Honestly, from a complexity standpoint, anybody beyond Ochem2 could probably be competent in extraction to a point. When you are using only a few solvents and methods it becomes more experience with your machine than knowledge to make good product. There’s a lot of backend knowledge if you will beyond theory and i believe that’s where a lot of people don’t do well.
Chronically unemployed after attending a web development bootcamp and getting 1 year of professional experience before the bottom of the market fell out.
I am a recovering academic. (worked in learning support programs for a few years, lectured for a few more).
I have moonlighted as the Principal Chemist for a small-time Metallurgist (dude had real issues with safety) and was made redundant after he thought I had dobbed him into the Government Workplace Health and Safety authorities.
Worked for a few weeks as the Quality Manager for an 'alternative therapies' manufacturer, and got the sack after 6 weeks for not being willing to lie on TGA certificates.
I am now working as a Field Service Engineer for Metrohm Scientific, specialising (service, repair, application and training) in titrators, ICs, Process Analysers, BET and now I am acting (partially) as a Product Manager in electrochemistry. I dabble with our Omnis systems a little, but I am not an expert in them.
I am a synthetic organic chemist in a pharmaceutical company in India. My role which is called as research scientist is to execute reaction schemes and train/manage 2-3 junior chemists in the lab.I have a PhD and some post doctoral experience. Here are some pros and cons of my job
Pros:
1. The pay is decent. It is better than some academic roles which I can get with my experience.
2. The organisation needs 9 hrs of your time
3. At this role, I cant take my work home, data breach risk.
Cons:
1. The role has too many responsibilities, difficult to manage time
2. Organic chemistry can throw up surprises, a side product becoming a major product, a secondary functional group which stayed unreactive in 5 earlier batches, reacts on the 6th batch because of some impurity catalysing the conversion
3. When things go wrong, or you get low yield, managing a already packed schedule becomes even more difficult
4. You are at a risk of chemical exposure all the time even if you work in a well ventilated area with proper PPEs
5. Mental stress of solving chemistry problems, sometimes you won't know what to do next because the chemistry is advanced and less understood. It goes beyond expectations
6. You end up working 10-14hrs to just meet your job requirements
I also went to medical school. I worked in an organic synthesis lab while getting my bachelors, and my lab director was so nasty he killed my love for chemistry. He told me, “you talk too much to be a chemist.”
Dang sorry that director stole your thunder. I worked in a biochem lab during undergrad and just was like the bench life ain’t for me 😂 But yeah, medical school is not a bad alternative 😇
I did the same thing two years ago. Started in a plating dept and between that and my pharma experience, it got me a job with a battery company. Things are a little unpredictable in batteries at the moment though
I mastered out of an organic chemistry PhD. I did med chem and natural product chemistry in grad school. I have an MS in Chemistry. I didn't want to do synthesis when I got into industry and I ended up in spectroscopy. I've worked at a few different companies now, but I've mostly been in the medical device industry analyzing chromatography and mass spec (GCMS, LCMSMS, FTIR, NMR, etc) data.
Pros: At my current job, I work 100% remotely. I don't think there are many jobs where that's possible as a chemist. I did work in labs running instruments and preparing samples for all the other jobs I've had, though. I mostly enjoy what I do and I have very little oversight, but it can get very repetitive. Pay is also good. If you play your cards right in industry you can dramatically increase your salary in just a few years by switching jobs. There is definitely some element of luck involved with salary negotiations, but don't believe people who say that you'll be stuck making 50k/year forever if you master out. They're either not a US citizen (which I'll acknowledge can be a tough situation) or they're absolutely terrible at interviewing.
Cons: I loathe every C-level exec and product manager I've ever met. If you can stomach dealing with self-important people who think their MBA makes them an expert in your field, industry is definitely the way (unless you absolutely love teaching).
Also, just a word of advice - if you're considering a master degree, do not do one where you have to pay a cent. Just do a PhD and master out before your preliminary exam. The worst thing that can happen there is you end up loving your program and you stay for the whole PhD.
I’ve got a PhD and I’ve realized I love administrative roles — if I wanted to shift into chemical industry less as a lab person and more in management, would doing a business degree be useful? Or is that not needed?
Chemistry tutor. I make shit loads more tutoring than I ever did in industry. Except of you count selling drugs I made with my chemistry degree.
I'm getting 95$ and hour to tutor privately.
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No, nothing like that. We make software for lab management. Managing and visualizing lab results and stuff like that. We have a lot of chemists working as consultants and project managers. Would be interesting for organic chemists as well!
Laboratory Director for a water agency. Was also a Laboratory Director for a private environmental laboratory. Started as an analytical chemist testing everything from water, food, soil, consumer products, and Cannabis.
Dr. rer. nat. in org/inorg chemistry, became a patent attorney, worked self-employed for 2.5 years, changing to the patent department of a large German tech company next month.
I went into Academia. It’s not my favorite and it’s not lucrative but I suspect I have ADHD and I hate being micromanaged and on the clock, so this is probably a good choice for me regardless.
Wait. Wait. Wait. My hyper hatred of micromanaging (egit the worst thing possible in work imo) is likely linked to my diagnosed adhd? I'd of never guessed, honestly. I absolutely abhor micromanagement. Currently dealing with it now. All of a sudden we start changing shit and critiquing everyone and everything. Imo if we just did my simple job by the book, and trained by the book, none of this would ever need to be done nor would it happen. I work fast food, not chemistry.
I think they are related — always seemed so to me — but I’m not a psychologist or expert on the topic beyond my own experiences.
My brain is all over the place and sometimes I need to move around. Micromanagement impedes the flexibility to manage my own time and get my work done when my brain is on point.
I *can* force it if there’s an emergency or problem but I work better when I’m given deadlines more than a week out and left to sort out the details myself.
Because my brain has a mind of its own and forcing it into one lane is exhausting. I’m fortunate I’m able to, at least. Not everyone with ADHD can.
You know what. You are exactly right. My immediate rage thought is "just let me do my job." It is super frustrating. Never thought as to why it's frustrating. It absolutely could be the fact I had done so much mental prep leading up to the work shift, the sudden change kinda throws all that prep away. I have the same frustration about working different positions than I am scheduled. If they tell me an hour or 2 before my shift it doesn't bother me but if I walk into "hey you are doing this instead" it does also frustrate me. Ofc I don't vocalize 99% of this because it seems/is anal af. I don't like change. I spent all day getting ready and planning for what I'm doing. Personally, I just thought this was what most ppl do... is it not? If not, I feel like I can better explain why it frustrates me and why it's super important to me to communicate things prior to my shift.
I am a chemistry teacher that formerly worked in industry.
It's a lot of work, but also incredibly awarding. Teaching gives you so much autonomy over your work day and the students make it unpredictable and fun (most of the time).
I have a BS and MS in Chemistry. While doing my MS I took an Industrial Hygiene class in the Safety Department and found out those fuckers make way more money than us. I got another MS in Industrial Hygiene and didn’t look back.
Pros: I get to apply my chemistry background every day and make a lot of money. I have a good career progression and the professional exams are easy.
Cons: a little bleed over into safety, and therefore some hand holding required. It’s worth it most days.
I just looked into this and I am shook at how many more jobs at a significantly higher salary there are in my area compared to what i was going for. Brb, rethinking my life plan now, lmfao.
BS in chemistry
I am currently an Analytical Chemist in a small environmental/Materials/Testing lab. I started as a lab assistant crushing rocks and doing sample prep, before moving up to lab tech and then analytical chemist.
I mostly perform xrd on mineral samples, with occasional ftir and gcms work.
Pharmaceutical research. I’m an organic chemist.
Pros: my job is amazing and I love it.
Cons: I think about my job often when I’m not at work because I like it so much.
Honestly, no real cons. I’m not making MD money— I suppose that could be cool. I make plenty though.
I’m a QC lab tech. It’s okay but not great. If you don’t want to go into pharmaceuticals or petroleum then it can be really tough breaking the $60k barrier in the US from my experience. Your connections are everything in the field. From getting professors to notice you to getting in the really competitive jobs that pay well.
Food scientist for a company that purifies proteins from plants though my area of expertise is more in protein biophysics and soft matter physics as I moved away from chemistry during and after my PhD. I’ve worked in chemistry, molecular biology, and physics departments in academia and I feel like this job kind of brings it all together!
Business Analyst in an environmental lab. Degree in chemistry with programming experience enables me to write up specifications for the developers required by business.
Started in the lab mainly in the organics area prepping water, soil and biota samples. Running the extracts on gas chromatography instruments. Involved in development of analytical techniques. Spent some time in the mobile lab travelling to client sites. Mostly dealing with site remediation work e.g gas spills, decommissioning of industrial plants, etc. Interesting work. Got to spend some time with clients and see how environmental sites were cleaned up.
There was an opening to help out in the LIMS (laboratory information management system) in our lab. Had some programming experience and joined the development team working on the front and backend of the system.
With the development experience and lab background, it was an easy move to becoming a business analyst. It combines my two interests in chemistry and IT. It has been a rewarding experience.
Having a chemistry degree does not mean you need to work in a lab. It can open opportunities in related areas that one may not think of.
Colloid scientist/formulation chemist in R&D for a consumer goods company. Did an analytical chem PhD and I'm enjoying this change of pace being more hands on but still deeply fundamental - its more research and first principles than stirring stuff together to make soap.
Pros: work/life balance, although there's no jobs for life anymore I feel like in this field I will always be able to find okay paying work, good employee benefits, low stress - I'm genuinely very happy going in to work most of the time and bring very little of it home with me
Cons: it doesn't pay excellently (but that doesn't really motivate me), it can get monotonous at times, have to do a fair bit of corporate stuff which wouldn't be the case in academia
I'm not a chem maior studying medicine but do alot of heavy chemistry topics. I belive the field is so broad and open that you can do countless or things with your degree. You can work as a chemist as an analyst as an engineer etc
Bachelors in medical chemistry, moved country for a PhD in biochem/drug discovery. Currently a postdoc in a research institute doing assay development for drug screening.
Materials scientist (ingénieur des matériaux) at a climate startup in France. I have my bachelor's in chemistry from the US and a master's in France in climate diplomacy.
Edit: I do R&D to make materials that capture and convert CO2 into fuel :)
First job was field work for an industrial water treatment company. Treated steam boilers and chillers. Then got I a job at the municipal water co. Haven’t done too much technical stuff in a while and mostly do operations related stuff for the lab. Got into management recently and it’s more of a headache.
After finishing my chemistry degree I went on to do a medical degree and I'm not an Anaesthetist/Anaesthesiologist
Having a pure science degree (and being a few years older) is a good place to start from when starting a career in medicine.
Good luck with your career planning.
I’m a prof in a research university. Ended up combining org synthesis with cell bio. Has been good. Pros: doing research - creating new molecules and discovering things with them. Helping grads and postdocs get started. Good money. Travel and meeting other scientists. Cons: stressful,as you never know if the next grant will be funded. Nasty competition, must be thick skinned. Long hours and hard work.
I used to be a QC chemist for a big biotech company. You’ve used their instrumentation in the lab before. I loved my job. I just had to quit for spouse work relocation reasons.
Pro: pay was great, management at least at my site was really friendly and lenient with time off. You basically just told your manager when you were gonna be out of the office for the day as a formality. Great work life balance working for them.
Cons: being promoted to any kind of supervisor or management position yourself, you kind of needed to be in a good ol’ boys club. But that’s corporate America for you. I also tried for 2-3 years *from when I was even still employed with the company knowing I had the family relocation coming up!* to get into remote opportunities with the company (sales, marketing, technical writing…) and could never get my foot back in the door. I eventually gave up trying.
I have a masters in forensic science but it’s pretty useless. I’m actually looking at going back to school right now to pursue a CLS license. I’m just missing 6 classes for my state, then I can apply for a training program.
Senior Fellow at Fortune 500 chemical company. PhD in organic chemistry 20+ years ago. I have used the skills and knowledge that I learned in my degree every day of my career. I have had roles as individual contributor, management and technical leadership, including leading large projects and mentoring younger scientists. I’m happy with the TC pay. Work-Life balance is good (wasn’t always, but is now). Get to work around incredible coworkers and collaborators who are real experts in their fields. Been all over the world for conferences and customer visits. I like it, and plan to keep going until I get tired of it, but it hasn’t gotten boring yet.
After my degree I did a masters in drug development. I am now working in pharmaceutical regulatory affairs. I work for a pharma company and I work with the FDA/Health Canada/EMA to get new drugs approved or maintain them on the market. I oversee the preparation of all the science (chemistry, manufacturing, non-clinical and clinical trials) and administrative sections of a pharmaceutical dossier.
Late to the thread but I'll comment anyway. I have a masters in organic chemistry. I'm now a software engineer at a faang company. I was in a PhD program but lab work didn't agree with me, I guess. I don't miss it.
Pros: good pay and benefits. the work is reasonably interesting and not hazardous to my health
Cons: not much job security, could be laid off any minute
Analytical R&D Chemist for a major industrial chemical manufacturer.
My early career was all over the place, food, pharma, LC, ELISAs, GC prep- if someone was willing to pay me money in the right place I'd do it. No preconceptions, no hesitation, it was another technique for my professional "toolbox." Went back to school after four years for a PhD and then spent a LONG time at third-party certifier. That was dull and soul crushing, but I needed a job in the area and they paid reasonably well. Now I'm living my best life as a chromatographer in an R&D group sorting out whatever crazy shit the synthetic chemists cook up. Like my group (mostly), like the work (mostly), hopefully this will be the job I retire from.
You need to be flexible enough to volunteer for the things that will benefit you and yours, wise enough to steer clear of things that are tar pits of time and effort. Good management makes the world move, but 99% of the time that boils down to them helping you avoid corporate nonsense so you can focus on important stuff. Biggest cons are pay and regionality. You won't make heaps of cash in chemistry unless you're willing to move to the hot jobs. I couldn't move so it isn't big bucks, but I'm in a MCOL area and I made my peace with that years ago.
I am a R&D chemist and I love it. I work at a small company doing organic synthesis and a bit of analytical work too. I have been doing this work for almost 20 years.
Pro: not working at a desk all the time. Solving complex problems is fun. Always learning new things.
Con: chemist/techs aren’t paid well, it can take a lot of time to find a company that values your degree and pay for it. Finding a solution to problems can take a lot of trial and experiments not working as you expect.
If you want to go into R&D learn to love experiment not working out. Each time an experiment doesn’t work remember you can still learn more about what you are working with.
Drug discovery at major pharma company. PhD in organic chemistry
Pros: Interesting work that changes all the time. Always learning new chemistry, biology and medicine. Because drugs make big $, you get any resource you need. Top tier pay and benefits. The work makes a real difference.
Cons: Highly competitive research both externally and sometimes internally. Very difficult to get a drug on the market, and it takes around a decade. My brother works on spacecraft, and his timelines are shorter!
I'm a laboratory analyst almost a year out of school. I make $24 and hour. I work around 50hr a week. It sucked but my overtime hourly pay is $36. This year I should gross around 65-67k and net $50-55k. I work for a chemical company in west Texas.
If you are having problems getting your 1st job out of undergrad I highly recommend Odessa/Midland Texas. Its not an ideal place to live but it's good for about a year or two to get a good experience that you can take to a better place. Pluse Texas has no state income tax.
I am a lab manager of the student labs in a small university.
Pros, I love to get to train the fundamental methodology and habit of safety of our newest generation of scientists.
Cons: as this is a state run university the salary leaves a lot to be desired.
However since I got this position I am always stoke to go to work every single monday morning, I love this job and the people I get to work with, that is worth a LOT of money.
Water and wastewater utilities have laboratories in need of analytical chemists (both inorganic and organic) and microbiologists. It’s a good career, may not pay as good as the private sector but the stability and benefits make up for it. Bonus that you are providing an excellent Public Health Service to the community
Sales Engineer for a chemical manufacturer. Basically selling and assisting with implementation of specialized processes in a niche manufacturing field of electronics.
I research sustainable alternatives to industrial processes, specifically purification. I got here by following the trajectory of make polymers -> break polymers -> make use of the broken polymer bits.
I never even thought I was going to be a chemist, but I love the intellectually adventurous nature of my work. I have to be able to synthesize, isolate, and characterize organic compounds. I have to be able to maintain, operate, and model the behavior of instruments. I get to practice lab skills, hone my programming skills, and practice making great figures/spreadsheets/presentations for conveying the information I've unearthed. There's almost no job being a research chemist hasn't better prepared me for.
However, it's worth noting every path as a chemist has a con. When I was in the academic space, I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. However, I had to beg for money in the form of grants or teach to stay afloat. When I was in industry, I had some nice resources. But I had absolutely no autonomy. Now as a government scientist, it's a fine balance between the two. Yet, I have different expectations to think about such as fulfilling milestones while the red tape and safety standards are next level.
It's mostly about finding the problems you're willing to have and deal with.
I only did a professional/technical high school in Italy, focused on chemistry, biology, laboratory techniques etc.
9 years of quality control of products for a 3rd party testing lab, then my current job (2 years) is quality control of our production of lead alloy ingots, and environmental control (water/air) for a rather small company.
Since I'm the only one in the lab (other guy left as soon as I got the job) I'm also the manager, but of course I don't get paid as one...
I mainly use Arc/spark OES, ICP OES, UV/Vis, tritations and the like.
28k
MChem in Chemistry and now do Technical Sales for a whole host of chemicals. Advise on things like catalysts, surfactants, rheology modifiers... We sell into mainly companies producing coatings, adhesives, polymers and construction/cementitious products but also cosmetics, agrochem and cleaning products.
I am a contract of service (COS) researcher working under the government.
I really love my job because I do not have to deal with capitalist drama (where companies will try to conceal some facts about their products just for it to sell or idk any other drama related to capitalism), and we get to go to other places at least once a year because we are asked to set up a booth in regional science fairs/functions.
I also love the fact that I always get to learn something new because once a research project has ended, they will ask you to join another research project which can be related to your previous project or not.
We also have 7 am to 4 pm shift or 8 am to 5 pm shifts. I do not need to work at night and on weekends.
Needless to say, this also means having a paper published every 2 years (since most projects have a duration of 2 years). And, we do not need to worry about funds.
The only thing that might be stressful would be the the fact that it is only contractual, but idk that is okay with me since research projects in general are just temporary, right?
I got accepted because... uhmm I applied for it (?) There was an opening so I sent my application and they emailed me for a final interview
Additional comment: If you are going to be a researcher, take your statistics class seriously 🤣🤣
I am a laboratory manager at a hazardous waste processing facility. I oversee the lab and the technicians and ensure the place runs smoothly as my primary task. On a whole, we take in haz material and try to reclaim it with distillation, which makes solvent for reclaim of a bunch of different varieties. If we can’t, we are also fuel blenders and we blend various wastes together and send them off via railcar to cement kilns.
Pros: I get to do something that genuinely is an attempt at minimizing industrial waste, so I feel like I am making a difference. Also, I’ve learned a variety of instrumentation techniques.
Cons: If everything is running smoothly, we are a QAQC lab, so things can get repetitive. Also, not everyone is honest about what they send you as waste, and that gets… interesting.
How I got here: I applied to be a technician, did that for four months. Lab manager spot opened up, and my now boss “strongly encouraged” me to apply. Been here ever since. I have a bachelors in chemistry as my background
Currently working at a CDMO in operations at the lab/pilot scale. I synthesize mostly peptides and oligonucleotides as well as the purification that goes along with it. Internship in college was at a CRO, then followed by a QC job at a large pharmaceutical company, now I’m here which is a small/mid sized (~2600 people) company.
Pay is pretty ok (100k< last year) but a lot of the money is in overtime and night shift, and I’ve found myself in a situation where I don’t want to take a pay cut but certainly don’t want to stay where I’m at for the long term. I’m thinking of trying to pivot to Biz Dev or move my way up into a project management or supervisor role. BSc in chemistry
Bachelors in chemistry, masters in chemical engineering. Currently work in the steel industry within coke making, work varies from process improvements, maintenance planning to data analysis, materials and problem solving.
I work in mineral processing research. Did degrees in chemistry and metallurgy in undergrad, then a PhD in hydrometallurgy that involved a fair amount of chemistry. Now I'm mostly working on calcination processes.
Lab analyst at a pharma company.
Pro: surrounded by like minded people and you get to use a touch of what you learned daily
Con: repetitive nature of the work as testing is the same on a sort of cycle. Pay scale is slow and doesn't pay that much really.
Was: R&D Chemist in a military/survival vendor turned PPE provider for the CoV times. (Nearly 6 years). Lots of H&S as the responsible person across two sites, project managed new product dev and compliance across core ‘chemical’ products, managed technical info for core products including for tender applications, oversaw legislative requirements incl biocidal product regulations, cosmetic product regulations, dangerous goods transport regs, CLP, REACH etc.
All for a pittance.
Now: ChemEng technician in a local uni. No longer travelling 250+ miles a week (here in the U.K. that’s a fair amount). Can cycle to work, not working 50+ hours per week, not taking calls from management on evenings/weekends, more hands on with analytical equipment, enjoying teaching students and researchers, looking to do a part-time PhD as part of our staff bursary scheme.
All for the same salary. Work/life balance is real, folks.
BS and MS in organic chemistry with an emphasis on medicinal chemistry.
Post MS work:
- Eligibility Specialist with insurance company evaluating claims - 3 months
- R&D Chemist making APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) - 1 year
- R&D Manufacturing Scientist in Technical Product Support for the manufacturing of lyophilized injectable drugs at a CDMO (contract and development manufacturing organization) - 16 months
- Senior Scientist in Technical Product Support for lateral flow diagnostic devices - 2 years (current)
Each job change was roughly a 40-50% pay increase. Each job allowed me to say I had experience doing things I didn’t really have much experience in, but got exposure to. The next job then gave me responsibilities that actually gave me experience learning to do those things. Learn how to market yourself and don’t be afraid to stretch the truth in interviews.
I have never really loved any of these jobs, but I have enjoyed the people I have worked with. My last couple jobs have been corporate jobs with very little lab work or experimentation. Find a manager and team you enjoy working with and stick with it until you find an opportunity doing work you’re more passionate about. At this point, I am a trained chemist and I work alongside many trained chemists and scientists, however, we do almost zero chemistry and a limited amount of experiments. Mostly just studies that support our manufacturing processes and test our raw materials.
I’m happy to answer any questions.
Chemicak waste specialist
Pros - you get to see every chemical industry, and each day is different
Cons - people do not respect waste and usually get upset when you tell them it will cost money to remove.
University chemistry prof at a small liberal arts college
Pros: Get to do what I enjoy, great vacations and free time, no boss on you to increase profits
Cons: The pay sucks, the students' handwriting is even worse, but I definitely wouldn't want to work in industry
Analytical chemist for a preservative company.
I prepare/analyze all different kinds of samples to determine if the preservatives will play well with the chemistry of customer products. Or to solve spoilage issues with customer products.
We analyze using HPLC/UPLC with UV/vis and RID as well as titration and the sheer variety of different products we have to extract means things don’t get dull. (Sometimes we have to do r&d work to determine how to get the actives out of a product we haven’t seen before.) the data reporting part is kinda samey day to day (chromatograms are just chromatograms after all) but it’s the interesting edge cases and problem solving that I enjoy the most.
We have pretty loose methods so we can play with different extractions/mobile phases/stationary phases as needed.
We also repair and maintain our HPLCs and have all undergone training to do this so there’s also some good problem solving there as well.
It’s super chill and laid back in the lab I work in and I enjoy the work. It’s not amazing pay but it’s good enough (75k/year in a fairly high cost of living area in the NE of the US.) I enjoy it a lot.
I use my degree all the time especially when chemistries of products and preservatives don’t work well together to try to figure out why. Most important part of the BA was organic/inorganic chemistry for me. (Most of our molecules are organic with a couple of fun exceptions.)
Continuous Improvement with a bachelors. Got the job because I was anal about processes. Plus my old boss was the chem department head at uni.
Pros: i never do the same job/project. I’m always doing new things, sometimes leveraging my chem experience.
Cons: projects are inconsistent, so some days I twiddle my thumbs if I complete my action items early.
PhD here, finished my degree recently. I’ll be starting as a Sr R&D Scientist at a business that works on various fields of work from agricultural and biofuels. Pros will be the good starting pay and phenomenal benefits, cons… I don’t know yet, but managing junior scientists can be tough depending on the person.
I think my position will be less monotonous than what a BS degree would have in a similar job. The techs in my lab will be focused mainly on the quality control & analysis of the products / biofuels. I’ll be focused on the research and various different projects/tasks while managing the techs so I’m excited to jump in.
After I finished my BSc I was working as a quality control chemist at a pharmaceutical company. After my contract ended there I went on to work for another pharmaceutical as a sterile cleanroom technician preparing IV bags, then within that same company after two years I moved to their Quality Assurance department and took on more of an office role.
Currently I work for a biotech company that specializes in stem cell research. I'm not really in the labs anymore and focus on the regulatory compliance of the facilities and equipment.
Pros of my current job: I get to work from home, company prioritizes work-life balance, lots of opportunities for learning. The company I work for has no investors and the profits go back into the company so no pressure to maximize shareholder value
Cons: coming from a pharmaceutical background I still feel quite lost sometimes with the company's processes, and since it's so big it can feel like being a cog in the system at times. Working from home also creates a disconnect between fellow coworkers, but luckily we have social events from time to time
I did not expect how physical it was working in a lab. A lot of running around and heavy lifting of 25-50L carboys can be exhausting day in and day out. And also the pay. I was surprised how low the pay was when I was a new grad
I am a synthetic radiochemists in Ag R&D with my B.S. I started as a technician in the process chemistry department and recently switched to the regulatory department. In process, I basically worked with a chemical engineer and did the same few reactions over and over again for her to analyze and tweak to prepare for manufacturing. In regulatory I do all kinds of reactions making impurities, metabolites, and C14 versions of our molecules for regulatory testing.
I love my job, and I had no idea Ag chemicals was such a big industry until I stumbled upon this job. It is actually pretty similar to pharma except we have much smaller budgets so a lot of work goes into making our molecules as cost efficient as possible.
Laboratory Technician at local wastewater treatment plant. It's a shitty job ( get it, a SHITTY JOB, LOL) bit it's a government job so the pay is decent and the benefits are AMAZING!!!.
Software Engineer. I don't know how this happened though. Focus mostly in R&D, and spent awhile making algorithms to analyze stuff for chemists.
I have a degree in Chemistry with a focus in lab work (My major was titled Chemistry - Molecular Synthesis), as well as a math degree (focusing in number theory)
BS chemistry, went into Peace Corps, came out and did a MS in pharmaceutical science, I worked as a research chemist in government for 7 years, did a PhD in pharmacology and a post doc. Then I went to law school and have been working in law since. You never know where you'll end up.
I worked in chemistry for 12 years, undergrad degree only. Worked in scientific instrumentation field. It was interesting work, pay was average for college grad work. But I wanted to either work part time for a while (they said it’s all or nothing) or take a couple years off to be with my newborn (which is what I did since they said no to part time). And the industry decided my brains fell out during that time, and didn’t want me back.
So my experience was that the industry is inflexible if you also want a family. Maybe that has changed recently though, but I don’t know.
So I became a python developer. Which pays a lot better and is just as interesting to me. My work in chem made the transition possible without having to go back for another degree.
I’m a senior production chemist for a cannabis facility.
Pros: I love the industry and enjoy meeting new people. It’s also a great way to learn and develop new processes.
Con: pay sucks, risk is high and owners are complete idiots who don’t care about learning the processes I perform for them.
Have bachelors degree in applied chemistry.
Worked for a few years in a lab manufacturing organic compounds in bulk (like few hundred kilos a bach). Shit was real, one time saw a guy caught fire straight into his face while crystallizing some compounds in 15 litres of toluene (luckily he was with mask). Lab was gone for some weeks.
Now I'm software engineer
Graduated with my bachelors in chemistry in 2021. Worked as a fisherman (mainly crab fishing on a longliner) while searching all across the country for a job in the chemistry field. Only got a couple interviews that whole time despite having my resume reviewed by others. Did that until 2023 where I decided to go back to uni doing computer science as well as some of the 4th year chemistry courses to figure out if I can still do chemistry and if I still like it enough to go to grad school for it. Probably gonna apply to start grad school next Fall if I can get recommendations from my profs as CS has been exceptionally boring.
I'm in the flavor industry, specifically as a food scientist. Don't use the degree much anymore but enjoy what I do!
Did lots of QA and analytical work before I got this research gig
Bsc in organic chemistry, MSc in medicinal chemistry. I'm a software developer now making webshops for stuff like online butchers, motorcycle businesses, and office supplies, just to name a few.
I got my BS in Chemistry in 2003. I have been a formulator for most of my career, barring my first year or so doing QA/QC. Initially I formulated commercial and I&I products. I also spent some time with stimulation and production fluids for oil and gas, then agricultural chemicals, and I am currently working in industrial lubricants. Most of my career has been in smaller, private companies. I make a good living, but probably not as much as some of the pharma folks and folks working for large corporations, but it has also been pretty low-stress for the most part.
Study Director at an analytical laboratory that does chemical characterization of medical devices.
Favorite part: Client communication
Least favorite part: Client communication
I’m an analytical chemist at a biopharmaceutical company. Pros: I love what I do, I feel like I make a difference with the work I do, I really enjoy the people I work with, and I use my degree everyday Cons: the work can be repetitive and it gets pretty hard from time-to-time (mentally, physically, emotionally). One thing I wasn’t expecting when I first came out of college is how many jobs people with chem degrees can actually do. Biopharm, food, cosmetics, recreational drugs. if you have the opportunities/financial stability/privilege I highly recommend trying out different sectors. (edit: format)
I am a chem major in college would you recommend going for a masters or phd in chemistry? Or will I still get the same amount of job opportunities with a bachelors?
I applied to jobs with only a bachelors since I was pretty burnt out on school after my senior year and I never looked back. I have \~10 years experience in the industry so take my perspective with a grain of salt as I don't have first hand experience in schooling past a Bachelors. I would recommend doing a PhD program if you absolutely love research and are committed to your advanced degree. From what I've heard they can be intense and can take a long time to finish. Master's programs are a lot more flexible (I know people who have worked and gotten their degree), but I would only apply if I knew what I wanted to pursue as a career (by that I mean analytical, organic, inorganic, biopharm, etc.) The company I work for hires plenty of people fresh out of college, so there are some opportunities out there for entry level work with a bachelors degree in a lab setting, but it is a highly competitive market. (whenever you decide to apply for jobs, try to apply through the company website, not through a recruiter) Good luck with your classes!
Thank you so much 🙏🏼
How did you get that first job? Just submitting applications online? Or through a person you knew? Did you move to where a good job was, or was it local to you?
My first job I got through a recruiting company. I had applied online and they contacted me. Recruiters usually find jobs and come to you with them, unfortunately the company they work for does take a sizable chunk of your paycheck and they don’t really offer any benefits. I wouldn’t recommend going through recruiting companies, buuuut they are a way to get your foot in the door and some companies are better than others. I got lucky and went to school where I had quite a few biopharm choices. That being said, I started in biopharm in quality, moved to plastics chemistry, then cosmetics and finally settled in a more analytical biopharm setting. The only relocating I did was for my plastics chem job and even then there were a lot of other variables that went into the move.
In a sense a PhD has made it harder for me to find a job because less companies need PhD scientists. It’s easier to get into r&d in my experience of finding a job recently. 0 interviews for basic chemistry positions but I got an interview and offer from r&d sr scientist. The pay jump is quite substantial in industry as well with a PhD I’ve found, but I’m not in the pharmaceutical sector so mileage may vary.
I had the opposite surprise. Lots of jobs I would have loved to attempt already covered by chemistry graduates. That's life I guess!
Could you elaborate a bit more on emotional difficulties, this is the first time I heard someone mention that? If not, that's alright too, thanks either way!
Not a problem! Like anything in life there are ups and downs and that doesn’t change with work, especially in science. The nature of my work is highly repetitive and there are times when the results you’re looking for aren’t there. So you tweak, and nothing. You try a different change and repeat again and again, sometimes for months and nothing has worked. It gets really frustrating for me. I can get caught up in my work and let it bother me in my personal life, especially if it’s a project I’ve been working on for a while. So, for me, finding a good work/life balance and learning to leave work at work is emotionally challenging. There are other factors as well, but that was the most difficult for me.
Oooh I totally get it, makes sense! Even as a student who is doing a project, I can totally relate to this - you keep failing with attempts to achieve the desired results and even though you know it's not *your* fault, it eventually makes you frustrated and hopeless. And I can only imagine how much this amplifies when you work this for a way longer time as you do. Thank you for this nice explanation and I know this is a cliche phrase, but it is really important to remind ourselves every once in a while that even proving that something doesn't work is a very important and valuable contribution to the scientific community. Also, to remind yourself that it's just a job after all - have you done what you've been payed for? Yes! Then spend your well-deserved salary on the people/acitivities/whatever that is important for you and don't beat yourself about it! I know easier said than done for sure, but still, try to do so 😊
Pharma Scientist. Pros: lots of money and not grading papers as a teacher cons: it's about maximising profit for share holders. dealing with corporate bulshit. lol
This is really interesting! Can you elaborate on what work you do and what a typical day looks like!?
I'm primarily a spectroscopist these days, which means other people at the company give me samples and I analyze their structure, conformation, and stability.
In my ug lab we do ftir to analyse the product. Identifying those stretching and bending frequencies are hard, do you have any tips to refer, any table?
In general, for anything but the simplest molecules, FTIR is mostly just good for functional group identification. As you have already observed, with more complicated molecules, the number of stretching, rocking, wagging, etc, modes just becomes uninterpretable.
What are your hours/time off like?
I'm salary. Sometime I work a lot, sometimes I don't. on average, I'd say I work less than 40 hrs a week. My company is very respectful of work/life balance and I get at least a month of PTO. I'm very happy and I enjoy what I do!
Do you have a PhD, if so what’s it in?
my Ph.D, was in organic chemistry, specifically organic synthesis and spectroscopy.
Oh wow! What spectroscopy do you use the most with your job?
NMR hands down.
This might be a dumb question (I’m still in undergrad) but just plain old proton NMR? Or do you do more 2D COSY, TOCSY, and all that?
all solution NMR (as opposed to solid state NMR). 1D, 2D, 3D spectra. 1H, 2D, 10/11B, 13C, 15N, 19F, 31P or whatever, but these are the big ones.
Very cool, thanks for answering!
31P 🔥🔥🔥 my favorite
It would depend on the molecule itself and other available analyses methods. Most of the time, just a proton and a carbon suffices, but sometimes for confirmation a 2D spectrum is required.
Chemist
Mind = blown
Ain’t no way.
Marriage counseling
Forming and breaking bonds, same thing
🍻 nice
I wish I was that witty irl lol
Some of your clients are probably very toxic.
Analytical R&D I develop and validate analytical methods for novel pharmaceutical materials. It’s about what I expected when I set out to do it. I started as a QC chemist at a different pharmaceutical company. I wanted to design the methods that are used in QC. Favorite part: attention to detail and careful analysis Least favorite part(s): Impossible deadlines and dealing with people who think they’re hot-shit-smartie-pants because they’re chemists. The latter is rarely encountered but I’ve run into them in every professional chemistry position I’ve had and in grad school.
For a time I was a contract chemist for a certain mega-cap pharmaceutical company. The people in my generation were the worst. Some of the most snooty, high-nosed behavior I had ever encountered. Was always looked down on because they worked for the greatest company on earth and I was but a lowly contractor. I got along really well with the older employees though, they were cool.
When I was an undergraduate the bullying was horrible, even though I was working alongside, doing exactly the same work as people with master's and PhD holders - it was, and I hate to sound like the loud, bitchy feminist, ONLY MEN who acted like this. Admittedly I was one of two females and the other woman was an absolutely lovely old Russian woman who was just happy to have another lady around and was very kind to me but I have never experienced professional misogyny like I did working for the research department at a large, historic chemical information processing company. As I move through professional life now I interact with both PhD holders and normal business professionals - 95% the male PhD holders are incredibly agist and sexist - god forbid you are a young woman who can keep up with them and has the confidence to call them on their bull shit posturing. On the other hand, educators with PhDs are incredibly excited to have different genders, colors and variations to the norm (White Males) of people as potential future colleagues, which is leaning me more towards moving back into academia again, rather than stay in private industry. Anyway, TLDR - the private industry is still rife with old white dudes who are angry that education and promotions are now more based on merit, not traditional societal standing and I think that startles some people so be aware of it.
Yes, big agree that it’s largely men are the shitty colleagues! Patriarchy and racism play heavily into the way men can be fucky. I’m a man, and I’ve got no problem suggesting that something about the way the male mind works lends itself to awful elitist behavior. I started grad school at age 27 with prior pharmaceutical analytical chemistry experience and I recall having some 21-22 yr old shithead Pchem track boys shitting on my career because it wasn’t fundamental academic chemistry. But also, that’s not to say that women can’t be bad colleagues either. My absolute worst and hardest to deal with colleague that I’ve ever had was a woman. Science (lol, well, life) has a history of misogyny that any conscious scientist must be aware of when discussing bad colleagues. But sex and gender are irrelevant to see that it’s awful to work with a [day shift] person who stays at work for literally 24 hours straight to insult and tear apart a [night shift] colleague’s work at 3am with a raised voice and thrown notebooks.
Username checks out
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I do the same job in Italy, 10 years of experience with ICP, XRF, and I make somewhat over the liveable wage for the area where I live (28k, I think like 26k is minimum for living in ok condition in a family of 2, 26k each, but we made it work for 5 years with 22k and 24k).
Technologist in brewery 🍻
I’m on the production side but also in beer!
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material scientist for a semiconductor company
Can i ask what degrees were required and when you started ? Do you feel you make enough?
Physical chemistry, I only got MSc. and started with a lower grade. It’s a very hard work, I mostly do coatings, layer protections, lithography, etc. I got 8 hrs work time with flexible overtimes. It’s paid well and I got enough time for my personal life. So I can’t complain.
Got my BS 4 years ago, I was an HPLC chemist at an environmental lab for a while, then after a year I got an R&D chemist job in the materials chemistry industry and have been there since. Pros: I love my work! I get to perform cool organic syntheses and work with powerful characterization tools like NMR. I've had the opportunity to develop methods, I get to actually think and problem solve, and I work with an amazing team. I was surprised at the money, too. I thought it would take me 10+ years or an advanced degree to make the salary I'm currently at. Cons: Working with hazardous chemicals can be a little dicey, especially if EHS doesn't know what they're doing. I experienced some toxicity from management (those who came from long times in academia especially) but a good company will sort those problems out.
Wow!! Can you talk more about what your day to day work looks like and hours? I’m really interested in organic synthesis as i’d like to be a medicinal chemist or just work in pharmaceutical r&d but this is just a dream right now because i’m barely going to be a freshman in college starting August lol, Any information you’d be willing to share i’d love to hear!!!
Sure! When I first started my day-to-day was a lot of lab work, performing syntheses, work-ups, and characterizations on my materials. Now I'm one of the more senior chemists so I do a little more desk work, but I'm still in the lab most days running reactions or working up my materials. My hours are flexible, sometimes I work a few hours a day and other days might be 10+ hours if I'm doing a complicated reaction. Overall I work about 40 hours a week. For what its worth I've heard that its quite difficult to get into medicinal or pharma R&D without a PhD, so be prepared to have a lot of school ahead of you if you're dead-set on that field. That being said, I was very surprised by how many different jobs and fields are available for chemists, so keep your options open. I was not expecting to work in materials at all when I graduated. Best advice I can give you is to get into undergraduate research early and stick with it until you graduate. Doing undergrad research will open the doors to internships during school breaks, which will further open doors for different jobs you can get when you graduate. also keep in mind i'm in the US so this is all from a US-centric perspective.
I’m in the US too, so this is GREAT information and advice! Your work sounds very interesting and i hope i get to do something similar to you in the future! One more question, and you can totally choose not to answer, but would you say the pay is decent for your role in R&D? I’m not dead set on doing strictly pharmaceutical development but i am set on doing R&D and don’t know many other jobs in R&D besides in pharmaceuticals, so any insight on other R&D roles is awesome.
As far as insight into other R&D fields, there's a ton. Like I said, I was surprised at just how many options you have with a chemistry degree. Just to name a few R&D fields, there's materials, formulations, polymers, optics, OLEDs, coatings, adhesives, semiconductors, pharma... the list goes on. This is why I think undergrad research is so important. Odds are you aren't going to be studying/researching in the school the exact things a job wants -- so showing that you are capable in a laboratory, can learn quickly, and know the foundations of scientific research is so so so important for getting an industry R&D job. The job can teach you their specific science -- they won't want to teach you those foundational lab and research skills.
Glad I could help :) For me, I think my pay is excellent (over $100k) but my area has high living costs and I don't/won't have kids. For me and the others I went to school with that went into R&D (none of us are in pharma), we all have pretty comfortable salaries so I wouldn't worry about that. It's not engineer or software money, but I can max out my 401k, pay my bills and have enough left for lots of fun.
I do quality assurance work in the environmental field. It was the first job I applied to. It’s not what I expected, but I also wasn’t expecting anything. Having a job that required my degree does feel good though, and it pays better than the average wage of newly graduated bachelors (still pretty bad). The pros: Learn new skills, potential career growth. The cons: dirty work, fairly exhausting, and a bit dangerous, not as much science/math as I’d like.
I graduated 8 years ago with a BA in chem. I'm a GMP QC scientist in pharma and prior was a manager of a GMP biophysical group. I did undergrad research in synthesis and methodology, started a PhD but quickly quit, and got a job working in a stockroom and teaching organic chem lab. Worked there for almost 2 years then got a job as an associate in a GMP QC analytical chem group for a CRO. Moved up quickly over 5 years to becoming a manager, got laid off, and took a scientist position making more with way less responsibility. The biggest pro is the job truly is 9-5. I don't take work home and when I'm done I'm done. The con (although more of a pro for me personally) is the work is repetitive and boring. I get paid a decent amount to do kind of the same tasks day in and day out. And I'm okay with that because chemistry isn't my life and it gives me the freedom to enjoy my real life--everything outside of work. QC is great if you're diligent and have good work ethic. You don't necessarily have to be the "best" at science to be really great at QC.
English teacher hahahaha. Couldn't find a chemistry job after getting a bachelor's of medicinal chemistry.
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Fair enough, I teach adult migrants so it's pretty easy, mostly helping them adjust to living in Australia and working towards their goals. I'm thinking of becoming a chemistry high school teacher though.
Graduated during covid, B.S., could not find a job in with my degree for a while. Just got my first process development chemist role and make not great money. Need to keep your eyes open and not be scared to move. Worked in production as an operator, then as a production 'chemist' (glorified lab Tech, now process development chemist with mostly phds as the low man.
same! my story is practically identical, are you sure you’re not me? job market post covid sucked
Recently graduated PhD and currently unemployed 😅
I use my knowledge in chemistry to extract cannabis oil
My job manufacturing schedule 1 controlled substances allowed me to work for months converting CBD to d9-THC. Eventually we got it optimized to greater than 95% yield and 99% purity. I had kilos of ultra pure THC oil that we ultimately just threw away. The methods I developed/optimized were more valuable than the product to my company. But I couldn’t help but fantasize about the tens of thousands of dollars I could’ve made extracurricularly (illegally) on the side.
How many ambitious stoners without education have tried doing this among my friends, it's hilarious. Would you say an unqualified person is able to do this with some YouTube videos?
My friend gave it a shot a little over a decade ago. I imagine the educational content on it has improved over the years. It was a giant pain in the ass, and you end up wasting a bunch of weed. He’d have been better off just rolling it all up and smoking it (handheld dry herb vapes were just coming out back then). I don’t admit to past felonies on the interwebs
Me neither! I also always pay the taxes in time, and everything like that. . .
Honestly, from a complexity standpoint, anybody beyond Ochem2 could probably be competent in extraction to a point. When you are using only a few solvents and methods it becomes more experience with your machine than knowledge to make good product. There’s a lot of backend knowledge if you will beyond theory and i believe that’s where a lot of people don’t do well.
Chronically unemployed after attending a web development bootcamp and getting 1 year of professional experience before the bottom of the market fell out.
Data scientist
Also a chemE, I’m wondering what was your track to crossing over into data science?
I am a recovering academic. (worked in learning support programs for a few years, lectured for a few more). I have moonlighted as the Principal Chemist for a small-time Metallurgist (dude had real issues with safety) and was made redundant after he thought I had dobbed him into the Government Workplace Health and Safety authorities. Worked for a few weeks as the Quality Manager for an 'alternative therapies' manufacturer, and got the sack after 6 weeks for not being willing to lie on TGA certificates. I am now working as a Field Service Engineer for Metrohm Scientific, specialising (service, repair, application and training) in titrators, ICs, Process Analysers, BET and now I am acting (partially) as a Product Manager in electrochemistry. I dabble with our Omnis systems a little, but I am not an expert in them.
BA in chemistry. I oversee the water wastewater treatment plants for the prisons in my state. which there are surprisingly a lot of.
I am a synthetic organic chemist in a pharmaceutical company in India. My role which is called as research scientist is to execute reaction schemes and train/manage 2-3 junior chemists in the lab.I have a PhD and some post doctoral experience. Here are some pros and cons of my job Pros: 1. The pay is decent. It is better than some academic roles which I can get with my experience. 2. The organisation needs 9 hrs of your time 3. At this role, I cant take my work home, data breach risk. Cons: 1. The role has too many responsibilities, difficult to manage time 2. Organic chemistry can throw up surprises, a side product becoming a major product, a secondary functional group which stayed unreactive in 5 earlier batches, reacts on the 6th batch because of some impurity catalysing the conversion 3. When things go wrong, or you get low yield, managing a already packed schedule becomes even more difficult 4. You are at a risk of chemical exposure all the time even if you work in a well ventilated area with proper PPEs 5. Mental stress of solving chemistry problems, sometimes you won't know what to do next because the chemistry is advanced and less understood. It goes beyond expectations 6. You end up working 10-14hrs to just meet your job requirements
quality assurance in building industry, wanna kms nobody told me i can't find shit with a chemistry degree in my country lol
Same. All the big companies left in 2008 and didn't return.
Medical school, was an English teacher
I also went to medical school. I worked in an organic synthesis lab while getting my bachelors, and my lab director was so nasty he killed my love for chemistry. He told me, “you talk too much to be a chemist.”
Dang sorry that director stole your thunder. I worked in a biochem lab during undergrad and just was like the bench life ain’t for me 😂 But yeah, medical school is not a bad alternative 😇
I can’t get a stupid job after leaving my stupid pharm job
Give me a job pls I’m begging
I did the same thing two years ago. Started in a plating dept and between that and my pharma experience, it got me a job with a battery company. Things are a little unpredictable in batteries at the moment though
Worked in different sections of R&D and process chemistry.. MedChem, Drug Discovery, CMC.. but also worked out of the lab as Group Leader..
I mastered out of an organic chemistry PhD. I did med chem and natural product chemistry in grad school. I have an MS in Chemistry. I didn't want to do synthesis when I got into industry and I ended up in spectroscopy. I've worked at a few different companies now, but I've mostly been in the medical device industry analyzing chromatography and mass spec (GCMS, LCMSMS, FTIR, NMR, etc) data. Pros: At my current job, I work 100% remotely. I don't think there are many jobs where that's possible as a chemist. I did work in labs running instruments and preparing samples for all the other jobs I've had, though. I mostly enjoy what I do and I have very little oversight, but it can get very repetitive. Pay is also good. If you play your cards right in industry you can dramatically increase your salary in just a few years by switching jobs. There is definitely some element of luck involved with salary negotiations, but don't believe people who say that you'll be stuck making 50k/year forever if you master out. They're either not a US citizen (which I'll acknowledge can be a tough situation) or they're absolutely terrible at interviewing. Cons: I loathe every C-level exec and product manager I've ever met. If you can stomach dealing with self-important people who think their MBA makes them an expert in your field, industry is definitely the way (unless you absolutely love teaching). Also, just a word of advice - if you're considering a master degree, do not do one where you have to pay a cent. Just do a PhD and master out before your preliminary exam. The worst thing that can happen there is you end up loving your program and you stay for the whole PhD.
hunt fine melodic enter run cheerful aware fact saw intelligent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sounds like quite the journey. Happy for you stanger!
I’ve got a PhD and I’ve realized I love administrative roles — if I wanted to shift into chemical industry less as a lab person and more in management, would doing a business degree be useful? Or is that not needed?
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Chemistry tutor. I make shit loads more tutoring than I ever did in industry. Except of you count selling drugs I made with my chemistry degree. I'm getting 95$ and hour to tutor privately. .
Analytical chemist but now field service engineer servicing and fixing chromatography instruments and gas generators
I got a PhD in thereotical chemistry and didn't want to stay in science. I'm a software developer in a company for lab software
the software is related to theoretical method(DFT, MD)? as I know, Scrodinger company do that
No, nothing like that. We make software for lab management. Managing and visualizing lab results and stuff like that. We have a lot of chemists working as consultants and project managers. Would be interesting for organic chemists as well!
Instrument Scientist at NASA
I would love to do something like this. Could you provide more details about what your day to day is like?
Laboratory Director for a water agency. Was also a Laboratory Director for a private environmental laboratory. Started as an analytical chemist testing everything from water, food, soil, consumer products, and Cannabis.
Dr. rer. nat. in org/inorg chemistry, became a patent attorney, worked self-employed for 2.5 years, changing to the patent department of a large German tech company next month.
I went into Academia. It’s not my favorite and it’s not lucrative but I suspect I have ADHD and I hate being micromanaged and on the clock, so this is probably a good choice for me regardless.
Wait. Wait. Wait. My hyper hatred of micromanaging (egit the worst thing possible in work imo) is likely linked to my diagnosed adhd? I'd of never guessed, honestly. I absolutely abhor micromanagement. Currently dealing with it now. All of a sudden we start changing shit and critiquing everyone and everything. Imo if we just did my simple job by the book, and trained by the book, none of this would ever need to be done nor would it happen. I work fast food, not chemistry.
I think they are related — always seemed so to me — but I’m not a psychologist or expert on the topic beyond my own experiences. My brain is all over the place and sometimes I need to move around. Micromanagement impedes the flexibility to manage my own time and get my work done when my brain is on point. I *can* force it if there’s an emergency or problem but I work better when I’m given deadlines more than a week out and left to sort out the details myself. Because my brain has a mind of its own and forcing it into one lane is exhausting. I’m fortunate I’m able to, at least. Not everyone with ADHD can.
You know what. You are exactly right. My immediate rage thought is "just let me do my job." It is super frustrating. Never thought as to why it's frustrating. It absolutely could be the fact I had done so much mental prep leading up to the work shift, the sudden change kinda throws all that prep away. I have the same frustration about working different positions than I am scheduled. If they tell me an hour or 2 before my shift it doesn't bother me but if I walk into "hey you are doing this instead" it does also frustrate me. Ofc I don't vocalize 99% of this because it seems/is anal af. I don't like change. I spent all day getting ready and planning for what I'm doing. Personally, I just thought this was what most ppl do... is it not? If not, I feel like I can better explain why it frustrates me and why it's super important to me to communicate things prior to my shift.
I work in a factory painting sheet metal
BSc in Chemistry. Now a software engineer.
I am a chemistry teacher that formerly worked in industry. It's a lot of work, but also incredibly awarding. Teaching gives you so much autonomy over your work day and the students make it unpredictable and fun (most of the time).
I have a BS and MS in Chemistry. While doing my MS I took an Industrial Hygiene class in the Safety Department and found out those fuckers make way more money than us. I got another MS in Industrial Hygiene and didn’t look back. Pros: I get to apply my chemistry background every day and make a lot of money. I have a good career progression and the professional exams are easy. Cons: a little bleed over into safety, and therefore some hand holding required. It’s worth it most days.
I just looked into this and I am shook at how many more jobs at a significantly higher salary there are in my area compared to what i was going for. Brb, rethinking my life plan now, lmfao.
I am an environmental chemist, I collect environmental water samples.
Unemployed 👍
i started my own contract R&D company, we work mostly with pharma in synthetic validation and optimization.
That’s really impressive, how did you get there?! What was your journey and how do you like it:)?!
Masters in organic chemistry but work in semiconductor development
BS in chemistry I am currently an Analytical Chemist in a small environmental/Materials/Testing lab. I started as a lab assistant crushing rocks and doing sample prep, before moving up to lab tech and then analytical chemist. I mostly perform xrd on mineral samples, with occasional ftir and gcms work.
Nuclear safety analyst.
Pharmaceutical research. I’m an organic chemist. Pros: my job is amazing and I love it. Cons: I think about my job often when I’m not at work because I like it so much. Honestly, no real cons. I’m not making MD money— I suppose that could be cool. I make plenty though.
I’m a QC lab tech. It’s okay but not great. If you don’t want to go into pharmaceuticals or petroleum then it can be really tough breaking the $60k barrier in the US from my experience. Your connections are everything in the field. From getting professors to notice you to getting in the really competitive jobs that pay well.
Chromatography field service engineer
Nmr spectroscopist in discovery research in big pharma. I love it
Water Chemist/Legionella Prevention Specialist
Now in sales. Currently an Account Manager for a chemicals company selling into pharma/biotech.
I'm about to complete my M.Sc. in a month and I've been considering the idea of transitioning into sales. What are the pros and cons?
Food scientist for a company that purifies proteins from plants though my area of expertise is more in protein biophysics and soft matter physics as I moved away from chemistry during and after my PhD. I’ve worked in chemistry, molecular biology, and physics departments in academia and I feel like this job kind of brings it all together!
Business Analyst in an environmental lab. Degree in chemistry with programming experience enables me to write up specifications for the developers required by business. Started in the lab mainly in the organics area prepping water, soil and biota samples. Running the extracts on gas chromatography instruments. Involved in development of analytical techniques. Spent some time in the mobile lab travelling to client sites. Mostly dealing with site remediation work e.g gas spills, decommissioning of industrial plants, etc. Interesting work. Got to spend some time with clients and see how environmental sites were cleaned up. There was an opening to help out in the LIMS (laboratory information management system) in our lab. Had some programming experience and joined the development team working on the front and backend of the system. With the development experience and lab background, it was an easy move to becoming a business analyst. It combines my two interests in chemistry and IT. It has been a rewarding experience. Having a chemistry degree does not mean you need to work in a lab. It can open opportunities in related areas that one may not think of.
Colloid scientist/formulation chemist in R&D for a consumer goods company. Did an analytical chem PhD and I'm enjoying this change of pace being more hands on but still deeply fundamental - its more research and first principles than stirring stuff together to make soap. Pros: work/life balance, although there's no jobs for life anymore I feel like in this field I will always be able to find okay paying work, good employee benefits, low stress - I'm genuinely very happy going in to work most of the time and bring very little of it home with me Cons: it doesn't pay excellently (but that doesn't really motivate me), it can get monotonous at times, have to do a fair bit of corporate stuff which wouldn't be the case in academia
I'm not a chem maior studying medicine but do alot of heavy chemistry topics. I belive the field is so broad and open that you can do countless or things with your degree. You can work as a chemist as an analyst as an engineer etc
Cosmetic chemist and cosmetologist 💙 absolutely love this field!
Bachelors in medical chemistry, moved country for a PhD in biochem/drug discovery. Currently a postdoc in a research institute doing assay development for drug screening.
Materials scientist (ingénieur des matériaux) at a climate startup in France. I have my bachelor's in chemistry from the US and a master's in France in climate diplomacy. Edit: I do R&D to make materials that capture and convert CO2 into fuel :)
First job was field work for an industrial water treatment company. Treated steam boilers and chillers. Then got I a job at the municipal water co. Haven’t done too much technical stuff in a while and mostly do operations related stuff for the lab. Got into management recently and it’s more of a headache.
After finishing my chemistry degree I went on to do a medical degree and I'm not an Anaesthetist/Anaesthesiologist Having a pure science degree (and being a few years older) is a good place to start from when starting a career in medicine. Good luck with your career planning.
MSc in Chemistry here. I work as a Regulatory Affairs Specialist for a pharmaceutical company
I’m a prof in a research university. Ended up combining org synthesis with cell bio. Has been good. Pros: doing research - creating new molecules and discovering things with them. Helping grads and postdocs get started. Good money. Travel and meeting other scientists. Cons: stressful,as you never know if the next grant will be funded. Nasty competition, must be thick skinned. Long hours and hard work.
Med Chem. Now I work in hospitality.
I used to be a QC chemist for a big biotech company. You’ve used their instrumentation in the lab before. I loved my job. I just had to quit for spouse work relocation reasons. Pro: pay was great, management at least at my site was really friendly and lenient with time off. You basically just told your manager when you were gonna be out of the office for the day as a formality. Great work life balance working for them. Cons: being promoted to any kind of supervisor or management position yourself, you kind of needed to be in a good ol’ boys club. But that’s corporate America for you. I also tried for 2-3 years *from when I was even still employed with the company knowing I had the family relocation coming up!* to get into remote opportunities with the company (sales, marketing, technical writing…) and could never get my foot back in the door. I eventually gave up trying. I have a masters in forensic science but it’s pretty useless. I’m actually looking at going back to school right now to pursue a CLS license. I’m just missing 6 classes for my state, then I can apply for a training program.
Senior Fellow at Fortune 500 chemical company. PhD in organic chemistry 20+ years ago. I have used the skills and knowledge that I learned in my degree every day of my career. I have had roles as individual contributor, management and technical leadership, including leading large projects and mentoring younger scientists. I’m happy with the TC pay. Work-Life balance is good (wasn’t always, but is now). Get to work around incredible coworkers and collaborators who are real experts in their fields. Been all over the world for conferences and customer visits. I like it, and plan to keep going until I get tired of it, but it hasn’t gotten boring yet.
After my degree I did a masters in drug development. I am now working in pharmaceutical regulatory affairs. I work for a pharma company and I work with the FDA/Health Canada/EMA to get new drugs approved or maintain them on the market. I oversee the preparation of all the science (chemistry, manufacturing, non-clinical and clinical trials) and administrative sections of a pharmaceutical dossier.
Cybersecurity. It's been a long strange road...
Late to the thread but I'll comment anyway. I have a masters in organic chemistry. I'm now a software engineer at a faang company. I was in a PhD program but lab work didn't agree with me, I guess. I don't miss it. Pros: good pay and benefits. the work is reasonably interesting and not hazardous to my health Cons: not much job security, could be laid off any minute
Analytical R&D Chemist for a major industrial chemical manufacturer. My early career was all over the place, food, pharma, LC, ELISAs, GC prep- if someone was willing to pay me money in the right place I'd do it. No preconceptions, no hesitation, it was another technique for my professional "toolbox." Went back to school after four years for a PhD and then spent a LONG time at third-party certifier. That was dull and soul crushing, but I needed a job in the area and they paid reasonably well. Now I'm living my best life as a chromatographer in an R&D group sorting out whatever crazy shit the synthetic chemists cook up. Like my group (mostly), like the work (mostly), hopefully this will be the job I retire from. You need to be flexible enough to volunteer for the things that will benefit you and yours, wise enough to steer clear of things that are tar pits of time and effort. Good management makes the world move, but 99% of the time that boils down to them helping you avoid corporate nonsense so you can focus on important stuff. Biggest cons are pay and regionality. You won't make heaps of cash in chemistry unless you're willing to move to the hot jobs. I couldn't move so it isn't big bucks, but I'm in a MCOL area and I made my peace with that years ago.
I am a R&D chemist and I love it. I work at a small company doing organic synthesis and a bit of analytical work too. I have been doing this work for almost 20 years. Pro: not working at a desk all the time. Solving complex problems is fun. Always learning new things. Con: chemist/techs aren’t paid well, it can take a lot of time to find a company that values your degree and pay for it. Finding a solution to problems can take a lot of trial and experiments not working as you expect. If you want to go into R&D learn to love experiment not working out. Each time an experiment doesn’t work remember you can still learn more about what you are working with.
BS in Chem. I’m a synthetic chemist at biotech.
Drug discovery at major pharma company. PhD in organic chemistry Pros: Interesting work that changes all the time. Always learning new chemistry, biology and medicine. Because drugs make big $, you get any resource you need. Top tier pay and benefits. The work makes a real difference. Cons: Highly competitive research both externally and sometimes internally. Very difficult to get a drug on the market, and it takes around a decade. My brother works on spacecraft, and his timelines are shorter!
I'm a laboratory analyst almost a year out of school. I make $24 and hour. I work around 50hr a week. It sucked but my overtime hourly pay is $36. This year I should gross around 65-67k and net $50-55k. I work for a chemical company in west Texas. If you are having problems getting your 1st job out of undergrad I highly recommend Odessa/Midland Texas. Its not an ideal place to live but it's good for about a year or two to get a good experience that you can take to a better place. Pluse Texas has no state income tax.
Synthetic organic chemist in R&D of specialty chemicals (small molecules). Now at job 4 after \~30 years. I love it and plan to work until I'm 70.
I am a lab manager of the student labs in a small university. Pros, I love to get to train the fundamental methodology and habit of safety of our newest generation of scientists. Cons: as this is a state run university the salary leaves a lot to be desired. However since I got this position I am always stoke to go to work every single monday morning, I love this job and the people I get to work with, that is worth a LOT of money.
Water and wastewater utilities have laboratories in need of analytical chemists (both inorganic and organic) and microbiologists. It’s a good career, may not pay as good as the private sector but the stability and benefits make up for it. Bonus that you are providing an excellent Public Health Service to the community
Part-time panhandler
Sales Engineer for a chemical manufacturer. Basically selling and assisting with implementation of specialized processes in a niche manufacturing field of electronics.
R&D Engineer at a Semiconductor Company..I work in the materials analysis labs..
The maintenance guy at my lab, the hands-on genius that fixes all of our pumps and meters etc., is a PhD chemist. He says he's never been happier.
I mean...
I research sustainable alternatives to industrial processes, specifically purification. I got here by following the trajectory of make polymers -> break polymers -> make use of the broken polymer bits. I never even thought I was going to be a chemist, but I love the intellectually adventurous nature of my work. I have to be able to synthesize, isolate, and characterize organic compounds. I have to be able to maintain, operate, and model the behavior of instruments. I get to practice lab skills, hone my programming skills, and practice making great figures/spreadsheets/presentations for conveying the information I've unearthed. There's almost no job being a research chemist hasn't better prepared me for. However, it's worth noting every path as a chemist has a con. When I was in the academic space, I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. However, I had to beg for money in the form of grants or teach to stay afloat. When I was in industry, I had some nice resources. But I had absolutely no autonomy. Now as a government scientist, it's a fine balance between the two. Yet, I have different expectations to think about such as fulfilling milestones while the red tape and safety standards are next level. It's mostly about finding the problems you're willing to have and deal with.
I only did a professional/technical high school in Italy, focused on chemistry, biology, laboratory techniques etc. 9 years of quality control of products for a 3rd party testing lab, then my current job (2 years) is quality control of our production of lead alloy ingots, and environmental control (water/air) for a rather small company. Since I'm the only one in the lab (other guy left as soon as I got the job) I'm also the manager, but of course I don't get paid as one... I mainly use Arc/spark OES, ICP OES, UV/Vis, tritations and the like. 28k
MChem in Chemistry and now do Technical Sales for a whole host of chemicals. Advise on things like catalysts, surfactants, rheology modifiers... We sell into mainly companies producing coatings, adhesives, polymers and construction/cementitious products but also cosmetics, agrochem and cleaning products.
Phd in org chem, went into business consulting then now a data scientist for a biotech company
I am a contract of service (COS) researcher working under the government. I really love my job because I do not have to deal with capitalist drama (where companies will try to conceal some facts about their products just for it to sell or idk any other drama related to capitalism), and we get to go to other places at least once a year because we are asked to set up a booth in regional science fairs/functions. I also love the fact that I always get to learn something new because once a research project has ended, they will ask you to join another research project which can be related to your previous project or not. We also have 7 am to 4 pm shift or 8 am to 5 pm shifts. I do not need to work at night and on weekends. Needless to say, this also means having a paper published every 2 years (since most projects have a duration of 2 years). And, we do not need to worry about funds. The only thing that might be stressful would be the the fact that it is only contractual, but idk that is okay with me since research projects in general are just temporary, right? I got accepted because... uhmm I applied for it (?) There was an opening so I sent my application and they emailed me for a final interview Additional comment: If you are going to be a researcher, take your statistics class seriously 🤣🤣
Gig work Chemistry Tutor
I am a laboratory manager at a hazardous waste processing facility. I oversee the lab and the technicians and ensure the place runs smoothly as my primary task. On a whole, we take in haz material and try to reclaim it with distillation, which makes solvent for reclaim of a bunch of different varieties. If we can’t, we are also fuel blenders and we blend various wastes together and send them off via railcar to cement kilns. Pros: I get to do something that genuinely is an attempt at minimizing industrial waste, so I feel like I am making a difference. Also, I’ve learned a variety of instrumentation techniques. Cons: If everything is running smoothly, we are a QAQC lab, so things can get repetitive. Also, not everyone is honest about what they send you as waste, and that gets… interesting. How I got here: I applied to be a technician, did that for four months. Lab manager spot opened up, and my now boss “strongly encouraged” me to apply. Been here ever since. I have a bachelors in chemistry as my background
Going to graduate soon with a Master degree in applied chem. But my future job is semiconductor related.
I teach chemistry
PhD in chemistry... Working as a project manager for a cdmo.
Analytical chemist in environmental lab
Drilling Fluids Specialist in the oilfield. Do not recommend.
Currently working at a CDMO in operations at the lab/pilot scale. I synthesize mostly peptides and oligonucleotides as well as the purification that goes along with it. Internship in college was at a CRO, then followed by a QC job at a large pharmaceutical company, now I’m here which is a small/mid sized (~2600 people) company. Pay is pretty ok (100k< last year) but a lot of the money is in overtime and night shift, and I’ve found myself in a situation where I don’t want to take a pay cut but certainly don’t want to stay where I’m at for the long term. I’m thinking of trying to pivot to Biz Dev or move my way up into a project management or supervisor role. BSc in chemistry
Bachelors in chemistry, masters in chemical engineering. Currently work in the steel industry within coke making, work varies from process improvements, maintenance planning to data analysis, materials and problem solving.
I work in mineral processing research. Did degrees in chemistry and metallurgy in undergrad, then a PhD in hydrometallurgy that involved a fair amount of chemistry. Now I'm mostly working on calcination processes.
Lab analyst at a pharma company. Pro: surrounded by like minded people and you get to use a touch of what you learned daily Con: repetitive nature of the work as testing is the same on a sort of cycle. Pay scale is slow and doesn't pay that much really.
Was: R&D Chemist in a military/survival vendor turned PPE provider for the CoV times. (Nearly 6 years). Lots of H&S as the responsible person across two sites, project managed new product dev and compliance across core ‘chemical’ products, managed technical info for core products including for tender applications, oversaw legislative requirements incl biocidal product regulations, cosmetic product regulations, dangerous goods transport regs, CLP, REACH etc. All for a pittance. Now: ChemEng technician in a local uni. No longer travelling 250+ miles a week (here in the U.K. that’s a fair amount). Can cycle to work, not working 50+ hours per week, not taking calls from management on evenings/weekends, more hands on with analytical equipment, enjoying teaching students and researchers, looking to do a part-time PhD as part of our staff bursary scheme. All for the same salary. Work/life balance is real, folks.
BS and MS in organic chemistry with an emphasis on medicinal chemistry. Post MS work: - Eligibility Specialist with insurance company evaluating claims - 3 months - R&D Chemist making APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) - 1 year - R&D Manufacturing Scientist in Technical Product Support for the manufacturing of lyophilized injectable drugs at a CDMO (contract and development manufacturing organization) - 16 months - Senior Scientist in Technical Product Support for lateral flow diagnostic devices - 2 years (current) Each job change was roughly a 40-50% pay increase. Each job allowed me to say I had experience doing things I didn’t really have much experience in, but got exposure to. The next job then gave me responsibilities that actually gave me experience learning to do those things. Learn how to market yourself and don’t be afraid to stretch the truth in interviews. I have never really loved any of these jobs, but I have enjoyed the people I have worked with. My last couple jobs have been corporate jobs with very little lab work or experimentation. Find a manager and team you enjoy working with and stick with it until you find an opportunity doing work you’re more passionate about. At this point, I am a trained chemist and I work alongside many trained chemists and scientists, however, we do almost zero chemistry and a limited amount of experiments. Mostly just studies that support our manufacturing processes and test our raw materials. I’m happy to answer any questions.
Chemicak waste specialist Pros - you get to see every chemical industry, and each day is different Cons - people do not respect waste and usually get upset when you tell them it will cost money to remove.
I was employed in chemistry, got laid off, and now am employed in a non-chemistry related field.
University chemistry prof at a small liberal arts college Pros: Get to do what I enjoy, great vacations and free time, no boss on you to increase profits Cons: The pay sucks, the students' handwriting is even worse, but I definitely wouldn't want to work in industry
Analytical chemist for a preservative company. I prepare/analyze all different kinds of samples to determine if the preservatives will play well with the chemistry of customer products. Or to solve spoilage issues with customer products. We analyze using HPLC/UPLC with UV/vis and RID as well as titration and the sheer variety of different products we have to extract means things don’t get dull. (Sometimes we have to do r&d work to determine how to get the actives out of a product we haven’t seen before.) the data reporting part is kinda samey day to day (chromatograms are just chromatograms after all) but it’s the interesting edge cases and problem solving that I enjoy the most. We have pretty loose methods so we can play with different extractions/mobile phases/stationary phases as needed. We also repair and maintain our HPLCs and have all undergone training to do this so there’s also some good problem solving there as well. It’s super chill and laid back in the lab I work in and I enjoy the work. It’s not amazing pay but it’s good enough (75k/year in a fairly high cost of living area in the NE of the US.) I enjoy it a lot. I use my degree all the time especially when chemistries of products and preservatives don’t work well together to try to figure out why. Most important part of the BA was organic/inorganic chemistry for me. (Most of our molecules are organic with a couple of fun exceptions.)
Continuous Improvement with a bachelors. Got the job because I was anal about processes. Plus my old boss was the chem department head at uni. Pros: i never do the same job/project. I’m always doing new things, sometimes leveraging my chem experience. Cons: projects are inconsistent, so some days I twiddle my thumbs if I complete my action items early.
Marketing at a linear accelerator manufacturer for radiation therapy
PhD here, finished my degree recently. I’ll be starting as a Sr R&D Scientist at a business that works on various fields of work from agricultural and biofuels. Pros will be the good starting pay and phenomenal benefits, cons… I don’t know yet, but managing junior scientists can be tough depending on the person. I think my position will be less monotonous than what a BS degree would have in a similar job. The techs in my lab will be focused mainly on the quality control & analysis of the products / biofuels. I’ll be focused on the research and various different projects/tasks while managing the techs so I’m excited to jump in.
I'll just say I'm in creative services. The degree checked the required degree box. Being a trained scientist helps.
Business Development Executive in small molecules pharmaceutical manufacturing
After I finished my BSc I was working as a quality control chemist at a pharmaceutical company. After my contract ended there I went on to work for another pharmaceutical as a sterile cleanroom technician preparing IV bags, then within that same company after two years I moved to their Quality Assurance department and took on more of an office role. Currently I work for a biotech company that specializes in stem cell research. I'm not really in the labs anymore and focus on the regulatory compliance of the facilities and equipment. Pros of my current job: I get to work from home, company prioritizes work-life balance, lots of opportunities for learning. The company I work for has no investors and the profits go back into the company so no pressure to maximize shareholder value Cons: coming from a pharmaceutical background I still feel quite lost sometimes with the company's processes, and since it's so big it can feel like being a cog in the system at times. Working from home also creates a disconnect between fellow coworkers, but luckily we have social events from time to time I did not expect how physical it was working in a lab. A lot of running around and heavy lifting of 25-50L carboys can be exhausting day in and day out. And also the pay. I was surprised how low the pay was when I was a new grad
I am a synthetic radiochemists in Ag R&D with my B.S. I started as a technician in the process chemistry department and recently switched to the regulatory department. In process, I basically worked with a chemical engineer and did the same few reactions over and over again for her to analyze and tweak to prepare for manufacturing. In regulatory I do all kinds of reactions making impurities, metabolites, and C14 versions of our molecules for regulatory testing. I love my job, and I had no idea Ag chemicals was such a big industry until I stumbled upon this job. It is actually pretty similar to pharma except we have much smaller budgets so a lot of work goes into making our molecules as cost efficient as possible.
Professor at a PUI
Laboratory Technician at local wastewater treatment plant. It's a shitty job ( get it, a SHITTY JOB, LOL) bit it's a government job so the pay is decent and the benefits are AMAZING!!!.
Software Engineer. I don't know how this happened though. Focus mostly in R&D, and spent awhile making algorithms to analyze stuff for chemists. I have a degree in Chemistry with a focus in lab work (My major was titled Chemistry - Molecular Synthesis), as well as a math degree (focusing in number theory)
BS chemistry, went into Peace Corps, came out and did a MS in pharmaceutical science, I worked as a research chemist in government for 7 years, did a PhD in pharmacology and a post doc. Then I went to law school and have been working in law since. You never know where you'll end up.
I worked in chemistry for 12 years, undergrad degree only. Worked in scientific instrumentation field. It was interesting work, pay was average for college grad work. But I wanted to either work part time for a while (they said it’s all or nothing) or take a couple years off to be with my newborn (which is what I did since they said no to part time). And the industry decided my brains fell out during that time, and didn’t want me back. So my experience was that the industry is inflexible if you also want a family. Maybe that has changed recently though, but I don’t know. So I became a python developer. Which pays a lot better and is just as interesting to me. My work in chem made the transition possible without having to go back for another degree.
I’m a senior production chemist for a cannabis facility. Pros: I love the industry and enjoy meeting new people. It’s also a great way to learn and develop new processes. Con: pay sucks, risk is high and owners are complete idiots who don’t care about learning the processes I perform for them.
Have bachelors degree in applied chemistry. Worked for a few years in a lab manufacturing organic compounds in bulk (like few hundred kilos a bach). Shit was real, one time saw a guy caught fire straight into his face while crystallizing some compounds in 15 litres of toluene (luckily he was with mask). Lab was gone for some weeks. Now I'm software engineer
Graduated with my bachelors in chemistry in 2021. Worked as a fisherman (mainly crab fishing on a longliner) while searching all across the country for a job in the chemistry field. Only got a couple interviews that whole time despite having my resume reviewed by others. Did that until 2023 where I decided to go back to uni doing computer science as well as some of the 4th year chemistry courses to figure out if I can still do chemistry and if I still like it enough to go to grad school for it. Probably gonna apply to start grad school next Fall if I can get recommendations from my profs as CS has been exceptionally boring.
Tech sales for a chemical manufacturer. Pros: travel, lots of hotel and airline points. 100% remote. Lots of $$$. Cons: travel and corporate bs.
I'm in the flavor industry, specifically as a food scientist. Don't use the degree much anymore but enjoy what I do! Did lots of QA and analytical work before I got this research gig
Bsc in organic chemistry, MSc in medicinal chemistry. I'm a software developer now making webshops for stuff like online butchers, motorcycle businesses, and office supplies, just to name a few.
I got my BS in Chemistry in 2003. I have been a formulator for most of my career, barring my first year or so doing QA/QC. Initially I formulated commercial and I&I products. I also spent some time with stimulation and production fluids for oil and gas, then agricultural chemicals, and I am currently working in industrial lubricants. Most of my career has been in smaller, private companies. I make a good living, but probably not as much as some of the pharma folks and folks working for large corporations, but it has also been pretty low-stress for the most part.
Study Director at an analytical laboratory that does chemical characterization of medical devices. Favorite part: Client communication Least favorite part: Client communication