<p>Some jobs are commodity jobs. Employers look for the cheapest people that can do the job. </p>
<p>Some jobs require real talent. Employers look for the most talented people and pay them accordingly. </p>
<p>In a growing economy, the talent jobs are more plentiful. But in a shrinking economy the talent jobs tend to dry up and the bar becomes enormously higher. It’s unfortunate for the generation of scientist that are getting their PhDs now. </p>
<p>Here’s the thing. If you’re a junior in HS, it will be another 10-15 years before you can be a full fledged scientist. During that time, it’s on you to figure out how to develop your talents to the maximum rather than become the commodity. Nobody can do commodity jobs and make a good living without being unionized. That’s why they often end up overseas. The talented scientists who can’t get jobs now will be long gone and will not be piling up as your competition then. </p>
<p>Nobody here can predict what the economy will be in 15 years, but it’s foolish to give up as a junior in HS; there is plenty of time to bail later if you don’t think you can make it. Along the way, make sure you learn people skills that will make you employable regardless. </p>
<p>This is as true for scientists as it is for movie stars.</p>
<p>“Science” is not monolithic in terms of job and career prospects. Based on university career surveys (put “career survey” into university web sites – try Berkeley, Cal Poly, and Virginia Tech for detailed ones), biology and chemistry tend to have rather poor job and career prospects at the bachelor’s level (note that biology is a hugely popular major, resulting in oversupply). Math, statistics, and physics majors usually do better, although that is often because they are often recruited into other well paying jobs like finance or computer software because of their mathematical thinking skills.</p>
<p>This can go back and forth all day with statistics. I think the best idea would be to question people who actually work in the field. Ask them about their experiences, and what the prospects may be. If they’re a seasoned veteran, they may have seen all the ups and downs. Getting perspective from real people is always helpful. If you wanted to know prosepects about Investment Banking, wouldn’t you go and interview some?</p>
<p>However, this will bias the sample to those who are most successful, whether you are looking for scientists or investment bankers. Similarly, the sample can be biased the other way by questioning only people in the unemployment line or who have left the field.</p>
<p>“If you plan to be average you probably shouldn’t become a scientist”
My thoughts exactly! Why strive to be normal anyways. </p>
<p>Back to what ucb was saying science doesn’t relate to getting a great job. That is completely correct it has a track record for failing the average folk. But if we really sit down and think about it in this economy there is no degree that will give you a great job right when you finish. It just doesn’t exist right now. It took my friend 3 years out of Berkeley to get a job with his degree in economics, told he works for S&P as a research assistant. While the rest of his class is mostly working jobs that don’t even use their degree in economics.</p>
<p>Well, here is my take on the issue. I’m an Anthropology major (which some people don’t even consider a science, which just makes things more difficult) and as I’ve been reading journals and books related to my field, I’ve been paying attention to what kinds of organizations anthropologists/other social scientists work through. For example, I thought it would be cool if I could work/intern in the CDC behavioral department some day (I learned about it from a study discussed in a book), so I went to the government jobs website (usajobs.gov or something) and looked at what positions are open for behavioral scientists like me. From there, I figured out that in addition to anthropology, I need to take a significant amount of statistics courses (I now want to take on a Stats minor) and that I could probably negotiate an entry level position with related experience and a bachelor’s degree. What I’m trying to say is, don’t go through your time at college blindly hoping someone will “give” you a job once you get a degree… go find places where you want to work and find out what they’re looking for in advance. Also, I’ve heard people get permanent positions from internships at laboratories, especially in smaller businesses. Sometimes it’s just a matter of networking or luck.</p>
<p>Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a job with the fed? I have about 180 applications for chemist/biologist positions with the fed. I get rejected for most outright and all the rest at later stages. There are more than 1000 applicants per job. Most of the jobs require specific regulatory experience in addition to science or they require insanely narrow expertise like experience running an Agilent 1290 hooked up to a API 4000 mass spec to test for drug metabolites in blood samples on a Thursday.</p>
<p>It doesn’t get any better due to the hiring freeze by Federal agencies, and once the Republicans come in, they will cut the jobs in the public sector, as we all know conservatives favor limited government, which means a reduction in federal employees. Honestly though, you don’t want a job with the fed. Sure if you do get it, you’ll most likely have job security, but you also deal with a huge amount of bureaucracy, as well as a huge amount of corruption due to the passing of the buck, and special interests. But like anything else, you have trade offs. I’d rather go into the private sector. At least there you don’t really deal with pure politics, and the field is more open.</p>
<p>You know as dooms day as all this is on this forum, I have a suggestion:
Go learn Danish and live in Denmark the rest of your life. Pay over 50% of your income in taxes, but the government will make sure you live a pretty awesome life regardless whether you get a dream job or not. There is a reason they are consistently deemed the Happiest Nation in the world, and it is not just because the Baltics are a beautiful region on this fine Earth.</p>
<p>go to grad school if you are having that tough of a time man! It doesn’t have to be in biochem I’m sure you’ve done some of the prereqs for other MS/PhD programs. How long ago did you graduate and from where if you dont mind me asking?</p>
<p>That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think? At least you can go back to school for something else, and it doesn’t need to have anything to do with biology, biochemistry, or chemistry.</p>
<p>Nowhere near as bad as dying a painful death from addiction or having a criminal record that will take away many opportunities.</p>
<p>Sschoe2, you want to do something with your degree, just duplicate this guy’s business. He charges a fortune for doing practically nothing. He could use some healthy competition. Look at his credentials, same as yours. </p>
<p>At least you can quit narcotics and get your life back on track. You can’t get rid of those wasted student loans and years of crap off your resume. Every-time you apply for something different a clueless HR person wonders why this scientist is applying for a data analyst or whatever position and tosses it in the doesn’t fit pile. </p>
<p>I got my MS in 2006 from a respected state university. </p>
<p>For the OP, my cousin is looking at colleges and we’d let her work at a strip club before we let her study any of the Liberal Arts or Sciences.</p>
<p>Sounds like you really want a degree in something else - unless you’re still trying to pay off loans, you’d be better off going back and getting a master’s in something “desirable” rather than complaining…</p>
<p>OK, there seems to be a lot of science major bashing on here so I’ll just tell it from my own experience and those of my classmates. No speculation…just what’s happened to us after graduation.</p>
<p>First off I come from a very good science/engineering school so that might have something to do with the results. Second, all my classmates (read: friends in class…not rando’s) and I did research, we expanded our horizons beyond learning the material…we NETWORKED a lot. Third, I can’t really speak to the aspects of PhD’s because we haven’t quite graduated from that point yet.</p>
<p>So we all graduated with a BS in Biochem. Mostly gpa’s of 3.0 or above…some have like a 2.9 something but that’s close enough for employers/grad schools it seems. A few people went to graduate school, all pursuing PhD’s in a specialized field. But most went straight into the workforce. None of my biochem buddies is unemployed, 2 years after graduation. Everyone got a job within 6 months of graduating. Everyone is employed in a biology/chemistry lab setting. No out-of-major jobs. The PhD’s are making like 20k a year…typical graduate stipend. The people in jobs are making anywhere between 30k and 40k a year. Most of the people with jobs got hooked up at the career fair we have every year or through their PI who knew someone in industry/another school/our school. Not too much random applications going out. And many of us have abused narcotics, some more than others, and some with criminal records ;)</p>
<p>The graduate students like what they do a lot more than the people with jobs…it’s specializing in something, hopefully something that really really interests them and something they want to do for a while. The people with jobs are, like many have said, in grunt work lab positions. Some of them enjoy the grunt work…others do not. One girl is working with HDAC inhibitor testing and loves it, while another is snapping the necks of baby mice every Friday to extract their heart (and doesn’t enjoy Friday’s too much).</p>
<p>Maybe we got lucky? Perhaps. But I believe that the networking that we did during research and the hard work we put in showed to the academic professionals around us. When we asked for help, they gladly gave us some. As for the criminal record guy…well, he lied on his application AND ended up getting a DEA license to administer ketamine a year later. Who knows how he did that…but he did (and I do not condone the drug route, just saw it posted above and wanted to share that there are people who have the ‘misfortune’ of dealing with both addiction and a science degree ) . </p>
<p>I’m not advocating any specific thing here…just giving you some experience so you can decide for yourself. I personally went an extra two years for ChemE degree because it pertains more to what I want to do and I’ll get paid a lot more without having to go to grad school. I might go to grad school later on…I might not. I like having the choice.</p>
) . </p>