<p>Can someone explain what a ‘tenured professor’ is?</p>
<p>@Kitten23</p>
<p>The safest things to study are vocational in nature, especially something like engineering where there is a coop program.</p>
<p>Chemistry and biology are good if you want to go to a vocational training program likely for a health profession.</p>
<p>You have to go to a top school and perform very well there in all respects for the job market to be truly good. The median chemistry PhD is going to be searching for a job for 6 months to 2 years after graduation. The job search will likely yield a job teaching nursing students at a community college. Why? This is one of the biggest employers of chemistry PhDs.</p>
<p>
When a professor first gets their job, they have a 5 (or so) year evaluation period, after which the department chooses whether to get rid of them or to give them tenure.</p>
<p>Tenure basically means that they have the professor job for life. It’s pretty much impossible to fire a tenured professor for any normal reason; they have to do something pretty bad to lose their job.</p>
<p>Bump for more opinions</p>
<p>To Frugald Doctor read my post carefully. An individual with a medical doctorate (MD/DO/PharmD/DDS) and that goes into research will fare much much better than a PhD. This is because these individuals are in much higher demand. Getting someone to take a tenured professor job is much harder when there are lots of 100k+ jobs available in private industry. The research in this case will be clinically focused and involve seeing patients in most cases. Also clinical trials need to be done in the US as mandated by the FDA so the work cannot be outsourced. Industry clinical trial research jobs (mainly go to MDs though I imagine PharmDs and even some dentists in dental companies i.e. Colgate can get involved) are far more stable and usually pay quite well. They’re also more stable as a failed research project won’t result in the elimination of the clinical trial team, only the research scientists. Moreover, if it fails, you can go back to your clinical job you’re trained for in many cases. This <em>is</em> the way to do research and make good money.</p>
<p>Science PhDs on the other hand vastly outnumber the number of tenure track and industry research jobs available. Many end up bitter postdocs or high school science teachers. As was stated earlier industry is fickle, and the needs can change rapidly with the ebb and flow of private equity dollars. Also, because you’re so specialized, a layoff or move (and layoffs happen frequently as most science fails–that’s just the nature of the business) could put you out of the R&D market permanently as there may not be many jobs catering to your exact expertise. I recommend anyone considering a job as a research scientist to look at some job ads with a few chemical, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies. The ads often ask for 10 + years of experience in very specific techniques like cell culturing etc, paint polymers etc. Yes, choose the wrong subspecialty in grad school and you are screwed. Make one wrong career move and you’re done.</p>
<p>Medicine and engineering are more applicable to the real world and job friendly.</p>
<p>Need I say more?</p>
<hr>
<p>Analytical Chemist-Scientist (Quality Control / Chemistry)</p>
<p>Medix Staffing Solutions Inc. - Lombard, IL</p>
<p>Details Location: IL - Lombard Job Type: Biotech
QA - Quality Control
Pharmaceutical Base Pay: $13.00 - $18.00 /Hour Required Education: 4 Year Degree Bonus:
Required Experience: 0 to 6 year(s) Other:
Required Travel: Not Specified Employee Type: Full-Time Relocation Covered: Not Specified Industry Consumer Products, Pharmaceutical, Food</p>
<p>Job ID:</p>
<p>Job Requirements
Analytical Chemist – Scientist (Quality Control / Chemistry)</p>
<p>Job Requirements</p>
<p>To be qualified for this Chemist position you must have wet chem, USP, HPLC, GC and cGMP experience in an industry related environment. We are looking for a Chemist who enjoys analytical chemistry and has strong analytical abilities and documentation skills.</p>
<p>Additional Chemist requirements:</p>
<p>A Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Pharmacy or related discipline; or its equivalent in training and experience
1 to 2 years of experience in Food and Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetic, Flavors, Fragrance, Manufacturing, Medical device, Chemical or related industry
Effective communication and interpersonal skills within all levels of the organization
Familiarity with compendia, such as USP/BP/EU or FCC
Comprehensive understanding of CGMP/GLP regulations
Knowledge of computerized data acquisition and analysis systems, such as HP CHEM Station, Waters Millennium or PE Turbochrom
Comprehensive working knowledge of laboratory instrumentation
Good math and strong analytical problem-solving skills
Solid understanding of the safety standards and hazards associated with a Quality Control environment
Ability to prepare clear and accurate documentation and understanding of its importance
Ability to work independently and meet deadlines on a multitude of tasks
Good organizational skills
Flexibility and willingness to work 1st, 2nd, 3rd or a modified work shift, as departmental needs demand</p>
<p>I’m going to study chemistry/biochemistry at college. I’m not interested in entering the medical field, so choosing this major really takes much courage. I think I’m pretty good at maths and physics but I don’t want to study engineering as an undergraduate student. I’m really into new materials/bio materials, so I guess my plan is to first gain a solid science background at college, and then choose a more specific and professional (also more career-oriented) graduate program like material science and engineering. The dream college I’ve been admitted to has a special program to prepare science students to go on pursuing engineering in graduate schools(i.e.chemistry to material engineering, maths to industrial engineering, cs to electrical engineering, physics to civil engineering), so my plan is doable, but I need to word hard at some extra maths and physics courses and do a lot of researches and internships and stuff like that. :)</p>
<p>If studying science is really your dream, don’t let employment outlook deter you. Things change, especially if you aren’t going to be pursuing a job in perhaps 8-10 years.
I initially began college as a chemical engineering major, but realized it wasn’t my thing. So it’s easy to say “oh you like chemistry just study chemical engineering or be a doctor” or “you like biology why don’t you just study biological engineering?” Well, it ain’t the same thing. If it is your true passion, just go for it.</p>
<p>I really don’t see trends in science employment reversing anytime soon. The bloodbath in pharma continues, jobs are continuing to be off-shored, BLS still projects anemic or no growth in the field, I’ve been watching the field for a while now and am continueing to see staffing agencies take over the jobs and offer poorer and poorer pay and benefits though the Affordable Care Act may force agencies to offer health benefits unless they just reduce their hours to part time status which is entirely probable. </p>
<p>You may feel all young and idealistic now but when you start hitting your 30’s and want to mary and possibly have kids, need stable employment, and want to be able to eat stuff other than ramen noodles and peanut butter or not live in a crappy apartment with room mates your desire to satiate your love science will be overcome by your desire to have a more pleasant life.</p>
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<p>Why not just major in materials science and engineering, so that you have the option of jobs in that field without needing to go to graduate or professional school?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
I’m sure I love chemistry/material science/biochemistry, but I don’t know if I want to major in engineering. I might just want to do research and stay in academia. All I know now is I want to attend a LAC and gain a relatively well-rounded education. I am kind of quiet and introverted and I definitely want to attend graduate school. I just need to figure out what I really want at college and decide whether I should stick to science and research or pursue a more practical degree. I know my plan sounds kind of unrealistic. :)</p>
<p>Then just opt for a healthcare professional school instead of grad school. MD, PA, PT, pharm, DDS, D.OPT, OT are all good. </p>
<p>Bs. in Biology is not lucrative nor is there any Career opportunity in it . Payscale just recently published the top 10 most underemployed majors. This study has been cited by Forbs,Washington post and other news outlets so its not something to brush off as statistical noise.Any ways, as you might have already guessed, Biology is at the top at #8, Right below physiology at #7, and surprisingly higher on the “scale of uselessness” then English majors. So if you though English majors have a hard time finding a job, well shockingly Biology majors have it worse .More specifically they have it 4.9 times worse then the “average” degree while , for a relative perspective, engineering majors have it only 1/3 times as hard. What this means is that for every one biology job , there are about 5 biology majors competing for it and for every one engineering job there are 3 EMPTY positions .( hmm… I wonder which major gets you a career faster) .So the moral of this story is don’t major in biology even if your like it. You rather do something you hate learning now, but that would get you a real career sooner, that then would open doors to something you’d enjoy doing and then reward you with a Wonderful house, amazing car, and a relaxing life. </p>