<p>So, currently I'm at a CC as a chemistry major and I will be transfering to a 4-year school this fall as a biochemistry major or some subfield of biology as the school doesn't offer a pure, general biology major (and English/Creative Writing double major for personal interest). I plan on going to graduate school after graduation for either biochemistry or environment science.</p>
<p>If I decide to take a year off between undergrad and grad school, what sort of jobs will I be able to get with just a B.S. in biochemistry or some type of biology? And I've been thinking about becoming a professor some time in the future. Generally (and I know this varies by school), but is a professor's pay good. At my CC, there have been instructors who say that it's not very good and I'm pretty sure they're talking about the junior college level, but I never asked because I thought it may be a bit rude.</p>
<p>You will be lucky to get any job with a BSc. in biochemistry and if you do it will likely be a temp job that pays ~$15 per hour without any benefits, not even sick leave. See the other threads on Chemistry/Biology/Biochemistry majors and job prospects but I can sum them up as this. </p>
<p>BS in Chemistry/Biology/Biochemistry = unemployed or poverty in crappy dead end temp jobs. The latest stats from the ACS back me up. Less than 40% of Science grads have full time jobs and only half of them have decent ones. So you have ~ a 20% chance of getting a decent job with that degree.</p>
<p>If you like chemistry, you may want to consider chemical engineering, since the job and career prospects are generally better than for chemistry or biology.</p>
<p>I’ve looked at academia when I looked at possible careers. Lots of candidates with few spots. Google science academic careers, and you’ll see. Don’t base your decision on what I say; if you love science and want to go for it, go with it. But remember what you want out of life and if your career will support that.</p>
<p>ALL you science majors, I don’t care if you are bio, chem, or physics, need to take computer science classes and learn at least one programming language. Knowing just one vastly improves your resume. Heck, some people can just get jobs if they know C or C++ alone.</p>
<p>If you want a good base in CS, take the introductory CS course sequence for CS majors. If you learn that material well, you should be better able to adapt to learning different programming languages on your own and using them as needed in your career.</p>
If anything your financial outlook gets even worse. There is a huge glut of science Ph. D.'s looking for work and unable to find it so they post-doc. The post-doc system has become a way to exploit jobless scientists by having them do research for $35k without benefits while they try, often in vain, for years to get a real job. Now with the Ph. D. they are labeled as either over-qualified or clueless academic with no idea how the real world works.</p>
<p>In short they busted their rear for 5-7 years getting a degree that weighs them down like a ball and chains. </p>
<p>Maybe its because I went to a college that was very strong in the sciences, but my fellow BS Biochemistry friends had no problems finding jobs after graduation. Most of them work for Celanese and Emory, and a couple got jobs with the CDC in Atlanta. They don’t get paid a whole lot…think like ~32k ish a year, but you do get benefits, trust me. The work is usually menial testing and lab work. You basically do all the grunt work for the MS or PhD above you.</p>
<p>Getting a PhD greatly improves your pay, but the key is is choosing which field you want to go into. Getting a PhD in biochemistry doesn’t really mean you can get any biochemistry job you want…its the specialization and research you do during your candidacy that determines where you’ll end up and what your job prospects will be. </p>
<p>As for professors…well, I’m speaking just for my school…and the state of Georgia has an open records law that lets you view all of the salaries of state employees so these are actual numbers. The lowest salaried professor I had last year was paid $70k, the highest was paid $298k, and the median seems to be around $90 - 120k. There is a huge correlation between research and salary in University professor positions. If you’re tenured, run and active and highly published research lab on campus, then you can expect being paid along the higher side of the scale. If you’re a new professor, not tenured, or just starting up…expect to be paid along the lower side for a few years, until you get the gears turning and cranking out significant research.</p>
<p>$32k is pathetic and not worth struggling in college for. There are many AS degrees that would serve you better.</p>
<p>Also the job security is practically nonexistent. When companies have projects or are actively doing a lot of research they hire science grads and when things slow down they lay them off ~every 5 years. They then hire some more grads at $35k. Also the vast majority of companies do hire permatemps now a days and don’t offer benefits and don’t pay you more to compensate.</p>
<p>As for professorships yea it a sweet gig but there is around 1 opening for every 10 Ph. D. pursuing it. Many never succeed and those few that do often end up in some university in Wyoming as they don’t have much choice on things.</p>
<p>So yourself a huge favor and steer clear of science.</p>
<p>Everything sschoe says is pretty much true. I really wouldn’t say chemistry is a viable profession anymore except for analytical chemists. If you want to do analytical you have to have a very high tolerance for very repetitive and often times mundane work doing quality control or method development. There’s a reason you can find a ton of qc or md jobs out there–because people hate doing it and companies constantly have to rehire people to do it. In the future I do see job coming back, but they may pay less, but you simply can’t wait 20 or 30 years for them to return. China and India produce scientists that definitely get the results you want for cheap, but they simply aren’t innovative. All they do is copy. We certainly do have the best trained scientists here, but there simply aren’t jobs. It will be decades before industry realizes the colossal mistake they are making by outsourcing a lot of work.</p>
<p>I’d also consider working for an agency like the FBI. Physical science majors are one of their preferred college majors. Work a job for several years then apply. At the height of their careers, FBI agents can make $70+k or more, have excellent benefits, and pretty good job security. The FBI makes people retire after 20 years or after the age of 55, so there will be a lot of spots opening up as more and more baby boomers get older.</p>
<p>Java is good. Having any skill with computers is a huge advantage. Every science major should probably try to minor in computer science. These days a lot of jobs are simply lost because of automation. That’s simply the nature of the beast of advancing technology. Those who have inner knowledge of how technology works and is programmed will have a supreme advantage in the job market. You may be a life science major, but if you have a computer science background also, you may be able to grind out a living doing C or C++ if things go south in a bio related career. Being good w/ computers opens up many more opportunities, some of which can be pretty lucrative.</p>
<p>The only other reason I could find to major in biology or chemistry is if youre going to med school. Otherwise its useless. However beginning a professors pays well, after tenure you are guaranteed a job for life…and its at rewarding profession as well.</p>
<p>It pays mediocre. Most states start ~$35-45k and at least have benefits. You can get up to $60 after many years experience and more than that is you end up a supervisor or director. </p>
<p>The job is not interesting. It is a technician position running an assembly line of GC-MS or DNA testing following the established protocols exactly to the letter and filling hordes of paperwork exactly correct because if you screw up so much as a date the lawyers will get the evidence tossed and you possibly as well.</p>
<p>Oh just to add majoring in forensic science is a really bad idea. Forensic jobs are even more competitive than decent chem/bios jobs. You have just cut your job prospects to almost nothing. Forensics departments do not prefer forensics majors at all. It is simple to train a chem major in forensics but companies are not going to train a forensics major into a chemist.</p>
<p>They have to train you from the ground up anyways to insure you don’t screw up the protocols and get evidence tossed. All they want is a science major, usually chem or molecular biology with 30 or so hours of chem from an accredited university.</p>
<p>Hello all, I find that what everyone is saying is to not be a science major. Oddly enough I just made the switch from being an English undergrad to a biochemistry undergrad. My goal was to be a creative writing and arab literature professor, I made the major change for fear that it would be difficult to find jobs as an english professor. My chemistry professor told me that a MS in biochemistry was an easy way to get into pharmacy school and that it would make that process easier. Is this true? I’d rather major in something I can get a solid salary in. Also my chemistry professor says that chemical engineers make their best money working for oil companies, if anyone was interested in knowing what most of them do. I really hope I get a reply.</p>