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On an earlier post I believe you said the better paying jobs are looking for 5 years of experience. Just take a $15-20/hour job for now, gain experience, then try to get a higher paying job. You have to start somewhere.
Yes but the experience I am getting is not helpful. The better jobs want formulations experience. I am doing instrumental analysis. They are looking for 5 years of specific formulations experience. It is a nasty catch-22.
Truth be told I would very much like to stay with chemistry. However, I am at a turning point a need to make a decision whether or not I can earn a decent living at it. Up untill I read this thread I was absolutely certain I needed to leave the field for a reasonable living and was beginning to make plans to go to business school. Now I am just confused.
Last edited by MSchemist80; 04-04-2010 at 09:25 AM..
Experience didn't help me. BTW I was willing to relocate anywhere I even drove up to Raleigh for a weekend looking for a job in the triangle [I lived in the Atlanta area]. I just watched my life deteriorate further and further untill I finally put my foot down and decided to leave the field. I even convinced my cousin who was planning on majoring in biochemistry to switch to accounting. I think the only positive thing to come out of my science degree is that noone in my family is going to make the same mistake.
I just do not understand where you guys are coming from saying that I could get 60k+ when ad after ad and calls from recruiters is $15-20 an hour.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for a chemist is $66k. But I guess rather than think you are perhaps doing the wrong thing, you can think there is a great government conspiracy to get people to major in chemistry by lying about chemists potential salaries.
Depending on the cost of living in the area, $20/hour is not necessarily that bad for a starting salary. It just sounds like your current work environment has no potential for promotion.
Also, you seem almost oblivious to the fact that we are currently in a rather deep recession. The unemployment rate is 9.7%. The fact that you are having trouble finding better employment right now is only natural, companies in general are not hiring that much. Considering you are employed right now, you may want to take this time to refine your skills and start networking (attending events, etc) rather than throwing your hands in the and switch to another field. The employment market will improve and even if it does not, its not like you're going to have much better luck in another field.
you can think there is a great government conspiracy to get people to major in chemistry by lying about chemists potential salaries.
It does beg the question why the government and ACS are trying so hard to push science on young Americans. If it was as good a career as you imply shouldn't people be tripping over each other to get science degrees and get in on it? When was the last time they called for more lawyers and mutual fund managers?
It makes me suspicious if the reason they are trying so hard to push science and make baseless claims of a shortage is that it is not in the best interest of Americans to get into science. It is the same deal when my mother goes into the bank for a CD and they try to sell her a variable annuity. Heavy marketing is an attempt to compensate for a weak product and get someone to do something not in their best interest.
It does beg the question why the government and ACS are trying so hard to push science on young Americans. If it was as good a career as you imply shouldn't people be tripping over each other to get science degrees and get in on it? When was the last time they called for more lawyers and mutual fund managers?
It makes me suspicious if the reason they are trying so hard to push science and make baseless claims of a shortage is that it is not in the best interest of Americans to get into science. It is the same deal when my mother goes into the bank for a CD and they try to sell her a variable annuity. Heavy marketing is an attempt to compensate for a weak product and get someone to do something not in their best interest.
I hope user_id can address this since I'm not familiar with economics, but as a nation, what exactly are we going to produce at home and in the global market if not science/technology? Maybe prosperity could result from a nation of servers/services, but I don't understand how that could work out well. eta: sorry if I'm not getting my point across. I've had a long holiday!
If it was as good a career as you imply shouldn't people be tripping over each other to get science degrees and get in on it? When was the last time they called for more lawyers and mutual fund managers?
A median salary of $66k is pretty modest. I don't see why kids would be tripping over a median salary of $66k. Anyhow, the BLS reports on the legal and financial sector as well. If you are thinking people in these fields are all making big bucks and have it easy, you're wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSchemist80
It makes me suspicious if the reason they are trying so hard to push science and make baseless claims of a shortage is that it is not in the best interest of Americans to get into science .
Why in the world would the US government want to push kids into fruitless majors? The nation is strongest and everyone's standard of living is highest when the nations labor resources are best utilized. You are basically suggesting that the government is secretly trying to reduce everybody's standard of living. A mis-allocation of labor hurts the people on the top just as much as on the bottom. Just look at today, one of the reasons unemployment is stubbornly high is that the housing bubble caused a mis-allocation of labor (into housing and finance).
Also, you are claiming that the government is pushing people to major in sciences and claiming there is a shortage. Yet, the BLS does not make this claim at all. The BLS predicts average job growth for the sciences. Although, job growth predictions don't necessarily tell you about labor shortages. What would indicate a labor shortage would be a spike in wages, but you don't see that at all. Wage growth in the sciences is modest.
A median salary of $66k is pretty modest.
Why in the world would the US government want to push kids into fruitless majors?
I'd be quite happy with 66k I am not that greedy or materialistic. However, I have basic needs and so far my science career has barely met them.
It has been quite common over the years for the US govt and corporation to make claims of an impending or current shortage of americans in science. This article covers it pretty well.
The reason is the same the as the one government is pushing (at least until recently) for people to go into teaching public school. There is a need or at least a perceived need for people to go into it yet they are unwilling or unable to raise wages to attract more Americans into the field.
The trouble is it the corporations that are making the claim that they can't get enough american scientific talent are doing so because they want to justify expansion of the h1-b program or at least continue to have a glut of scientists they can continue to underpay.
The Government on the other hand is looking at the percentages of highest GPA/testing Americans and seeing them going to law and business school and is hearing the above cries of said corporations and constantly funding recruitment efforts for science careers in the schools.
Last edited by MSchemist80; 04-05-2010 at 12:58 PM..
Sales people. If you've got "smooth" personality and can BS people into buying stuff - a degree is optional and 5-6 figures are reachable, but since you have a degree already, it's a plus (unless it's a Ph.D. those suckers doomed themselves to lab ratting (if lucky) and/or perpetual postdocing (before discarded) if less lucky). Rare pharma star chemist can boast the same income as a no degree sales star.
Also, you are claiming that the government is pushing people to major in sciences and claiming there is a shortage. Yet, the BLS does not make this claim at all. The BLS predicts average job growth for the sciences.
It's not wise to take BS from BLS too seriously. Science careers sucks arse (on the average), academia lost any moral grounds to stand on and it operates as a Chinese sweatshop by overproducing Ph.D.s in order to replace H.S. and Community College educated technical personal with no life, 24/7, laughable salaries/no benefits grad students/postdocs/lecturers/"perpetually visiting" something researchers, etc.. Sure, some of those (immune to endless&mindless routine, with above average people and used car sales skills) will float to the top to be poster children for science and education, but they are standing on the shoulders of misery, exploitation & wasted lives/talents of less savvy ones.
I really doubt BLS statistics, my guess - they simply don't include grad students, postdocs, lecturers etc. in their more than rosy income&employment statistics.
Last edited by RememberMee; 04-05-2010 at 02:06 PM..
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for a chemist is $66k. But I guess rather than think you are perhaps doing the wrong thing, you can think there is a great government conspiracy to get people to major in chemistry by lying about chemists potential salaries.
The problem with BLS and Professional associations statistics - they are "selective" and count only "winners". They give no info regarding "chances" to land that average 66k job as well as estimate of the ratio "efforts to land a job"/"paybacks". Of course, if we to count only janitors who opened up their own cleaning agencies - average janitorial salaries would shot up.
On the average, an average chemical engineer is un (barely) employable past 40 y.o..
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