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If I could do it all over again I would of majored in chemical engineering instead of chemistry.
Chemical Engineers has better job security and better salaries than chemists. I loved chemistry in high school and always wanted to work in the lab but after I graduated all I could get was low paying contract jobs with no benefits.
Chemistry is over saturated and underpaid. Most chemistry graduates with just a bachelors or masters degree get stuck in temp jobs paying $15-20 per hour and no benefits. They are a few halfway decent full time chemists positions out there but there are hundreds of applicants for every open chemist position and every chem graduate better pray to every God there is that you get lucky.
Don't think a PH.D. in chemistry is going to bring better opportunities for every decent PH.D. Position in science there are 3-4 PHDs competing for the job. Most PH.D. Chemists get stuck in low paying post docs until there 40 years old and no chemical or pharmacetuicals company wants to hire them.
I had to move 9 and a half hours away from my hometown to find a decent analytical chemist position with decent pay and good benefits. God forbid if I had to spend another year in a permatemp job with no health insurance and low pay. I know everyone has to relocate hundreds of miles from their family and friends for a good job but I consider myself extremely lucky that I got my position because I bet there were hundreds of others who were in the running for that job.
With chemical engineering I would of had twice the starting salary I am making now, solid benefits, and better job security.
I read this whole thread, and until the last post, no one had mentioned Chem Eng! You beat me to it.
My college major (Clinical Laboratory Science, formerly called Medical Technology), has been one of my bigger regrets in life.
What I was good at. Some of us are not cut out to be engineers. I was not the type and no amount of pressure would have suddenly made me the type who would be a good nurse, engineer, software developer, etc... I simply was not cut out for that.
My major was history. Given the chance again, I would still major in history. I read the most books during college than I have since; there is just not the time when you're a working person with a family to read like I could back then, so I'm glad I majored in something I liked to read about and not something I hated.
That said, I would change the way I behaved in college. What I would change:
1) Network, network, network. God how I wished I had networked more.
2) Worry less about a few tenths of a point on my gpa. It did not matter once I left school.
3) Have a clearer idea of what I wanted to do; this is related to networking.
4) Get some good internships under my belt.
5) Take acting and/or improv classes. From my observations and experience, charisma is a top-3 factor for getting good jobs and moving up once you get one. Arguably the most important factor.
6) Date and sleep with more women. I was a serial monogamist during college which was probably a mistake. I did not realize that dating only goes downhill as you get older and the numbers were most favorable while in college.. I have a wife now (that I met during grad school) and am glad for it... because once I was out of college a few years I realized how sucky dating is in "real life." In college it was fun and I should have done more of it.
All that said, I majored in history and make around 55K and rising, own a house and have a family working at something I really enjoy. So I'm not a failure and all you people saying STEM is the alpha and the omega are wrong.
I remember wanting to be a journalist when I was in high school.
Wrong, demise of newspapers, soon automation will be able to write the skimpy "slideshow" articles now.
Then, people were saying go into computers.
Wrong, IT people losing jobs to HB1s, or outsourced all together.
If I could turn back the clock...physical therapist without a doubt. Always a need for them and I love my healthcare field.
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