[aismail3]

Almost every job online that I found for chemists/biochemists requires 1-5 years experience. Besides internships done during college (less than a year) where in the world are graduates fresh out of college supposed to get that kind of experience? This is really worrying me as I'll graduate soon. The same thing happened to my sister who majored in Graphic Design and had to take other jobs because all of the jobs within her major required years experience.

This is so frustrating.

[djiang87]

Its hard for anyone to get a job without the relevent experience. However there are ways for people to get jobs related to their degrees. 2 of my friends from uni both got jobs at sigma-aldrich. I think one works in a lab and im not too sure about the other. To get these positions they started off by working in customer service for them. After some time and a clean record there, when there were positions relevent to what they studied they applied and managed to move up the chain.

[JGK]

It's a vicious circle, can't get a job without experience, can't get experience without a job.

After graduation it took me 11 months and over 200 applications. Initially I took a part-time community service type job in a research charity (explaining biochemistry research papers to non biochemists). The next interview I had they were going through my CV and, as expected, commented on my lack of employment. I was able to explain this had changed and talked about the part-time work I was doing and they hired me.

I Know it's difficult but persevere. The alternative is to do post-graduate qualifications  and enhance your prospects that way.