[Jd1828]

Wow I never even noticed that this thread came back alive.  

I'm now thinking that I will defer my admission to gradschool for a year and go try to get a job with a B.S.  I really love chemistry but Im also in school to get a good job and make money.  Ive  also been looking into an MBA,  has anyone here done this?  

[tamim83]

I am starting a PHD program in chemistry this coming fall.  My situation is a little unique.  I am legally blind and I thought that would make chem. grad. school hard for me, in terms of research.  But as I thought about it, I  decided that was not really true, I mean I did well in my labs with some pretty minor adaptations.  I decided that after I got certified to teach high school chemistry that I would work on my PHD in pchem.  So I went to education graduate school.  My experience in high school teaching was horrible, I found out that supervising 30 16 year olds in a lab or even in class was really hard for someone with my disability .  I also had no real support from my mentor teacher or my supervisor.  At this point my application for chem grad. school was already in and I was accepted with numerous scholorships and a teaching assistant position.  So now I am going to do that.  My goal is to become an educator.  I want to teach chemistry to others.  Maybe high school did not work for me, but I have had some great experiences teaching college students

Anyway, I think the PHD is worth it.  I know it will be a challenge for me in many ways but that makes it all the more worth it.  And, I get to do what I like to do, teach chemistry.  

[green-goblin]

I’m glad this topic resurfaced I’m still not sure what I am going to do with my life. I will be looking for a job soonish. Recently I have had a bit of an interest for catalytic chemistry. I will graduate with a master’s degree next year (I hope   ), do you reakon it is worth doing a PhD for this field. Catalytic chemistry is very industry based so I might be better just getting out there.   I really should know by know.

[RaZ]

Yeah, I'm also trying to figure out if I want to get a PhD or a MSc even.  I'm currently finishing up my BSc degree in Medicinal Chemistry - 1 more year to go, and I'm not sure what I want to do.  I'm not a huge fan of the lab...and I'm not sure if I really want to become a researcher, spend 12 hours in the lab doing reactions, etc.  It seems like there is a long journey ahead in this field before you can start making decent money and reading the article gravenewworld put up make things sound a bit more discouraging.  Kinda wish I went into engineering.

I was also looking a bit into computational chemistry (I like computers ..esp. over the lab), but not sure what kind of jobs there are out there; I'm guessing there should be a couple in pharamecutical industries but is this field in demand? 

yea, so I really have no clue what I want to do...and there's no jobs out there with a BSc except to be a lab tech...which may not be that bad; I was making ~$55k/yr in my internship position at a semiconductor company - but there doesn't seem to be too many ways to advance by being a lab tech...maybe get an MBA afterwards?? I don't know..someone *delete me*

[mir]

I am graduating with a MSc in autumn. I am not ready to go for a job yet, so I want to study a bit of pedagogic (teaching) and perhaps learn a little about programming and statistics.

In Norway there is no problem for any chemist to get a job right now. A friend called only twice, and got a job right there and then. Amazing!

[english]

I'm glad this post came back to the top. I'm really lost as to what I want to do in my life. I'm somewhere between pharmaceutical (research) and computer science (research  also). I enjoy teaching people who understand things. Some people just aren't meant to go into the advanced things or just can't learn well. I've learnt so much from this site.

From this post though I'm hoping that grades aren't going to be extremely important to go for a MS or PhD. If I get a boring teacher I do bad in the class usually. I also need to be hands on person usually. If I'm not kept entertained by something I move on extremely fast.

I have a question for poeple in/have been through college. Do you have to take English in college? If you do I'm going to die. That is such a boring class no matter what for me.

constant thinker I've seen your posts around the Gen. Chem. and High School forums and let me tell you, I'm surprised that you know so much.  You definitely are knowledgeable in a lot of general concepts that even I haven't gotten into yet.  You definitely have a thirst for knowledge, and that's important.

It would be a waste of a good mind if you didn't go further with that.   

[Ψ×Ψ]

I'm glad this post came back to the top. I'm really lost as to what I want to do in my life. I'm somewhere between pharmaceutical (research) and computer science (research  also). I enjoy teaching people who understand things. Some people just aren't meant to go into the advanced things or just can't learn well. I've learnt so much from this site.
From this post though I'm hoping that grades aren't going to be extremely important to go for a MS or PhD. If I get a boring teacher I do bad in the class usually. I also need to be hands on person usually. If I'm not kept entertained by something I move on extremely fast.
I have a question for poeple in/have been through college. Do you have to take English in college? If you do I'm going to die. That is such a boring class no matter what for me.

You remind me of me when I was younger...well, I guess it still applies.  IME, the lower-level classes have more busywork, which is what kills my grades.  Once you're in grad-level classes, the assignments seem to be more relevant and less frequent.  Most colleges will require some English.  If you're lucky, maybe you can bypass it with AP credit?  (My school also has the option to bypass writing and humanities requirements with "honors" classes, which are a little of everything thrown together.)  Finally, one of your best bets for avoiding boring profs (only works if more than one section is offered of your classes!) is to find the seniors in your program and bug the hell out of them.  Far more reliable than ratemyprofessors.com.

[Donaldson Tan]

I find it hard to decide what my main career criteria is: job satisfaction or money.

[english]

I find it hard to decide what my main career criteria is: job satisfaction or money.

Don't we all?

[Borek]

I find it hard to decide what my main career criteria is: job satisfaction or money.

Go for both

[constant thinker]

Hmmm. AP English is out of the question because a) I suck at English (I'm only in the 54 percentile for writing and 76 percentile for reading as far the PSAT, SATs in spring, I'm in the 87 percentile for math though, kinda dissapointing for me)  b) I got stuck with the department head for english and she is a hard teacher. I have to work quite a bit to pull of a B.

I think I've decided I'm going to go for a PhD in something that relates to the pharmaceutical industry, or if a PhD doesn't work out for what ever reason, I'll just take the Masters.

P.S. Geodome, just win a few million in the lottery then you won't have to worry about money, and can just concentrate on job satisfaction (or a lack of a job can work too).