Using your chemistry degree
One of the most common questions I am asked is: 'what can I do with my degree?'. I'm afraid my answer is very boring and I tend to answer it with a question: 'What would you like to do?' I don't do this to be awkward or to avoid the question but because the number of roles where a chemistry degree can open the door is vast. Let me show you what I mean.
There is an annual survey carried out which shows the destination of students six months after they graduate called What Do Graduates Do?. The research shows that in 2011/12 half of all chemistry graduates were women and 34.1% went into further study with 63.7% studying for a doctorate. Many graduates from scientific disciplines are employed in the UK as professional, associate professional and technicans which includes: researchers, laboratory technicians and environmental conservationists with 19.2% chemistry graduates working in scientific professions.
Six months after graduation 38.3% of chemistry graduates were in full time work and 34.1% in further research. Only 9.2% were actually unemployed - possibly less than you were thinking? Anyway, back to those who were employed. What kind of work were they doing? Here is a list of sectors:
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Science professionals
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Other professionals, associate professionals and technicians
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Retail, catering, waiting and bar staff
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Business, HR and finance professionals
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Other occupations
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Clerical, secretarial and numerical clerk occupations
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Marketing, PR and sales professionals
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Education professionals
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Managers
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Engineering and building professionals
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Childcare, health and education occupations
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Information technology (IT) professionals
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Legal, social and welfare professionals
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Health professionals
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Arts, design and media professional
How can this work? Besides up-to-date knowledge and technical ability, a chemistry degree will help you develop analytical ,teamworking, communication, research, crititcal-thinking and problem solving skills. All of which are used across sectors.
You will notice I haven't given you job titles. This is because scientist=senior scientist = scientist II = analytical scientist = analytical chemist = research chemist. Job titles only mean something to the person who wrote them. However, if you want to get a flavour of the the different job titles out there, have a look at the list of graduate jobs on Prospects. There is also an overview of the science sector.
I hope this gives you an indication on why sometimes careers advice can be a little vague. The important thing to focus on is what you enjoy and what interests you. Chemistry can take you almost anywhere you want to go.
