On Monday night I gave a presentation as part of our ‘working in chemistry’ series. It was on Commercial Awareness. I thought you might find it useful too so here are the key points:
 

• 67% of employers surveyed cited Commercial Awareness as a skill shortage in graduates

 ( Source: Association of Graduate Recruiters “Skills for Graduates in the 21st Century”)

What is commercial awareness?
 
It is a general interest in business and an understanding of the wider environment in which an organisation or industry operates. It is all about being able to look at situations from a commercial perspective. This can mean understanding what makes a business successful and appreciating the factors that influence success.
 
What does it mean for you?

As your career progresses, it’s likely that you will become more involved in decisions which directly affect your company or organisation. It also improves your knowledge of an industry/company and can inform your career choice.

How does it affect my career choice?
 
If we take three common career choices:

Chemists should be aware of trends in their industry and have an awareness of end products and users
Teachers must be aware of the current trends in education.
Students applying to publishing must be aware of the profit orientation of the industry. 

How do I put it in my application?
 
In your covering letter write why you like the company and want to work for them. Also, think about the service the company provides. You should be specific: 

“I read the Financial Times”
Or
“I noticed a couple of different people talking about the same trend in organic chemistry, so I researched it. It seemed new and relevant, so I managed to persuade the people behind it to give a talk on it to my group.”
 
Which sounds better to you?

When preparing for interview you should:

Relate your own experience to business: You may be doing casual bar or retail work purely to earn money but this can also be used to gain an insight into business. What are the good and bad points about your employer? Who is its target market? Who are its main competitors? How would you improve the company's image or profitability?

Research the company: Check the company website of LinkedIn page for background information. Think about size, turnover/profits, share price and key activities

Research the industry trends by reading the business pages of the FT and Economist. Also the business section of Chemistry World. 

Finally, just to give you some in depth interview advice, here are some questions which you may be asked which give an insight into your commercial awareness:
 

• What skills did you develop from your work experience?
• What would you do differently if you worked there again?
• What was your experience of working in a team?
• Tell me of a time when you were given the task of improving a service or product?
• Tell me about a time you provided excellent customer service.
• Tell me of a time when you have been responsible for a budget.
• Why do you wish to enter the .... industry?
• What are our main products/services?
• What are the problems facing our industry at this time?
• What changes have there been in our industry recently?
• What do you think the job you would be doing entails?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
• How do you keep up to date with what is going on in business?
• What story in the business press has interested you most recently?

 
 
 
 

You might have seen the Trends survey results in Chemistry World this month. The Trends survey has been run by the Royal Society of Chemistry  (and it’s predecessor bodies) for almost 100 years and this is our 40^th edition. The first survey of Fellows and Associates of the Institute of Chemistry was carried out in December 1919, just over a year after the end of the First World War. The report was published in 1920, the year that Walther Nernst, of Nernst Equation fame, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on chemical affinities. We have come a long way since 1920 when the average chemist aged 25 working in industry could expect to earn the princely sum of £320 per annum, including bonuses!
 
We use the survey to inform and support the Careers team both in providing information as part of our consultations and to support our work in the chemical science community. We find that individual members use it when contemplating career moves and benchmarking themselves against their peers. Finally, companies use it to benchmark their salaries against their own and other industries.
 
In the Chemistry World article there are a few highlights including the well-known fact that remuneration varies across the most populated fields of employment from teaching to oil and allied products to consulting. This is something we see as part of our research into different careers and is typical of the breadth of chemistry – a good reason to have chosen it as a career!
 
The article also highlights the pay gap between men and women, comparing salary within a specific age group and also comparing industry, academia and central government. The data presented is weighted data but it is worth remembering that it is a general snapshot and doesn’t take into account length of service, job title, qualifications, careers breaks or size of company. It is also difficult to tell what potential earnings might be of any individual and of course it cannot reflect what graduates in chemistry earn later in their careers, nor the choices we make throughout our career, regardless of gender.
 
One can’t deny that there are issues with gender in the world of work and our diversity team is looking into these separately. One of the larger projects the diversity team are looking is the ‘leaky-pipeline’ and the factors which affect those women who choose to leave chemistry.
 
In my opinion the most interesting thing in the article is the fact that skills training matters most to you, our members, with 39% of you citing it as the most important benefit. Training can be an important part of your career, not only enhancing your skills but making you feel valued by your employer – it is often a reason people stay in a job. Flexible working is also important, so say 32% of you. As we become carers for members of our family, as we take on portfolio careers, as we try and cut costs and time spent travelling, flexible working is a huge benefit to us and another reason to stay or something to look for in a new post.
 
There is limited space in any article, or blog for that matter and there is no way we can cover all of the findings of the report. The Trends survey is a huge piece of work, with over a year of planning, gathering data and reporting to go into each edition. If you want to compare yourself against someone in a similar position or want to sense check your own industry or job then I would encourage you to go and look at the report yourself; it is free to members.