Have you ever wondered what the benefits of applying to become a Chartered Chemist are? Or what the process is? Here, some RSC members share their experiences of working towards this designation.

A Chartered Postdoc

As a young chemist with aspirations of a stellar career in academic research, achieving CChem status never seemed particulary relevant to me. The value of the award to people such as myself, who were clearly going onto to great things and had Nobel Prizes written in their futures, was not apparent. I thought chartered status was just for industrialists, in permanent positions that afforded them the luxury of enrolling on a two year professional development programme and I didn’t know of any other postdocs working towards CChem. I hadn’t seen anything about “holding CChem status” on a Research Fellow job description and I wasn’t even sure if I knew of a single senior lecturer that held CChem status.
My attitude changed shortly after taking up a postdoc position in Belfast. My supervisor was a former industrialist who had held CChem status for many years and was wholehearted in his endorsement of the programme. Of course, he obtained his CChem during his time in industry, and I still had questions as to its academic relevance. However, at the same time I became involved with research staff associations in both the UK and Ireland. This experience opened my eyes somewhat to the many perils of an academic career, and a research intensive academic career in particular. I think all postdocs are aware of the statistics surrounding success rates for Fellowships, and I for one was not content to bet my entire future on a 5-7% chance of success.
 
I was still interested in an academic career, but wanted to ensure my skills were balanced so that I could fall-back on other options if need be. I maintain (some people disagree) that the current PhD and postdoctoral system mainly trains people for an academic career. What can you add to your CV to demonstrate your transferable skills?
 
The key word here is “demonstrate”. All postdoc job descriptions will have the obligatory “supervision of post- and undergraduate students” and “contributes to the smooth running of the group” points in them, but I have found universities to be particularly bad at formally recording if you actually do these things, and to what level. These other skills (teaching, management and communication) are very important to academic employers for sure, but also all other employers!!
 
The CChem Award provides tangible evidence of your progression and development, not just as a technical expert in chemistry, but also all the other things chemists are good at. You can read up on the 12 attributes that are assessed here, but in short no postdoc should struggle to come up with examples of evidence for each of them. I learned to keep my own records of my achievements, which I have found beneficial not just for this process but also for keeping my CV up-to-date. I can’t show you my application, for confidentiality reasons, but I can show the outline of my portfolio of evidence for the 12 attributes, along with my self-testimonials. Hopefully any interested postdocs out there will be able to come up with similar examples of what I have included here as evidence over the course of two years.
 
One advantage postdocs have over other chemists on this programme is that it is much easier to participate in outreach and public engagement events whilst working at a university than in other industries. Universities and funding bodies often require their staff to participate in such events, and so are much more accommodating when you need to take time off as may be the case in industry generally.
 
The process was not too time demanding, until near the end when I was compiling my portfolio of evidence. This did take the best part of two days, but it wasn’t a particularly difficult task. The programme made allowances for the fact that I changed jobs about three-quarters of the way through, something I was concerned about beforehand. I imagine many postdocs would have similar reservations, and I can assure you that the process is simple and that the staff at the RSC (especially Kim Smith; many thanks BTW) are on hand to help in any way they can. The process can even be paused, should you find yourself between jobs for a time.
 
I am currently researching the next step in my career, including traditional industry as well as teaching or outreach. As such, I can assure you that whilst “holds CChem status” may not be written in black and white on a job description, holding it does tick a lot of boxes. Some of these, such as “commitment to continuing development” “willingness to learn new skills” “practise the highest level of chemistry”, can often be difficult to demonstrate when you only have two pages for a CV! I am very glad that I started the CChem process early in my postdoc career, so that I can use it to demonstrate that I am a top calibre chemist, and indeed a top-calibre candidate for any position. I am sure it will give me an edge in future job applications and interviews, and will certainly stand me in good stead should my career drift away from academic research.
 
As a postdoc, you perhaps have the most time and flexibility at this stage of your career to pursue this programme and I strongly urge you to do so.
Posted by David Foley on Jun 28, 2012 9:32 PM Europe/London

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