Science jobs-(chemistry)

Psygnosis

I recently graduated from DCU with a Ph.D in organometallic chemistry and hold a 1.1 hons degree and graduated top of my class in pure and applied chemistry from DCU, I have also about 1 yrs experience as a process technician in a large multinational chemical company. Since graduation i have been applying for jobs and have heard very little except for a process manager job in Cork.. I have applied to numerous jobs in Ireland and abroad such as wyeth, abbott, SKB, swords labs GHB, Mcdermid and Novartis along with agencies such as CPL, Cordelle etc and have met with no positive response although the people I have dealt with were always amicable. As I am broke and desperate I have decided to start temping and am currently considering retraining. Does anyone out there know much about the current state of the pharma chem industry in Ireland is the sector dead or are my qualifications just not applicable/relevant to the job market. As i mentioned earlier i am currently considering retraining through a night course or part time professional exam in IT could someone recommend such a course and would anyone have any idea about using such a course along with my chemistry qualifications to reenter the pharmachem sector. Do the OU run part time courses in IT or information systems management and how are these courses regarded.

BrianD3

Psygnosis: I understand what you're going through. I am also a chemistry grad (just B.Sc. hons though) and the struggle to find a job is something I am very familiar with. Sorry to say it doesn't get any easier when you reach Ph.D level, in fact it's harder because you're inevitably overqualified and overspecialised for most of the chemistry jobs on offer in Ireland.

Most of which are sh1tty QC or QA or "research" (which would more accurately be called process development i.e. only slightly less sh1tty than QA and QC) Yeah I love that "research" tag - that's a ****ing ploy by the government and the pharmaceutical companies to get gullible school leavers to do science because they get the impression they'll be doing ground breaking, highly interesting and well paid work such as drug discovery or searching for a cure for cancer or doing research for NASA etc. :rolleyes:

When the truth of it is the best they can hope for is to be stuck in a lab in some horrible factory on the night shift and spending their time trying to find a way to maximise the yield of some pharmaceutical intermediate :rolleyes:

Yeah my opinion on this is that it's just a con to get more people to do science so that the jobs market is flooded with graduates which means that the pharma companies have a plentiful supply of slaves (sorry chemists) to do menial low paid work. Principle of supply and demand - the more graduates there are, the more demand for jobs - graduates crying out for jobs because they're so scarce and graduates willing to take anything and accept any sort of sh1te treatment. This includes bad mannered sh1te like not acknowledging receipt of applications for jobs as I'm sure you have experienced. In my opinion Ireland is just a convenient place for the pharma companies to stick their tabletting or bulk manufacturing plants with all the best jobs and most interesting work remaining in HQ in the states. (new wyeth plant may be an exception)

Anyhow I could rant on for ages but that doesn't help you. What about postdoctoral research positions in university, have you tried for those? This is what I see many Ph.Ds doing. They go straight from doing research for their doctorate to doing post-doc research in the same or similar field. A lot of the time it's in the same university and they become "collaborators" with the lecturer that supervised their Ph.D. Eventually, they end up as lecturers themselves. Quite a good career path in my opinion.

I don't see much else for you in this country. Of course there are well paid managementy type jobs in industry which tend to get filled by Ph.Ds but only if they have 5+ years of work experience in a GMP/FDA regulated environment AFTER their Ph.D

Forget recruitment agencies - shower of w*nkers. They're expecially bad for chemistry jobs because the people working in these places don't have any understanding of chemistry/science and lump it in with engineering and IT. And even worse for you they're even more useless for people with Ph.Ds. You put your project title of organometallic...etc. on your CV, send it into a recruitment agency and I guarantee you it will be gobbledygook to the person who reads it. They just won't have a clue. If they don't understand your qualifications and experience, what hope have they of helping you to get a job.

Also forget about applying for the previously mentioned QC positions in places like Gerrards or whatever. You're overqualified. They won't even consider your application. Not that you'd probably want to work in QC after 7+ years getting your degree and then your doctorate. Sickening isn't it.

You'd have a better chance of getting a menial job *outside* of science with your Ph.D. Ironic. Apply for a job in a shop and they won't give a sh1te whether you're overqualified or not - as long as you can be trusted not to steal, you're in. And a job like that could keep you going while you consider your options and try to get something better. Anyhow some of these so called gutter jobs aren't that much worse paid than a QC job in the pharma industry.

i am currently considering retraining through a night course or part time professional exam in IT could someone recommend such a course

Doesn't DCU have a higher diploma in IT that you can either do full time or part time. That's something that's right on your doorstep for you to consider. Still, I dunno what sort of state the IT sector is in right now or what the predictions are for it for the future. Others will be able to tell you that better than me.

Ever consider doing the H.Dip (teaching) I would find it a bit depressing doing teaching after finishing a Ph.D. But I saw some stats for applications to the H.Dip this year and a suprisngly high number of applicants had masters and some had Ph.Ds. Dunno if they were chemistry Ph.Ds, could well be!

I probably haven't helped much with all the ranting - but at least you now know that your not the only one having difficulty getting a job in chemistry. PS I do have an OK job now, but not in chemistry - more engineering and stats than chemistry. Don't really want to elaborate too much, however it's a career path that's not really open to most chemistry grads and I got it through "pull" and being a lucky bastard.

BrianD3

paddyc

also looks like Galen in the north are gonna let a good few people go as well so depressing times all round

I nearly finished the teaching course and wil be a chemistry teacher.. you ever thing about trying that ??



paddy

The Brigadier

I have something that may be of interest to you.

Drop me a line at

james@stelfox.ie

Zaphod

When you say organometallics, do you mean with emphasis on the organic/synthesis side, or more the physical chemistry side?

WRT the pharma industry, they seem to do the bulk of their hiring through recruitment agencies, so it's worth registering with 3 or 4.

sirlinux

try www.sri.ie a few friends have done well through there, i know them from their engineering days. Was speaking to them recently they have gone pure science, more business, apparently all the big firms are doing deals with specialist recruitment firms to get all their staff for them, well thats what the girl told me!! Im sure there is more firms like them though.

sirlinux

By the way IT industry is still very poor.