chemists who got tired of the lab

j4vier

hi
just wondering if there are any chemists out there who got tired of working in a lab, what have you ended up doing career wise?

Arciphel

I find a quick dose of self-imposed exile from the lab to my desk in the office only makes me pine for the laba again! What industry do you work in?

Metalpanic

At the end of my PhD I really thought I didn't want to work in a lab ever again! But doing nothing for a few months really gets you back into the lab mood. Am looking forward to getting back into a lab now!

j4vier

middle of a phd myself
metalpanic, did you apply for jobs outside the lab at the end of it?

Metalpanic

j4vier wrote: »

middle of a phd myself
metalpanic, did you apply for jobs outside the lab at the end of it?

Yeah I've been on the job hunt for a few months now. I've applied to anywhere and everywhere really. There isn't a whole lot of funding out there at the moment so postdocs are tough to find. As far as industry goes if you have no industrial experience it's a nightmare trying to get past recruiters.

I'd recommend keeping an eye on college vacancy pages if you want to go down the postdoc route and apply directly to companies if you want a job in industry.

And keep the faith, finishing a PhD is the hardest part!

Outside of the lab altogether I have friends who have gone on to teach English abroad, work for banks, gone into regulatory affairs and one who went to work for a charity.

Perrin2040

Im just finishing up a PhD in chemistry at the moment, and tbh I can't wait to get out of the lab. Not in a I'm tired of it way, in an absolute me and the lab were NOT made for one another.

Working in a lab is fine for some people, and for some its not, if you enjoy it more power to you, but its just not for me.

I would have liked to lecture maybe, but you really need to do research (in a lab) for that. Considered 2nd level teaching, but with the clamp down on hiring and letting 1200 teachers go I decided against that!

TBH finding it very hard to find something non science based. A lot of jobs are looking for graduates etc in their area eg accountants, it, financial etc.

Annoying thing about not knowing when your gonna finish, couldnt really apply for any graduate programs as wasnt gonna be finished in time

Anyway my advice if you want to leave the lab is plan for it well in advance. The year before you plan to finish look into every other thing you could be interested in and apply for any positions that take a long time to process (teaching, grad schemes etc).

If you want to stay in science but out of a lab you could look into patents, journal proof reading/editing etc or as i said teaching, but some of those are limited in ireland.

Ps this (above) has all been very Ireland-centric, if you are willing to move then there is a far wider range of non-lab positions (i hear)

Metalpanic

Perrin2040 wrote: »

Ps this (above) has all been very Ireland-centric, if you are willing to move then there is a far wider range of non-lab positions (i hear)

Couldn't agree more with this statement. Moving abroad would definitely increase your options. Ireland has an industry very much geared towards chemical manufacturing. So most jobs are QC, QA, and regulatory affairs.

Would compliance/ regulatory affairs interest you j4vier? It would get you out of the lab and with REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) coming online there are jobs in the field. It would probably require you to do a course though. I'm not too familiar with the area myself.

j4vier

Moving out of Ireland looks more than likely after i finish.
The regulatory area is interesting but in my experience you don't really have a clear idea of what to expect until you've tried it. I have some pharma lab experience behind and the lack of opportunities which I felt back then, combined with the boring routine of that job in particular made me think that maybe it wasn't right for me.

Kohl

Perrin2040 wrote: »

Im just finishing up a PhD in chemistry at the moment, and tbh I can't wait to get out of the lab. Not in a I'm tired of it way, in an absolute me and the lab were NOT made for one another.

Working in a lab is fine for some people, and for some its not, if you enjoy it more power to you, but its just not for me.

I would have liked to lecture maybe, but you really need to do research (in a lab) for that. Considered 2nd level teaching, but with the clamp down on hiring and letting 1200 teachers go I decided against that!

TBH finding it very hard to find something non science based. A lot of jobs are looking for graduates etc in their area eg accountants, it, financial etc.

Annoying thing about not knowing when your gonna finish, couldnt really apply for any graduate programs as wasnt gonna be finished in time

Anyway my advice if you want to leave the lab is plan for it well in advance. The year before you plan to finish look into every other thing you could be interested in and apply for any positions that take a long time to process (teaching, grad schemes etc).

If you want to stay in science but out of a lab you could look into patents, journal proof reading/editing etc or as i said teaching, but some of those are limited in ireland.

Ps this (above) has all been very Ireland-centric, if you are willing to move then there is a far wider range of non-lab positions (i hear)

I'm definitely considering leaving Ireland. Permanently.

tupoftea

Did my PhD in Chemistry and have been in regulatory affairs now for 6 years.

When I left the lab I was delighted as I couldn't have done anymore at that time or I would have gone mad, combination of bad careless supervisor and me the naive idiot flogging a dead research horse.

Reg is fine, if you work in generics can even be fun, boring in large pharma and its more QA compliance than actual regulatory in larger pharma as their EU head offices will handle the true regulatory work.

Anywho would love to go back to the lab, would know what to do to get published and make a considerable effort to colaborate with colleagues and get those papers accepted and grants applied for.

Life is always funny like that, you exactly how you should have done something when you are finished!!:rolleyes: