COVE R STORY GOVERNMENT WORK
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Argonne National Laboratory chemist mixes a coating for synthesized polymer nanospheres.
A NEW NORMAL
Record unemployment requires a REALISTIC ATTITUDE AND CREATIVE THINKING THE PAST YEAR has been one of devastat-
ing job loss for working people in the U.S., who are now experiencing nearly 10% unemployment. Although chemical scientists are faring better than the public-at-large, they are also out of work at record levels. According to data collected by ACS for its 2009 salary survey, which will be published next year, ACS members are experiencing unemployment at 3.8%, up from 2.3% last year, and 2.4% in 2007. In the nearly 40 years the society has been collecting employment information from its members, unemployment has never been so high. Slightly more than half of ACS members work in manufacturing, and their situation is considerably worse than it is for their peers in academic or other industrial positions. The national unemployment rate for chemical manufacturing climbed from 2.9% in 2007 to 4.3% in 2008 to 7.7% as of this past March. If every cloud has a silver lining, it’s fair to say that the lining is getting thinner and thinner. Senior Correspondent Ivan Amato interviewed university recruiters, placement officers at companies, bench
this group’s best and brightest who are chemists, and employment consultants to choosing chemistry careers. Chemical get their take on the year to come. Amato companies know that members of this reports that the collective message is a generation are valuable, but different: They “sobering, tough-love slap in the face: Get are demanding in ways their older coworkover the denial and do what you have to do ers are not, reports Senior Editor Susan J. to adapt to the new normal.” Ainsworth. She describes how companies Eventually, employment has to pick up. are changing to attract and retain these It’s just a question of when. “People still future leaders. want stuff,” ACS Assistant Director of CaFinally, opportunities for chemists in the reer Management & Development David government have traditionally been overHarwell tells Amato. “Eventually, people shadowed by those in will have to make the academia and industry, stuff” people want. CONTENTS but that landscape may And when demand be changing, reports for the products of DOWN BUT NOT OUT 46 Associate Editor Linda chemistry starts to rise, Chemistry jobs took a beating Wang. “Keep an open the chemical industry this year, but some recruiters mind,” she advises. The must be fully staffed are optimistic. government offers nuwith functioning and COURTING GENERATION Y 53 merous opportunities productive employees Companies revamp programs for chemists, but the job to meet that demand. to attract and retain young search and application Workers in their 20s, superstars. process can be lengthy. who are now entering Nevertheless, “there’s the workforce, are part WORKING FOR UNCLE SAM 56 no better time to start of a cohort informally The recession may lead more researching the poscalled Generation Y. chemists to pursue careers as sibilities than now,” she The chemical industry civil servants. reports.—LINDA RABER courts the few among WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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COVE R STORY PUNISHING ROUND
SHUTTERSTOCK
Chemists have been losing jobs, but they’re not giving up.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT Chemistry JOBS TOOK A BEATING this year, prompting out-of-work chemists to reinvent themselves IVAN AMATO, C&EN WASHINGTON
SCANNING THE JOB loss numbers in the
past 12 months from the Department of Labor is like reading casualty statistics of Civil War battles. In September, 263,000 more people lost their livelihoods. And that was a good month. Earlier in the year, more than a half-million people were losing their jobs each month. In October, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the psychologically significant 10,000 mark, yet more people were looking for jobs. Since the recession’s start in December 2007, the Labor Department stats show, 7.6 million
people joined the ranks of the unemployed, and the total number of people out of work in the U.S. has surpassed 15 million. The overall rate of unemployment reached 9.8% by the end of September, with all indicators pointing to the imminent arrival of double-digit national unemployment. Every month, more and more chemists contribute to these woeful statistics. Estimates of overall unemployment among the nation’s chemists hover around 4%, according to David Harwell, assistant director of the American Chemical Society’s Department of Career Management &
Development. That may be less than half of the overall jobless rate, but it’s still traumatically high for chemical scientists, a group for whom unemployment had been all but a nonissue even a few years ago. The Labor Department collects information on the chemical manufacturing sector, and its statistics provide a broadbrushstroke view of all employment within the chemical industry—where 51% of ACS members work. For September 2008, 844,000 people were chemical industry employees. One year later, that number had eroded to 802,000. Average chemical industry employment in 2007 was 860,000. In the past year, recruiting among American Chemistry Council (ACC) member companies has been much reduced, says Kevin Swift, chief economist for the industry group. As a palliative of sorts, he notes that the downturn seems to be “bottoming out.” But by that he means the bloodletting
“Lots of the solutions to the nation’s problems, such as stemming climate change and developing renewable energy, will come from chemists.” WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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COVE R STORY
have known. The collective message is a sobering, tough-love slap in the face: Get over the denial and do what you have to do to adapt to the new normal. Sources unanimously agree that the chemistry community, already staggering from the job killings of 2008, is in for a rough ride for at least the next year or two. Much of this prognosis is based on “jobless recovery” patterns from recent recessions.
O N THE MOVE
Marcel Goes To St. Louis To be a research chemist at Kodak, in Rochester, N.Y., at a time when photography was morphing into an electronicsbased technology was harrowing for electroanalytical chemist Marcel Madaras. For years, he was skipping through the minefield, surviving layoffs and restructurings. “Even from the time they hired me seven years ago,” Madaras says, “there were layoffs.” As photography rapidly shifted to digital technology, Madaras says, “the decision of the company was to cut, cut, cut.” In the summer of 2007, the ax fell on him. And in a matter of months, the Department of Labor’s hiring statistics would begin free-falling into negative territory. “At the macro level, I understood what happened, but at a personal level no one likes to hear they don’t have a job,” Madaras, who is 43 and has two elementary schoolaged children, tells C&EN. Rather than jumping into the job market in search of another position like the one he had just lost, Madaras decided to leverage his joblessness into an opportunity to pursue an interest in the business side of chemical companies. At the time, his wife was still employed by Kodak. With that continued base of finan-
cial security, Madaras applied to a 16-month executive M.B.A. program at Rochester Institute of Technology. The program was challenging enough, he notes, that he did not have time for a job search while immersed in it. By the time he could tack that M.B.A. behind his name, the economic collapse had begun. In the new financial context, even though Madaras now had both scientific and business credentials in hand, nothing was going to be handed to him on a silver platter. “It was very difficult to search for positions when the companies you would like to work for are laying off people and restructuring,” he says. “I tried for months.” He did not land anything, but he gained something else: “I did a good job at establishing networks, getting involved in the professional networking site LinkedIn, and doing networking meetings and informational meetings” with potential employers who might not even be looking to hire anybody at the moment. Meanwhile, his wife, in what Madaras describes as a serendipitous sequence of events, stumbled into a job offer at the St. Louis facility of Sensient Technologies, the flavor, fragrance, and
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It took 18 months and 19 months, respectively, to swing into a positive hiring territory after the recessions of 1991–92 and 2000, says John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the high-end job-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas and an expert on corporate practices, workplace issues, and the economy. Any rebound in hiring will be slow in coming, he tells C&EN.
color maker. “That meant it was decision time,” Madaras says. Things were not looking economically promising overall in the long term in the Rochester area, he says, adding that he and his wife “are both from Romania and so were not particularly rooted to some particular part of the country.” So Madaras’ wife accepted the position. The family moved to St. Louis in the early summer. For Madaras, the move meant that his new task was to find a job in the St. Louis area. He wasted no time in deploying those networking skills and connections he had developed after he was let go from Kodak. And he also tapped into the expertise of Lisa M. Balbes, a St. Louisbased consultant who volunteers in a career-consulting network organized by the American Chemical Society’s Department of Career Management & Development. “It has been taking people longer to get jobs, and people need to be more flexible in what they are willing to take,” Balbes tells C&EN. Midcareer chemists are having the toughest time, she says. Madaras found Balbes initially via LinkedIn through a University of North Carolina group that served as the social link between the two. He started applying to various chemical companies and had what he describes as “interesting discussions” with Monsanto in St. Louis,
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although the company told him it was planning to hire only in the future. Then he began opening up his purview and followed up on possible positions outside of his comfort zone; for example, in food chemistry. “I was not really a candidate for the job, but it was a way to make myself visible,” Madaras says. Amid his searching and networking, he learned about COURTESY OF MARCEL MADARAS
is slowing down. “Instead of losing 4,000 or 5,000 jobs per month like we were earlier in the year, it now is less than 2,000 per month,” Swift says. To get a broader perspective on the employment outlook for chemists, C&EN sought input from a diversity of sources— university recruiters, placement officers at companies, and bench chemists making their way in the toughest job market they
Madaras
a job that called for electroanalytical skills. It was at Pepex Biomedical, a medical diagnostics start-up in St. Louis, and “it was a good match,” Madaras says. On Aug. 31, he started working there. The job, for now, is a temporary contract position, but he’s fine with that. “If everything goes well at the company, it could become a permanent job,” he says, noting that it is the kind of place where he could even end up finding opportunities to put his M.B.A. skills to use.
In the face of bleak emphasis on energy therefore always find career opportuniCHEMISTS OUT OF WORK economic and onefficiency and green ties,” she says. Chemical manufacturing the-ground signals, manufacturing ought These are hopeful feel-good messages, unemployment tracks that of all U.S. many sources also to create jobs that but the here-and-now often has a knack for unemployment are taking a chin-up have, Swift says, “cerchipping away at hope and joy. Consider attitude, saying that tain chemistry conthe chemistry industry bellwether Dow Unemployment, % chemists are the ones tent to them.” Among Chemical: At the end of 2008, Dow an10 with the skills, knowthe areas that he cites nounced the layoff of 5,000 employees— 8 how, and mind-set are weatherizing; the about 11% of its total chemist-packed that the world will design, manufacturworkforce. And the ax continues to drop 6 need to solve its ing, and construction in the industry. Last month, for one, Clari4 more pressing probof wind turbines and ant, the Swiss specialty chemical firm, relems. Chemists posother renewable envealed that it was set to cut an additional 2 sess the professional ergy structures; and 800 jobs worldwide beyond the 1,850 that 0 traits, they say, that sealants. it announced earlier in the year. And Air 2006 07 08 09 will put into practice Amid the steady Products & Chemicals, with a workforce ■ U.S. ■ Chemists (ACS) ■ Chemists (U.S.) the sustainability and stream of “force reof 21,000 worldwide in 2008, announced ■ Chemical manufacturing green ethics frameduction” announcein late July its plans to eliminate 1,150 works that have been ments by chemical positions. That’s on top of the company’s SOURCES: Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S., July data; chemical manufacturing, June data; dominating rhetoric companies, their vanishing act on 1,400 positions that it anU.S. chemists, spring data, 2009 data not yet among technocrats. spokespersons projnounced in January. available), American Chemical Society salary and employment member surveys (ACS chemists, “People still want ect an optimistic air March data) stuff,” ACS’s Harwell about their hiring AND CONSIDER the pharmaceutical says. “Eventually, plans, at least on their industry, one of the perennial lands of oppeople will have to make the stuff.” Ergo, websites and when talking to reporters. portunity for chemists: It has been shedmore jobs ought to become available again “Despite the difficult economic situation, ding jobs as though its life depended on for chemical professionals. ACC’s Swift we have taken on scientists, especially it, which the industry says it does. After phrases his pep talk in another way: “The chemists, worldwide this year and will announcing 31,000 layoffs in 2008, U.S. chemical industry is a very exciting and incontinue to hire staff selectively,” Sabrina pharma companies picked up the pace novative industry. Lots of the solutions to Manz of the Essen, Germany-based chemiof pink slipping yet more in 2009, much the nation’s problems, such as stemming cal company Evonik Industries tells C&EN. of it spurred by Pfizer’s acquisition of climate change and developing renewable “As a creative industrial group, we know Wyeth and by Merck & Co.’s absorption energy, will come from chemists.” that it is particularly important to steadily of Schering-Plough (C&EN, March 16, Robert Peoples, director of ACS’s recruit young scientists for the future. Talpage 24). That pair of tectonic industrial Green Chemistry Institute, has yet anented and committed young scientists will shifts alone resulted in the evaporation other angle on the pep rally. “There will be huge opportunities in green chemistry WHERE CHEMISTS WORK going forward,” he says. “If you think, for Breakdown of employers of chemists has held steady for several years example, of renewable energy, and conversion of biomass to renewable chemical 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 building blocks and fuel, there is a huge MANUFACTURING 55% 54% 56% 52% 51% 51% 51% gap in our knowledge that needs to be Chemical & related 17 15 17 15 15 15 14 Pharmaceutical/health/bio 22 21 23 22 23 21 22 filled by the chemical community.” And Other manufacturing 16 18 16 15 13 15 15 for the 80,000 or so chemicals in commerce, chemists might need to develop ACADEMIA 24% 26% 24% 27% 29% 29% 30% green chemistry processes or alternatives University/four-year college 19 20 18 21 20 22 22 for about 50,000 of them, Peoples points Two-year college 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 out. “Therein lie golden opportunities for Medical school 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 High school 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 chemists,” he says. Other 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Some of the financial fuel needed to put motion into such uplifting visions is likely NONMANUFACTURING/ to come from the Obama AdministraNONACADEMIC 20% 20% 17% 20% 18% 18% 18% tion’s $787 billion stimulus package. Swift Analytical/research services 9 9 9 9 7 7 7 estimates that of the portion spent so far, Government 8 8 7 8 8 8 9 Other 3 3 1 3 3 3 2 $2 billion has fed into the chemistry enterprise. Of that, he suspects, roughly $500 SELF-EMPLOYED 1% 1% 3% 1% 2% 2% 1% million might have prevented thousands NOTE: Percentage may not sum to 100 because of rounding. of additional job losses in chemistry, a SOURCE: “Analysis of the American Chemical Society’s Comprehensive Salary & Employment Surveys, 2002 to number based on a salary/benefit value in 2008” the $100,000+ range. The Administration’s WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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COVE R STORY
finding ways to reduce their workforce, either temporarily or permanently,” he tells C&EN. And with “flexible workforce arrangements, workhour cutbacks, and shift configurations, we’ve seen every possible iteration coming out of the chemical industry,” he says. Even on college campuses, these multipronged threats to employment are becoming commonplace. Although new graduates are, in general, getting jobs, Eric L. Garfunkel, chair of Rutgers University’s
E XTE RN A L R ES E ARC H
Ken Does The 1-2-3 Step It’s been a wild employment ride for Kenneth J. Barr over the past two years. The adventure began when the present recession did, at the end of 2007. Until then, Barr’s professional life as a chemist had followed a conventional plan. After getting a Ph.D. and finishing a postdoc in a reputable academic laboratory, Barr had enough credibility in the fields of synthetic and organometallic chemistry to land in 1995 a potential job for life at a major pharmaceutical company, Abbott. He worked at that first job for five years before moving to California to the biopharmaceutical start-up Sunesis, which zeroes in on oncology drugs for both solid tumors and blood cancers. “We were successful,” Barr says, but even before the economic downturn, the company began morphing its strategic approach by shifting much of its research over to the company’s development partners, Barr notes. “I was part of the letting go of the research division,” he says. That was in September 2007. He landed on his feet by getting a job a few months later at a brand-new company, Amplyx Pharmaceutical, whose mission is to develop
anti-HIV, antibiotics, and other drugs that avert quick inbody degradation by getting sequestered in the protective environment inside cells. Barr was Amplyx’s third of three employees, and the company was entirely virtual, operating by way of outsourcing, collaborations, and consultants. “I worked out of my house in San Francisco,” Barr says. The chief executive officer was in Boston, and the chief scientific officer was in San Diego. “I knew from the start that Amplyx was risky, but it was experience worth getting,” he says. Barr had been with Amplyx for about a year when it became clear that securing backing from venture capitalists was going to get tougher. The situation got harrowing enough that early this year he felt he needed to find a more secure situation. “Looking for a job is a full-time job,” he notes. “You have to wake up in the morning and act as though this is what you are doing for a living.” He says he actually got lucky. It took him only about two months to find a new job. Like many professionals looking for jobs, he found his by way of LinkedIn, the social networking site that caters
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chemistry department in Piscataway, N.J., says faculty need to do more with less. “We are putting in more hours, our stress is higher, the classes are growing, and we are pushing more tenured faculty to teach more undergraduate classes,” he says. Moreover, the department is turning to adjunct faculty for more of the teaching responsibilities. “We are using annuals and lecturers, non-tenure-track people who all have Ph.D.s but for various reasons did not keep on the research track,” Garfunkel
to professionals, both working ones and ones looking for work. He learned through his LinkedIn network that Merck was enacting a strategy to supplement its internal research efforts with research done externally. He pursued this lead successfully, and in April, he began working at Merck as a project leader in a position that combines his skills in medicinal chemistry with his experience in working on projects with partners that are physically located in several places. It was great to get the job, he says, but it required a big change, too. Barr had to move across the country to Merck Research Laboratories in Boston. That flexibility is necessary for job seekers these days, he says. For the past decade, Barr has been a career consultant with the American Chemical Society’s Department of Career Management & Development. “I have seen a large uptick in people who are midcareer and looking for jobs,” he says. He was one of them. “Many were expecting to never need to look for a new job,” he says, and as a result, they had not maintained significant professional networks external to their COURTESY OF KENNETH BARR
of some 8,000 and 15,000 jobs or more, respectively. And last month, Eli Lilly & Co. announced it would heap on 5,000 more to the casualty numbers. Although massive layoffs are unlikely to continue in 2010, prospects for a major turnaround are not promising, says Tom Morrison, a principal in the human-capital practice of Deloitte Consulting. And other forms of job erosion will continue to unfold. “Through restructurings, plant shutdowns, or furloughs, companies are
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companies. A lot of his consulting work these days is a mix of helping job seekers manage the emotional hit that sudden unemployment delivers and helping them redefine themselves and retool for the new employment context. “The very first thing I tell clients is to sign up for LinkedIn, after preparing a good résumé,” Barr says. “And as negative as it sounds, I tell people they need to be able to pursue alternative careers, to move to another counBarr try, or to leave the chemical industry into alternative fields where they still can apply their background in science.” Job seekers in two-career households, he adds, have to contemplate living apart, a compromise that he himself had to make. The job situation for chemists, especially those interested in working for smaller, innovative companies, will remain rough for some time, Barr predicts. “Companies are still struggling, and it will be awhile before investors are willing to take chances,” he says. And because so many talented researchers have lost their jobs, he notes, more are competing for fewer slots.
“We know the science is shifting, and so now is a good time to retool and get ready to help meet those new demands.” says. “These people are not paid as much, but their teaching skills can be good or even better” than those of seasoned faculty, he notes. The blogger known as Chemjobber, a Ph.D. synthetic chemist who now works at a small research laboratory in the Midwest, has been tracking chemistry employment in idiosyncratic but telling ways. He became a job tracker in 2008 as a consequence of his own frustrating job search when he was a postdoc at a major pharmaceutical company that rhymes with appetizer. He spoke to C&EN on condition that his name would not be revealed.
21 years. “The resulting graph … is not economic times were troubled and could encouraging,” Chemjobber wrote in his remain that way for some time. So, he acblog when he posted the chart on Sept. 27. cepted. “It’s been okay,” he tells C&EN. “In the past month, there have been two “Okay” is about as good as the job(count ’em—two!) industrial job ads in getting experience is likely to be in the Chemical & Engineering News.” near future for most chemists seeking jobs. Kenneth M. The willingness Carroll, director of to compromise AD OUT advertising sales that Chemjobber Chemjobber’s tabulation of ads for for C&EN, is well showed and his industrial positions in the past two aware of the situchoice to align his decades tells a sad tale ation. “Right now, expectation with it is a very difficult reality constitute Industrial classified advertising 60 marketplace,” he this moment’s ■ No. of ads ■ No. of positions says. Most noticeright stuff for able has been the getting jobs, re40 IN EARLY 2008, Chemjobber says, “I lack of employcruiters say. This started applying for jobs and started putment advertising is especially true 20 0 ting feelers out there. I cast a broad net. by pharmaceutical for older chemists I put out about 50 applications, and I got companies, norwho suddenly find 0 five or six interviews. But I pretty much mally a mainstay themselves in the 1989 91 93 95 97 99 01 03 05 07 09 got completely 100% skunked by big for the magazine’s job market durSOURCE: Chemjobber blog, derived from the issue of pharma.” classified ads. ing economically C&EN closest to Sept. 14. That’s when “I decided I wanted to “What has held shrinking times. know how bad it really was out there,” us together are “If you have any particularly for chemists seeking jobs the academic postings,” Carroll notes. age issues, it will be tough,” says Patrick B. in industry, he recalls. So Chemjobber “But they have slowed, too.” Despite the Ropella, CEO of the executive search firm turned to one measure of chemists’ emdramatic downturn in advertising that the Ropella Group, which includes the chemiployment that had been coming to his inentire publishing sector has experienced cal sector among its specialties. “The more box every week for years: the classified job in recent years, Carroll strikes a hopeful experience you have, the more expensive section of C&EN. He note, saying there are you are. That is making it tough. People are admits that his methindicators that 2010 taking jobs for less money than they used JOBS NO MORE od of tracking the will bring more job to get. And if you are unable to relocate, The jobless rate for chemists chemistry job market ads, including more you also narrow your options. You have to hasn’t been matching the overall isn’t perfect and that classified ads for opbe open and flexible,” he says. U.S. average, but both jumped in it doesn’t track online portunities in Europe Richard F. Pennock, a vice president 2009 advertising, but it and China. with the scientific placement firm Kelly does yield interestBy October of last Services, has noticed an uptick in employUnemployment, % 10 ing results. Each year, just as the econers seeking chemists for quality-control/ ■ U.S. ■ Chemist (ACS) week, Chemjobber omy was about to nose quality-assurance roles in manufacturing. 8 counts the numbers dive toward the presHe is also encouraged by the billions of dol6 of ads and positions ent recession, Chemlars of stimulus money streaming into rein C&EN’s classified jobber was desperate search, much by way of program managers 4 pages and shares the for a position. “In a at the National Institutes of Health. 2 information with his last-ditch, middle-of“We are starting to see some positions readers. the-night leap, I sent supporting those types of research proj0 In September, out an application to ects,” Pennock says, although many of 1989 93 97 01 05 09 Chemjobber posted the company I work these may be temporary and vulnerable SOURCES: “Analysis of the American a table based on his at now.” The offer when the spike of stimulus money ends. Chemical Society’s Comprehensive Salary & tabulations from a came, as Chemjobber Pennock also adds to the chorus about Employment Surveys, 1985 to 2008”; Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Science & Engineering mid-September issue sees it, “with a shockthe employment bonanza that could Indicators,” National Science Foundation, (closest to Sept. 14) ingly low salary.” But come from the creation of green jobs with 2006 in each of the past he also knew that the chemistry components. He has his eyes on WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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areas such as the development and production of polymer films and insulating gases for energy-efficient windows and the design and production of solar energy materials. As the use and production of traditional chemicals shift toward chemicals and materials that are themselves greener and produced in greener ways, chemists will need to morph their own skill sets and mind-sets. This is why chemists who are paying attention to and responding to the macro trends in the economy, environmental politics, and social networking could find themselves better positioned for the new normal, sources say. “We know the science is shifting, and so now is a good time to retool and get ready to help
“If they ain’t hiring folks outta Harvard, they’re not hiring anywhere.” meet those new demands,” says Peoples of the Green Chemistry Institute. One indicator that some chemists might be turning a tough job market into an opportunity to develop new skills and credentials is the number of applicants for the Ph.D. program in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “We had 750 applicants this year,” 77 of whom were accepted, says Stephanie Nagle, career services coordinator for the UW chemistry department. “The year before it was 600 and something, and before that, about 500.”
Q UA LITY CONT ROL
Jeff Lands On His Feet A consequence of Eli Lilly & Co.’s joint venture with Icos Corp., which centered on the erectiledysfunction drug Cialis, was that a lot of researchers from Icos lost their jobs. Chemist Jeff Moore and his 126 colleagues at the Bothell, Wash., company found themselves in early 2007 treading on tidal motions that were beyond their control. “I survived a big layoff because I was with a contract manufacturing group and we still had contractual commitments” to meet, says Moore, who has bachelor’s degrees in both chemistry and biology. As those commitments ended, the Copenhagen-based contract biomanufacturing firm CMC bought the former Icos group from Lilly. The group had remained intact while under Lilly’s banner, but in the shuffle, Moore and perhaps a dozen of his colleagues were let go. That was in January.
It was an ironic moment for him to lose his job, Moore notes. “I was laid off on Tuesday, and the following Friday I was in Austin, Texas, training to become a career consultant for ACS,” he says. He came out of that training with certification to help members prepare résumés and interviews and to search for jobs. The training would come in handy in a more personal way. “I was, of course, scared,” Moore recalls. “I have a family and I had a mortgage to pay.” He knew the severance package from Lilly would hold him over for a while, but just for a while. “What I was most concerned about was that I would have to relocate, and in this economy, it is impossible to sell a home,” Moore says. Fear gave way to optimism as Moore, in his words, “opened my horizons.” He was most experienced in
the quality-control and quality-assurance area, but he warmed to the possibility of seeking positions with different job descriptions. And he tapped into his network at the professional networking site LinkedIn to help his cause. One of those interactions proved particularly fateful. A colleague from his Icos days who had gotten a job at Seattle Genetics, a small company intent on finding and developing biologic drugs to treat Hodgkin’s lymphoma, told Moore about a job opening at the company. “She told me to send a résumé to the hiring manager, who was getting pressure to fill the slot,” Moore says. By opening himself up to a “facilities position,” Moore found a job that suits him at a company just two blocks from the one that had dropped him from the payroll. His new job combines quality control with validating, certifying, and maintaining analytical equipment. Says Moore, “I love my job.”
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Nagle also notes that about a dozen high-profile companies—among them Dow, 3M, Lilly, Procter & Gamble, and Ecolabs—have kept the same level of recruiting activity as in recent years. Patricia A. Simpson, Nagle’s cohort at the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, says company recruitment there has kept up, too. “The difference this year is that some companies have fewer positions to fill,” Simpson says. MEANWHILE, Chemjobber observes that
the Harvard University chemistry department’s schedule of recruiters is not as busy as that of midwestern colleagues. Visiting the recruiting schedules on the department’s website, he tabulated the recruiting visits made each year between 2006 and 2009. In a Sept. 12 blog posting titled “Department of Awful Statistics,” he posted a histogram showing a precipitous annual reduction in recruiting visits: 29, 26, 21, and eight. “If they ain’t hiring folks outta Harvard, they’re not hiring anywhere,” he blogged. Adding to the woe for some out-of-work chemists is how long it takes to find a new job. “One of the hardest things for people to deal with is being out of work for a very long time, for more than six months in many cases,” ACS’s Harwell says. “Younger people in the workforce expect flux, but mid- and late-career chemists have never been through this. This is the first time they have been out of work since they got their first job. And now some are running up against the end of their unemployment benefits. This is the worst that I have seen,” Harwell says. Chemjobber says he will be there commiserating with his fellow chemists and blogging about the employment scene until things pick up again. “I want to ride this out,” he says. “I don’t know if I want to be doing Chemjobber 10 years from now, but I will do it until this unemployment thing comes around.” The blogger also is a realist. “I am 33 years old. I could be a plumber if I lost my job. I could do what it takes. But what about that older guy who is really looking for a job and has a mortgage and three kids? These are the people who are just getting kicked in the kidneys.” ■
COVE R STORY
COURTING GENERATION Y
DOW CHEMICAL
today, I’d get a record number of responses, but I would find only a few people who we would really want to hire,” he says. “Even though Generation Y is a big group, when you begin to look at how few of these people actually go into science and engineering, it gets very frightening very Companies revamp programs to attract quickly,” Kannisto says. “For a technologyand retain YOUNG SUPERSTARS based company like ours that wants to SUSAN J. AINSWORTH, C&EN DALLAS pursue a diverse workforce, it’s going to be really tough. So, we are actually ramping up our recruitment even in a year when times MOVE OVER baby boomers and Generacal companies say they are aggressively are tough because it has very serious implition X, a third generation—Generation recruiting the best talent in Generation Y. cations moving forward.” Y—is streaming into the chemical industry This generation rivals the baby boomers in Dow Chemical, too, is focused on atand bringing along a new attitude and high number and, they say, represents the future tracting Generation Y. “We have a number workplace expectations. of their organizations. of game-changing technology projects in Generation Y is not like the baby Attracting Generation Y “is actually our R&D pipeline that will require the skills boomers who live to work or Generamore important than ever,” of Generation Y scientists,” says tion Xers who work to live. Instead, this says Michael R. Kannisto, Alveda J. Williams, Dow’s R&D generation—born between the late 1970s manager of staffing, univer- CONFIDENT leader for strategic recruitment Generation Y scientists and its Research Assignments and the mid-1990s—“values work, but they sity relations, and employat Dow Chemical also really value life beyond work,” says ment branding at BASF. Program. “We cannot afford include Pierre (front); Tina Kao, global leader of research, talent, “With so many people out of second row, from to let top scientific talent slip and organizational consulting at Hewitt work, it may seem that there left: Erin Vogel and through our fingers just because Lidaris San Miguel Associates, a human resources consulting is more talent out there to the country is in the midst of an Rivera; third row, from firm. “They want to enjoy life. They want hire, but that’s actually not economic downturn,” she says. left: Kwanho Chang, to live in the moment, and they want to live true. If I were to post a job “We are pleased to say that we Nahrain Kamber, and meaningfully.” for a position here at BASF have already been able to make Liang Hong. Having grown up amid the offers to some of the best candifirst recycling campaigns and dates out there.” threats of global warming, those Attracting Generation Y suin Generation Y are as eager to perstars isn’t easy. Companies make a difference in society at can’t use the same techniques large as they are to make an imthat they used to lure those in pact in their new careers. “Gen Y previous generations. At Eastman folks want achievement and they Chemical, “we have significantly want it fast,” Kao says. “They changed our presentation style want frequent feedback from on campus,” says Sharon Pugh, their employers and managers staffing manager at Eastman. on how they are doing and what “Gone are the days of relying on their next step is.” traditional PowerPoint slides. Thanks in large part to social This generation prefers informatechnologies such as MySpace tion conveyed in a very dynamic and Facebook, those in Generaway. We use a mix of technology tion Y have taken networking in our recruiting,” including faceto a new level. Not surpristo-face meetings, e-mails, videos, ingly, they are also tech savvy, brochures, and multimedia prelove working on teams, and are sentations, she says. comfortable with ethnic and culMany companies are now taktural diversity, because that’s all ing a viral approach to recruiting. they’ve ever known. For example, they are “creating Faced with this skilled yet dereally cool ads or videos that manding generation, companies Gen Yers can pass along among are scrambling to attract, manage, friends via social media weband retain these employees, who sites,” Hewitt’s Kao says. These are mostly under 30 years old. recruiting tools allow companies Even during the current recesto “promote themselves in an sion, when companies seem to be exponential way.” It also allows focused on layoffs, major chemithem to provide “very specific WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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A I R P RO DUCTS
BASF
testimonials or details on the day in the life of an employee” at a given company, which is just the kind of information that Gen Y craves, she says. Recognizing the uniqueness of Gen Y, BASF created a Facebook page a year ago for recruiting into the company’s Professional Development Program (PDP). The program brings new university graduates into the company, where they complete a series of rotational assignments. Instead of relying on its corporate communications staff to create the page, BASF entrusted the project to its PDP participants. Through the resulting “BASF PDP Past and Present” Facebook page, users can now share advice on everything from finding local apartments to honing interview techniques. “We are connecting and collaborating with
Josey
Datta
people who have not even had an interview with us yet,” Kannisto says. Air Products & Chemicals has also turned to its younger workers for advice on how to tap social media sites for recruiting purposes. Interns there are now creating two-minute-or-less YouTube videos about their experience working at the company, according to Tracey Saccani, manager of Air Products’ 50-year-old Career Development Program (CDP), which offers new employees a wide range of assignment choices. Air Products is also appealing to Generation Y’s commitment to the greater good; specifically for this group, it recently created a “green brochure” that summarizes the company’s socially responsible and environmentally conscious initiatives. “To be honest, we didn’t even have that information readily available until we started getting requests for it from students,” Saccani says. It was Eastman’s “track record of bring-
ing innovative, socially responsible ideas to the chemical industry” that enticed 28-year-old Peter Chapman to accept a position as an automation development chemist there. Noting that Eastman was just named one of the top 100 “Greenest Big Companies in America” by Newsweek, “it is a company I can feel good about working for,” he says. Once on board, Generation Y gets satisfaction from getting involved in green initiatives and community service projects within their new organizations. In addition to satisfying their desire to contribute, these activities also indulge Generation Y’s passion for collaboration. To catalyze their collaborative bent, BASF is putting together cross-functional teams of workers for community service projects. For example, in February, the company’s PDP employees spent a day volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in Morris County, N.J. “The work experience is not an individualistic experience for Generation Y. It is really more of a community experience for many of these young talents,” Kao says. Savvy companies are working to build on that sense of community in a number of different informal or formal ways, including sending groups of people through mentoring or training classes together, she says. By clustering employees in project teams, classes, or other events, companies “can create a stickiness, not only between employees and the company but also among the employees themselves,” Kao says. “It’s a very powerful way to engage and retain employees.” And that is critical given that it can be difficult to retain Generation Y workers because they have a tendency to change jobs more frequently than their baby boomer or Generation X counterparts, she says. With Gen Y retention in mind, many companies are also providing tools that enable employees to connect electronically. For example, Dow Chemical and Air Products have set up the technology to allow their employees to instant message each other. Although older employees initially viewed instant messaging as a purely social outlet, it is a means by which Generation Y prefers to work, Air Products’ Saccani says. WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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“We appreciate the fact that we can send an instant message or e-mail or locate information on the Internet within a matter of seconds,” says 27-year-old Meera Datta, a process engineer in Air Products’ Engineering Development Program under the company’s CDP. “In the age of technology, those in Generation Y want to get their information as quickly as possible. Efficiency is key.” Like many in her generation, which thrives on multitasking, Datta is at home with new technology. “IPods, iPhones, e-mail, and virtual communication have become a way of life—both at home and in the workplace,” she says. TO SATISFY Generation Y’s appetite for
electronic communication, BASF is using the Web to interact with its employees. The company now gives new employees the option of getting orientation materials through a series of podcasts that can be loaded onto their iPods. In the past, that information was conveyed only through a handbook or PowerPoint presentation, Kannisto says. “The podcasts are just another way of acknowledging the needs of Generation Y.” To meet their younger employees’ networking needs, BASF recently set up an interactive blog for its chief executive officer for the North American region, Kurt Bock. Employees can now post comments or questions for him after he video blogs his views on issues of immediate importance to the company. The CEO blog represents “a major departure for BASF,” says Kannisto, noting that the company has come a long way in its thinking. “We blocked employees from accessing Facebook at work only a year ago.” Through the blog, BASF is also acknowl-
Generation Y employees at Air Products travel on a hydrogen-fueled bus to educate local schoolchildren on the benefits of this alternative fuel of the future. Pictured from left are Carla DeBonis, John Palazzolo, Bossert, Jamie Ralph, Dan Krinsky, and Derek Reinhard.
edging Generation Y’s desire to connect with colleagues at all levels of their organizations. Compared with baby boomers and Generation X, those in Generation Y are less formal and less concerned with what they see as the unnecessary formalities associated with traditional hierarchies. Titles don’t mean as much to them as they do to their older peers. Cynthia Pierre, a 28-year-old senior research engineer who joined Dow’s Research Assignments Program in July, explains: “We are so used to communicating with a broad spectrum of people using digital media that the barriers to communication are often completely broken down.” Whether it involves a peer or someone in upper management, “we view every communication— sending an e-mail or a text message or meeting face-to-face—as an opportunity to enhance our network,” she says. From Gen Y’s perspective, their organizations are flat, says BASF’s Kannisto. That perception has also influenced the way this generation maps its career paths, he says. Generation Y rejects the notion “that there is only one way to the top. They don’t buy the idea that there is only one ladder and that it can only be tackled rung by rung, year by year, and decade by decade before you get your reward,” he says. Instead, they are considerably more open to lateral moves than other groups of workers, he says. Companies “are increasingly exploring the notion of matrixed career development, where lateral or horizontal career moves are just as valued as vertical moves,” Kao says. Through these programs, companies can provide more career options and satisfy Gen Y’s desire for frequent movement, feedback, and rewards while retaining them within the company, she says. Climbing the proverbial corporate ladder is not the short-term goal of Ph.D. chemist Amanda Josey, who joined BASF’s
PDP in July 2008. Instead, she plans to make several lateral moves within the company “to build a diverse set of skills and experiences to better prepare myself for an executive position,” she says. Working for a large company like BASF affords her the opportunity to try new positions every two to four years without changing employers and losing benefits, says Josey, who is currently working as a technical marketing and innovation specialist for the chemical intermediates business in North America. Pierre, too, welcomes the idea of being able to move through various positions as part of Dow’s Research Assignments Program. At the end of November, when she leaves her four-month stint in Dow Automotive Systems, she will rotate into a six-month assignment in Dow Electronic Materials. By making this move, “I will feel like I am Chapman changing jobs because I will be working in a radically different R&D area,” she says. But because of the way that Dow is organized, she will remain within the company’s R&D function while being supported by various businesses. “I love the breadth and depth of Dow’s research platform. I’m passionate about the extremely rich, scientifically intriguing, and marketrelevant work I am doing; it is what keeps me here,” she says. Independent and confident, those in Generation Y “are fairly savvy about their career goals, and they come in the door and tell you that up front,” Dow’s Williams says. “They ask the right questions and are always inquiring about opportunities for training and advancement.” In addition to honing their core technical skills, Gen Y scientists and engineers are also increasingly interested in developing nontechnical competencies, Hewitt’s Kao says. They want to develop broad leadership skills, build management capabilities, foster their creativity, and learn about communications and global teamwork, she adds. Chemical engineer Nick Bossert, 25, is embracing the opportunity he now has to build his business skills in his supply-chain role in Air Products’ tonnage gases business. Through the position, he can build on the technical experience he has gained through previous assignments in the firm’s CDP, he says. He is currently developing WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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technology for new low-cost gas plants that are tailored to specific customer needs. “It’s exciting to see how the technical and commercial aspects of a job complement each other,” he says. ALTHOUGH GENERATION Y wants to
grow in their careers, they also value their time outside work. To keep their youngest employees engaged and happy, companies are offering or expanding flexible work programs that allow them to telecommute, work part time, share jobs, or structure their working hours in nontraditional ways, Kao says. “Now and into the future, it is critical for those in our generation to strike a balance between success at work and success at home and with our families,” Air Products’ Datta says. Like many in Generation Y, “we EASTMAN CHEMICAL
GREEN VOLUNTEERS
want to contribute strategically in our jobs, but we also want to be able to attend our children’s soccer games at the same time,” she says. Although flexible work programs have been in place in many companies for a long time, Generation Y is using them much more than older generations have. “They are educating the boomers on the benefits of work-life balance,” observes Barb Paluszek, Air Products’ human resources manager. “They are showing us that we can leave early to take care of our personal needs and then get back online at home that night if we need to catch up.” As Generation Y moves into positions of leadership, it is also likely to influence colleagues in other ways, says Eastman’s Pugh. “Adding this new generation to the mix can only mean that we will have another perspective to help us create innovative new products that improve people’s lives and generate profits, all while protecting the planet at the same time.” ■
LINDA WANG/C&EN
COVE R STORY
WORKING FOR UNCLE SAM The recession may lead more chemists to pursue careers as CIVIL SERVANTS LINDA WANG, C&EN WASHINGTON
AS INDUSTRY CONTINUES to shed jobs
and academia struggles with budget cuts, a job with the U.S. government is starting to look good to a lot of chemists. Job security isn’t the only reason they cite for wanting to join the federal government’s more than 1.8 million civilian workforce—the largest of any employer in the nation. Chemists are discovering opportunities at agencies all over the government where they can apply their skills and expertise, from studying human diseases at the National Institutes of Health, to preserving ancient art and other treasures at the Smithsonian Institution, to helping solve crimes at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Even the Library of Congress needs chemists to handle its large collection of books, maps, and other materials. The U.S. government is hungry for talent, and hiring projections for the next several years remain strong. According to a 2009 report by the nonprofit Partnership
for Public Service, which promotes government employment, the U.S. government expects to hire 273,000 new employees by 2012. And these are just the “mission critical” jobs, which are considered crucial and must be filled. “There’s no doubt that in the short term, more chemists are going to be working for the government because that’s where the jobs are,” says John K. Borchardt, a longtime career consultant for the American Chemical Society. Opportunities for chemists in the government have traditionally been overshadowed by opportunities in academia and industry. According to data from ACS salary surveys, roughly 7% of ACS members are employed by the federal government, and that percentage has changed little over the past 10 years. “There’s sort of this mind-set of what constitutes a good career as a chemist,” says Daniel H. Appella, an investigator in the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry at NIH’s National Institute of WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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Diabetes & DiCHEMISTRY AND ART gestive & Kidney Working at the Museum Conservation Institute, Diseases, in Tsang retouches a Bethesda, Md. painting from the “You go to grad- Smithsonian National uate school, you Air & Space Museum. do a postdoc, and then you look for a job in big pharma. Or you become an assistant professor at a big academic school. That’s sort of ingrained in you as you come up through graduate school.” Like many of his peers, Appella hadn’t considered working for the government while he was a graduate student. After finishing a postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, Appella took a position as an assistant professor at Northwestern University. But he says that securing grants for his research projects was extremely challenging and time-consuming. After three years, Appella left academia for the government. Funding is much less of a problem for Appella now that he’s at NIH because the agency provides him with a relatively stable source of support. “It’s nice because you can get involved in more high-risk research endeavors and you can pursue projects with more of a long-term mentality and not be as rigidly linked to the funding cycles,” he says. Tara H. McHugh, a food chemist with the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Research Service, in Albany, Calif., considers herself lucky that her research adviser,
TACKLING INTERESTING research ques-
tions has kept Regina J. Cody working at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md., for more than 35 years. Cody, who has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, works behind the scenes on research that supports NASA’s space missions. For example, Cody’s studies of chemical reactions occurring in the atmospheres of comets and the outer planets have helped other scientists generate models of those conditions. She says her work is highly collaborative, giving her the opportunity to work not only with other chemists but also with physicists, biologists, and engineers. Chemists interested in forensics can find satisfying work at the FBI Laboratory, in Quantico, Va. Jason Schaff, who has a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry, describes some work he conducted shortly after joining the lab in 1999. A man had died from arsenic poisoning, and the U.S attorney working on the case suspected foul play. “From all the research I did, I ended up finding out that the victim probably poisoned himself by accident,” Schaff says. The victim did a lot of woodworking in a garage that was not well ventilated, and the wood he was working on had been treated with copper chromium arsenate. “If you breathe a lot of that sawdust, you will get arsenic poisoning,” Schaff says. Although the incident was unfortunate, he says, it’s satisfying to know that his work “may have prevented someone from being falsely charged with a crime.” Working at the FBI Lab is not for the squeamish. “With forensic chemistry, you have to understand that sometimes you’re going to be dealing with very disturbing stuff,” Schaff says. “You have to be able to detach yourself from your work.” But the work is extremely interesting, he adds.
The Smithsonian might seem like an unlikely place for a chemist to work. But in fact, chemistry is integral to the work of the Museum Conservation Institute, in Suitland, Md., which helps preserve items at the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, and the National Zoo (C&EN, Oct. 19, page 12). Chemist Jia-sun Tsang, a paintings conservator, uses analytical techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to investigate the composition of paintings to protect them from degradation. For example, if she wants to remove a deteriorating varnish from a painting, she needs to know exactly what type of varnish it is so she can use a solvent that won’t harm the painting. Tsang, who has a master’s degree in chemistry, discovered her interest in con-
The institute is continuing to expand its chemistry capabilities, most recently hiring a biochemist to do proteomics work, which the institute has never done inhouse before. Proteomics, for example, can help museum scientists understand how microorganisms cause the degradation of cultural heritage objects and find ways to slow this process down. Robert J. Koestler, director of the Museum Conservation Institute, says he continues to seek scientists who can build cutting-edge research programs, such as that in nanotechnology, for museum conservation. The Library of Congress also needs chemists. Lynn Brostoff, who has a master’s degree in polymer materials science and a Ph.D. in chemistry, says chemistry is integral to her position as preservation research chemist in the library’s Preservation Research & Testing Division. “We’re the
servation almost by accident. While pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry, she took some time off to take art classes and found that she really enjoyed them. “I realized that maybe a doctoral degree in chemistry was not my calling.” She ended up pursuing a second master’s degree in conservation. The Museum Conservation Institute employs several chemists on its 24-member staff. Jennifer Giaccai, who works as a conservation scientist, has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in materials science and engineering. She is currently involved in a project using X-ray fluorescence to study the pigments used in the “Janssen portrait” of William Shakespeare to learn more about the history of the painting.
DETECTIVES At the FBI biggest library Lab, Schaff (clockwise in the world from left) and his and de facto colleagues Eshwar national library Jagerdeo, Michael of the U.S. We Rickenbach, and Eileen Waninger use high-tech have a tremeninstruments in their dous number of daily work. books, but we also have a phenomenal collection of both historic and fine works of art,” she says. “We need to know a lot about paper chemistry and parchment chemistry, as well as inks and other media used to create cultural artifacts” to better understand how to preserve these materials. For example, many historic documents were written with iron gall ink, but its iron
FBI LABORATORY
who had worked for the government, heard about an opening for a postdoc there. McHugh got the job and has been with the agency for the past 16 years, rising from lead scientist to research leader overseeing an entire team of scientists. What’s kept her in the government, she says, is its focus on serving the public. “The work we do is based upon helping the consumer and promoting the public good. These are the aspects of the job I really like,” she says. She has received awards for many of her projects, which have included developing an edible food wrap made from fruits and vegetables.
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“There’s no doubt that in the short term, more chemists are going to be working for the government because that’s where the jobs are.” content and acidity accelerate the degradation of paper and parchment. Brostoff is collaborating on a project to analyze a draft of the Gettysburg Address. By understanding the chemistry of the specific iron gall ink used by Abraham Lincoln, Brostoff can reveal hidden information about the artifact and help care for the historic document. ONE MISPERCEPTION about government
jobs is that they are low paying. Although industry does tend to pay more than the government, salaries for government workers are generally higher than those in academia. According to ACS’s 2009 salary survey, industry workers reported a median annual salary of $99,500. Government workers reported a median salary of $90,021, and academic employees reported a median salary of $66,000.
With so many opportunities for chemists within the federal government, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the possibilities. First, browse the listings on USAJobs.gov to see what openings are available for chemists. Then narrow down the agencies you might be interested in working for and look for chemists working there who are willing to talk about what they do. If searches for “chemist” don’t return the kind of jobs you desire, it’s a good idea to search www.usajobs.gov for “scientist.” Scientific conferences are one place to meet chemists working for the federal government. Government employees also participate in professional networking sites such as the ACS Network or LinkedIn. ACS members can connect with government workers through the Career
Consultant program and perhaps arrange a visit. It’s never too early to start thinking about a career in the government. Many government agencies offer fellowships and internships to graduate students and postdocs. NIH, for example, has a Graduate Partnerships Program that helps train graduate students in research at NIH, and NASA awards fellowships to graduate students to conduct research at one of its field centers. The Museum Conservation Institute and Library of Congress also offer fellowships and internships. Keep an open mind. The government offers numerous opportunities for chemists, and the job search will require an investment in time, but there’s no better time to start researching the possibilities than now. ■
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