C&EN
employment outlook
EMPLOYMENT LOOKS A LITTLE BETTER The economy shows signs of slowing, but firms maybe HIRING MORE chemists, engineers
CHEMICAL SCIENTISTS and engineers looking for jobs in 2007 will find the market a little better than it has been since 2001. Maybe. Chemical company earnings are a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster economy. Whether increased earnings will be sustainable and whether they will translate into significantly more hiring remains to be seen. Gross domestic product figures, which
measure total economic activity within U.S. borders, were released by the Department of Commerce late last month. They indicate that the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter at an annualized rate of 1.6%—the slowest rate in three years. Much of the slowdown is attributable to a slump in the housing market. And U.S. voters, increasingly discontented with many issues, high among them the economy, will cast WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
33 NOVEMBER 6, 2006
their ballots in congressional elections. The Republicans may lose their majority in Congress. Who knows what effect this would have on the economy or the chemical industry? In this issue, C&EN reporters examine various facets of employment in the chemical sciences. Associate Editor Corinne A. Marasco tackles the topic of demand for chemists in industry and in academe. On
EMPLOYMENT
CONTENTS DEMAND, 36 Chemists and chemical engineers may find more opportunities this year. SALARIES AND JOBS, 43 Unemployment is down a little from last year, and salaries are making modest gains. GENERATION X, 47 Chemists interviewed in 1995 tell C&EN how their careers have developed. ENTREPRENEURS, 53 Chemists who start their own companies find satisfaction in being their own bosses. PATENT LAW, 56 Strong scientific credentials coupled with a law degree are the tools needed for this growing profession.
balance, she reports cautious optimism for increased hiring, particularly for chemical engineers and for chemists with strong skills in the life sciences. Those skills are in great demand in the increasingly inderdisciplinary pharmaceutical industry, the home of most new jobs in the chemical sciences. But the employment picture for chemists isn't clear. Dow and DuPont, two chemical industry giants that have shared their hiring plans with G&EN in the past, declined to be interviewed this year. Indeed, many employers of chemists and chemical engineers are keeping their hiring plans close to the vest. It is unclear how information from those companies would have affected the overall outlook for employment in 2007. G&EN Editor-at-Large Michael Heylin reports on the most recent ACS Salary Sur-
vey. He describes the employment situation as "by no means a disaster, but it is not great either." The percentage of ACS-member chemists in the domestic workforce who did not have full-time jobs as of March of this year was 8.7%. This number is down a little from its all-time high of 9.2% one year ago but well above the recent low of 5.4% in 2001. Heylin notes that the outlook for chemists' salaries is "a little better" and that working chemists who have not recently changed jobs are posting salary increases of about 5% per year. As a special feature this year, G&EN Contributing Editor Susan Ainsworth catches up with eight chemists she had interviewed in a 1995 article on the career plans of Generation X. People in this generation, someWWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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times called Xers, are those born roughly between 1963 and 1975. Ainsworth's 1995 article noted that Xers expected that their workplaces would foster open communication up and down the corporate chain of command and would promote diversity. They also expected that employees would have time to spend with family and to pursue outside interests. According to Ainsworth, Xers, who are now in their 30s and early 40s and have become leaders in their workplaces, are "right on target" about many of the predictions they made about their generation. Some of their career paths have been unusual, reflecting Xers' aggressive management of their own career trajectories. And when one's career isn't progressing as planned, drastic steps can be rewarding. For example, when his career path in academia closed, Paul E. Dietze went to law school and pursued a new career as a patent lawyer. He loves it. Assistant Editor Linda Wang reports that patent law is increasingly populated by highly trained scientists who spend their time writing and processing patent applications to be submitted to the Patent & Trademark Office or going court to defend or attack the validity of an existing patent. Although a Ph.D. is not a prerequisite for practicing patent law, according to one lawyer Wang interviews, the ideal candidate for a top position in a patent law firm is a Ph.D. biochemist with a couple of years as a law clerk for a federal judge. All indications are that the field is growing. Scientists are also taking advantage of their entrepreneurial instincts to create unique and frequently lucrative businesses. Assistant Editor Rachel Petkewich reports general agreement among entrepreneurs that time and money are vital ingredients when starting a new company, but so are good bookkeeping skills and the flexibility to deal with inconsistent income. An entrepreneur starting up a business needs to be able to do whatever needs to be done, from technical sales to cleaning the bathroom, and must be able to network and ask for help from more experienced people. After that, people use different formulas to start their own businesses. •
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EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK
problem for our graduates from what we've heard, and the undergrads who are going to grad school have gotten into the schools they wanted to attend." He also notes an increase in demand for Illinois' Ph.D.s and postdocs, which appears to be on a strong, upward swing.
BETTER JOB CLIMATE FOR NEW GRADUATES For chemists, hiring in PHARMA PICKS UR and chemical engineers continue to be in high demand CORINNE A. MARASCO, C&EN WASHINGTON
FOR THE FIRST TIME since 2001, chemi cal scientists entering the job market have reason to be optimistic, albeit cautiously. The chemical industry's economic fortunes seem to have improved, and in some cases, the turnaround is translating into more employment opportunities. Coming as the recruiting season is just ramping up, these conditions bode well for job seekers. C&EN spoke with officers, human-resources personnel, and recruiters at nine companies about their hiring plans and what they see on the employment horizon. C&EN also talked to professors in chemistry departments whose Ph.D. students and postdocs are looking for jobs. Most industry recruiters of chemists contacted by C&EN are placing a premium on strong synthetic organic skills and on biology-related experience, while chemical engineers are in high demand in the petrochemical industry. Most university representatives tell C&EN that demand for their Ph.D.s and postdocs this year appears higher than last year's, and most of their students have been successful in finding industrial and postdoc jobs. Hector D. Abruna, chairman of the
chemistry department at Cornell University, notes, "There is a major hiring push by some of our recruiting companies, compared with 2003,2004, or 2005, when the demand remained relatively steady." Michael P. Doyle, professor and chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, says his Ph.D.s are in as much demand this year as they were last year. However, "job searches are taking longer because there are fewer postdoc positions available due to the decrease in federal funding," he says. "Responses from companies are slower and fewer." Doyle reports that most of last year's students found the job they were looking for, but not everyone did. "I hear people complaining about grant support but not about jobs," says David Lynn, chairman of the department of chemistry at Emory University, Atlanta. And at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, chemistry department head Steve Zimmerman says, "Getting a job doesn't seem to have been a serious MORE ONLINE
WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
"THE STUDENTS who went into the recruiting season with work experience, nontechnical skills"—such as communication skills, which are highly valued by employers—"and a solid academic background were readily placed," Zimmerman says. At Illinois, "large pharma companies were some of the first to come through this year, trying to get a jump on our best and brightest," Zimmerman says. "We've also seen a few companies come back that had not been here in the past two years." Many newly minted Ph.D.s go directly into the pharmaceutical industry, which is the largest employer of chemists and biochemists. The industry is tackling challenges on many fronts, including improving productivity through innovation and efficiency and regaining public approval. The industry's defense of high drug prices as necessary to support the risks of bringing a drug to market is not resonating with consumers concerned about the high costs of prescription drugs and health care (C&EN, June 19, page 30). "The overall market appears to be somewhat stronger this year than in previous years," observes Brian S. Bronk, director of neurosciences medicinal chemistry and chair of Ph.D. recruiting in the U.S. for Pfizer Global R&D. "Pfizer has recently completed key components of its restructuring. We're now in a position to hire under a new business model," he says. "We set out to fill openings at the Ph.D. level across most of our U.S. sites," he continues, "and although the final number of positions remains fluid, we expect to identify highly qualified candidates for any positions we want to fill. I think our situation reflects the overall industry. Extended periods of hiring driven by growth may be behind us, but I expect a sustained level of recruiting in the future." Bronk says Pfizer is currently recruiting candidates at all degree levels, including new graduates and those with previous experience. Synthetic organic chemistry
Strategies and advice from company recruiters are available on C&EN Online at www.cen-online.org.
3 6 NOVEMBER 6, 2006
mand across the pharmaceutical sector. Academic job postings in C&EN spike with each new Reports from other pharacademic year but are outpaced by industrial openmaceutical representatives ings at other times of the year this year are similarly positive. "Things look somewhat bet3 Volume of "positions open" advertising, column-inches ter this year than last year and 1,200 f Academic significantly better than two 1,000 years ago," says Hans Maag, vice president of chemistry 800 for Roche Palo Alto. There is a "consistent need in pharma to 600 have a large pool of really good 400 synthetic organic chemists. Certainly, the interest is there 200 from the companies, and they 0 feel it's going to be a pretty L -20042005 2006 decent recruiting year." Volume of "positions open" advertising, column-inches3 Specifically, Roche Palo 800 r Alto is focusing its recruiting Nonacademic again this year on both the 600 medicinal and process chemistry groups. According to Maag, the company is hiring 400 with the expectation of limited workforce growth: "We 200 have not had much turnover y v in chemistry at Roche Palo 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Alto and are basically in a poJ L_ 2004 2005 2006 sition to hire on a consistent, a Column-inches published during consecutive periods of four weeks but not very high, level." He each. adds that the company tends to be insulated from the larger economic climate and is more affected by continues to be the most important field, what happens within the pharmaceutical but computational chemistry is a growing industry. need. He predicts that candidates with experience in both areas will be in high deWilliam F. Carroll, ACS immediate past-
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president and vice president at Occidental Chemical, reports that, for the first time in several years, the company will be visiting a small number of campuses in 2007 to recruit B.S. and M.S. chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers. "OxyChem's recruiting needs are indicative of a changing workforce within the chemical industry as a whole," he says. "As the baby boom generation reaches retirement age, the workforce in the chemical industry is going through a transformation to a new generation." Carroll adds that the improvement in the business climate since 2005 has added urgency to OxyChem's recruiting needs, along with the need to transfer knowledge from today's managerial and technical leaders to tomorrow's. Particularly, OxyChem is looking for motivated graduates with demonstrated technical aptitude and good communication and interpersonal skills. Students who supplement their academic performance with internship or co-op experience are in demand, Carroll says. Specialty chemicals producer Rohm and Haas also predicts a good recruiting season, says Jennifer Petoff, manager of technical recruiting and university relations. "We asked hiring managers to forecast their needs for 2007," and the number of potential openings this year is higher than that of last year, which was a banner year, she says. "Last year, the company hired approximately 20 Ph.D.s through campus recruiting." It's important to Rohm and Haas to
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