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month we want to have a conversation with you students who are trying to answer the question, "What will be my career?" Some of you are in school, some in college. Your ages differ, but your queries are similar. We who have found our careers in chemistry would like to guide your thinking by suggesting some questions and answers. "What is chemistry? What will I do if I become a chemist?" These are the questions you are asking which deserve direct and personal answers. Choosing a career involves the most important decision you will ever make. You are entitled to a big look from as many angles as possible. Remember that no single view can ever show all the details. "What is chemistry?" Chemistry is a science. Chemistry is the country's biggest industry. Chem~ s t r yis an insurance policy for the future of civilization. Moreover, for you who have a life to live, chemistry is a profession. These sound like definitions, but your questions still come. You have every right to think in personal terms. You ask, "How do I know if I would enjoy being a chemist, and what chance have I of being a successful chemist?" Words like science, industry, and profession need more than a dictionary definition. You want to know what they mean in terms of living a satisfying and productive life. If curiosity is a way of living for you, and if you back it up with a mental tidiness that is dissatisfied with loose-end ideas, probably you will be a successful chemist. Further, if you enjoy figuring things out more than "just learning" and like to work with your hands, you will enjoy being a chemist. If you want to be a shaggy recluse, working in a smelly laboratory, you will have trouble finding a place in chemical industry. Every position in the development or production divisions of an industry demands a skill in working with people. Even the secluded researcher is becoming extinct. In his place are teams of men who bring a wide range of experience and training to the attack on today's research problems. A career in research can be built on the essential personal qualities of initiative and perseverance, complemented by the ability to cooperate with others. The work being done by chemists is far more varied now than two decades ago. Chemical industry has an increasing diversity of important positions for those
who prefer other than laboratory or production jobs. Training in chemistry can open doors bearing such titles as: market research, patent law, technical sales, information service, and personnel. Women especially can build attractive careers from non-laboratory positions in literature searching, report writing, editing, and technical librarian work. We hope this emphasis on the diversity of possihle careers will help overcome the misconception that the only career in chemistry is as a chemical engineer. Equally untrue is an idea some of you may have that the only alternative to being a research genius is doing boring routine analytical work. To be sure, instruments do much of this kind of work. Automation, however, does not eliminate jobs; it elevates them. More and more, the chemist who is responsible for analytical work is expected to be creative; he is hired for his brains and not just for his hands. We would be untrue to our own convictions if we did not make a special point about the attractiveness of chemical education as a fascinating combination of two careers. Chemistry teachers in both high school and college are professional chemists too. Theirs is the dual enthusiasm of helping minds to grow and science to advance. Defining chemistry as a profession means that you will invest ybur life rather than merely take a job. You will look for more than a pay check. You will find work about which you can be enthusiastic and will feel that what you are doing is important. You mill find that your work will carry with it obligations as part of its rewards. A career in chemistry will allow you to help make it possible, literally, for future generations to have a civilization. The guiding principle by which science now provides the technology for modern living is conservation rather than exploitation. Chemistry makes possible the conversion and utilization of abundant resources in place of those considered more strategic because of their limited supply. The energy appetite of future civilization cannot be satisfied by fossil fuels. Clearing the way for the use of nuclear energy tomorrow and solar energy the day after tomorrow requires the solving of thousands of chemical problems. Take a good look a t chemistry. I t has a lot to offer as a career if you are looking for big returns on the investment of a life.
