- Finance
- Energy
- Commodities
- Health Care
- Transportation
- Consumer
- Pharma
- Services
- Retail
Yes, major chemicals is a good career path. As long as you’re detail-oriented and have a good memory, you can easily work your entire career as a chemist. Due to the various different jobs that are in the field, you can transition to another path while still being able to make use of your experience.
For those who like scientific advancements, a career in chemistry makes perfect sense. It will require you to think and challenge yourself to come up with new ways of doing things.
And even if creating new materials isn’t your favorite thing, there are many adjacent careers that are fulfilling, such as a pharmacist or toxicologist. Both help people while still making use of your knowledge of the subject.
If the listed careers and requirements sound doable and interesting to you, you should absolutely pursue a career as a chemist.
Here are 18 great jobs in Major Chemicals:
10 of the Best Paying Jobs in Chemistry
Chemists and chemical engineers are always in demand. The wide variety of skills afforded by the degree makes experts in chemistry a necessity for manufacturing, engineering, energy production, and research. And due to the knowledge base required, people working in the field are paid well, too.
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Average Annual Salary: $82,000
A pharmacologist is a medical chemist, so you need to know biochemistry, and most require a degree in medicine or an advanced degree in pharmacology. Schooling and requirements are rigorous, but pharmacologists are tremendously well compensated as a result.
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Average Annual Salary: $85,000
Chemical engineering is like most engineering: it’s precise and exacting. Essentially what engineers do is create practical solutions to problems. Chemical engineers use their knowledge of chemistry to research new materials to improve products.
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Average Annual Salary: $83,000
This job is all about studying. It involves analyzing chemicals to better understand both natural and synthetic materials. This is necessary for improving manufactured materials, understanding why certain processes work the way they do, and finding new ways to tackle problems.
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Average Annual Salary: $66,000
This will vary a great deal depending on what university you get hired by and whether or not you have tenure. But being a professor allows for both teaching and research, as well as publishing papers.
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Average Annual Salary: $81,000
This job is about turning raw materials into finished products. A degree of creativity is expected, as process engineers are expected to improve products and processes along the way. It’s about taking your knowledge of chemistry and applying it to solve problems.
This can be a matter of allowing items to be manufactured more cheaply with less expensive materials, making the process more efficient, and finding a way to make something with less toxic materials – such as batteries.
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Average Annual Salary: $86,000
This is a job that is in demand for many companies. It can range from making sure toys meet standards to making sure food and drugs are pure. Many companies have contracts with quality assurance firms, but some hire quality assurance scientists directly.
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Research and Development Scientist
Average Annual Salary: $87,000
Research and Development (R & D) engineers are heavily involved in both inventing new materials and testing them to make sure that they meet requirements. This is a job at many major well-known companies, such as Boeing, Du Pont, and General Electric.
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Technical Science and Development Specialist
Average Annual Salary: N/A
This is similar to R & D in many ways but is focused much more on the science part of it. It’s a listing you’re likely to see in a space program, for instance.
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Average Annual Salary: $82,000
People who do this test equipment. Knowing chemistry is necessary as you have to know how various objects will react to heat and stress, as well as how they perform under various conditions. It’s also very math-heavy.
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Average Annual Salary: $87,000
An analytical scientist analyzes materials and collects data on them. It’s a specific type of researcher. An excellent choice for someone who’s very detail-oriented and likes to focus on one thing at a time.
Since these careers are some of the best compensated in the field, many of them also require higher levels of education and experience. This is a look at where you could end up at the height of your career.
If you’re just looking to start out, then this list might be better:
5 Entry-Level Jobs in Chemistry
Chemistry is a career path that requires a fair amount of education. For many careers, a bachelor’s degree will be enough, but for higher-paying jobs, higher education is expected.
If you meet the requirements, it shouldn’t be hard to get hired. But because of the complexity of the subject, it’s very hard to break into without the requisite education.
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Average Annual Salary: $37,000
This is a way to get started in research. It can even be used as a way to become a professor. It requires less education than a higher-level researcher, making it easier to break into.
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High School Chemistry Teacher
Average Annual Salary: N/A
While, in many ways, not a traditional break-in job due to the level of education required, teachers are in demand. But you have to find the job itself highly rewarding, as the monetary compensation is lacking. You’ll also need a higher-level degree in education.
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Average Annual Salary: $45,000
While not seen as glamorous, water treatment is absolutely necessary. This can range from treating sewage to making sure water is safe to drink to cleaning up chemical spills. It’s an essential job with possibilities for advancement.
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Average Annual Salary: $68,000
Every major food manufacturer has food scientists. They’re the ones who come up with new products and what ingredients to use in order to get the texture and flavor the company’s looking for.
It isn’t just a matter of ingredients, and how they interact, it’s also knowledge of how various substances react to heat or cold. They are also behind agents that prevent separation or keep textures smooth. Love junk food? Happy not to have to stir your peanut butter? Thank a food scientist.
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Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
Average Annual Salary: $103,000
This is less directly related to pure chemistry but would be good for those who don’t want to do research. A knowledge of chemistry is essential to understanding pharmaceuticals, but you also spend a lot of time talking to people and selling.
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Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Average Annual Salary: $70,000
Becoming a professor isn’t easy, so this is a good way to get your foot in the door if this field interests you. It’ll give you experience in research and teaching. Not to mention the important contacts you’ll make in the university system.
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Average Annual Salary: $125,000
Pharmacology is actually a different degree, but chemists have much of the necessary knowledge for it. Especially if you studied biochemistry, it’s a very customer-facing job, so it’s a good choice if you like interacting with the public and educating people.
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Average Annual Salary: $41,000
While most people in this career study environmental science, this job works a lot with cleanups and checking natural environments, which is heavily focused on chemistry. If the environment is important to you, this is something you can do to merge your personal and career interests.
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Average Annual Salary: $69,000
While a chemistry degree isn’t necessary for this career, many forensic scientists have one. They’re essential in solving crimes and help the whole way along, even testifying in court as to their findings. It’s a good choice if you’re interested in criminal justice and biology as well.
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Average Annual Salary: $74,000
This focuses on testing tissue samples, so it’s not for the squeamish. However, it helps with solving crimes and detecting what might be making people sick. It’s very much a laboratory environment, but it’s a way to help people without having to interact with the public.
Some of these jobs require more than just a bachelor’s degree, but all of them should be able to be gotten right out of college. The vast majority of them have a high probability of advancement as well, allowing them to be used as a springboard to start your career.
Why Choose a Career in Chemistry?
Chemists are highly sought after by many companies in many types of industries. Medicine, petroleum production, environmental sciences, and nuclear energy, just to name a few. Because of that, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be stuck looking for a job outside your field.
There are some important things to consider while deciding whether or not chemistry is for you. If you have these qualities, though, it’s a field to strongly consider.
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You enjoy a challenge. Working with chemistry is challenging. It’s not something everyone can do, so it’ll require thought and focus.
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Being well compensated is important to you. If monetary compensation is a major consideration for you, it’s a good field to pursue.
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You’re a creative problem solver. The main goal of most of the careers listed above is to solve problems. Especially in engineering, you need to be able to come at a problem from multiple directions in order to come up with a practical, useful solution.
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Memorization is easy for you. If you are good at memorization and are precise, then this subject is likely to appeal to you.
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You like the idea of being seen as a wizard. Due to the nature of chemistry, many chemists are viewed as possessing arcane knowledge by the rest of the population. That makes a job in the field prestigious.
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Math doesn’t scare you. All the sciences require a basis in mathematics, but there’s a lot of it in both chemistry and engineering. So if you want to pursue a career in this field, it’s important to be comfortable doing math.
Not all jobs that require chemistry are research careers. It’s a wide-open field, meaning that you can also tailor it to your interests and needs.
Education and Certification Requirements for a Career in Chemistry
Due to the nature of the field, education is a must. Here are educational options to consider.
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A bachelor’s in chemistry. This will get your foot in the door of most of the careers listed here, and the broadness of it will give you more options out of the gate.
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A bachelor’s in chemical engineering. While this degree is more specialized, it’s great if you know you want to go into the engineering field. This will lead you more towards practical application careers, such as a process engineer or going into R & D.
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A master’s degree or higher. This will get you a higher salary and can help push you in a particular direction. For instance:
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Pharmacology. For if you want to be a pharmacist or pharmacologist.
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A higher-level chemistry degree. If you want to pursue research or a career as a professor.
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Education. If you want to be a high school teacher.
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Medicine. This can lead you towards pharmacology in a different way and is the way to go if you think you want to be involved in trials of new drugs or treatments.
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There are also some certifications you can get, though many of these would be from societies of those in your field. For instance, The Board Of Clinical Chemistry can certify you or your workplace.
What Do People Working In Chemistry Do?
Being a chemist is a challenging and specialized career. Chemistry is the building block of the world, so a job as a chemist can range from coming up with better materials for airplanes to pharmacology to creating new dyes.
Chemists are also necessary for food science, quality control, and safety. A chemical engineering degree – or just a chemistry degree – can open you up to a wide field of opportunities.
- Finance
- Energy
- Commodities
- Health Care
- Transportation
- Consumer
- Pharma
- Services
- Retail
Author
Di has been a writer for more than half her life. Most of her writing so far has been fiction, and she’s gotten short stories published in online magazines Kzine and Silver Blade, as well as a flash fiction piece in the Bookends review. Di graduated from Mary Baldwin College (now University) with a degree in Psychology and Sociology.
