1997 shaping up as stronger year
for hiring, but landing a position will
still take some legwork
1997 shaping up as stronger year
for hiring, but landing a position will
still take some legwork
The sentiment among many recruiters, chemistry department chairmen, and college placement directors is that there will be many more jobs for chemists graduating in 1997 than there were in 1996.
"Last year was a terrible year for Ph.D.s and postdocs," says James D. Burke, manager of research recruiting and university relations at Rohm and Haas. "This year will be better. The sense my colleagues in industry have is that recruiting will be up 20%."
However, given the job market in 1996 - which may well have been the toughest in recent history for new Ph.D.s and postdoctoral fellows - that percentage increase might make this a merely mediocre year for Ph.D.s, Burke concedes.
Not that the job market wasn't on the mend last year. The streamlining of corporate America that flattened the industr ial workforce throughout the early 1990s showed signs of bottoming out. Many chemical companies were recruiting quite vigorously on campus, and some pharmaceutical companies were cautiously reopening their hiring doors.
The problem last year was the gross mismatch between the slew of Ph.D.s who were looking for work and the supply of industrial and academic positions available. The market for B.S. chemists, which had been holding up relatively well, also slowed down. While chemical engineers and M.S. chemists were entering the job market with relative ease, B.S. chemists were finding out that co-op or summer internship experience is the résumé line item that opens the door to employment at big companies and that scouting out jobs at small companies takes considerable effort.
This year, the job market "shouldn't be looked on as scary" says Burke, although" it will be competitive," he adds. For the second year in a row, sales and earnings are up across the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, he notes. "And that breeds confidence. Confidence to do stay competitive as a company." Nevertheless, most large companies are looking carefully at numbers, he says, and they will fill positions only as necessary. "It's just that this year they seem to feel it's necessary to replace more people than they have done in the recent past."
Ph.Ds also can look to academic slots becoming more available this year. "I suspect that many departments have shrunk as far as they dare and will replace further retirees," says Judith Herzfeld, chairman of the chemistry department at Brandeis University. However, academic hiring is fraught with a number of complex considerations, including the cost of bringing a new faculty member on board. "I would not be surprised if hires are not made unless the fit is really good," Herzfeld notes. Setup costs have become so great, she says, that it is important to wait for a candidate who is essentially guaranteed to work out.
The volume of advertising in C&EN for" positions open," a useful barometer for tracking demand for chemical professionals, has been rising fairly steadily this year. By this yardstick, 1997 is shaping up to be the best year for jobs since industrial downsizing began clipping positions in the early 1990s. The volume of advertising for academic positions in 1996 so far reflects the pattern set in 1995, which hinted at signs the market was becoming less constrained.
Moreover, at the American Chemical Society's recent national meeting in Orlando, the ratio of job candidates (770) to positions being interviewed for (494) was better than it has been in a long time, says John Michael Sophos, a staff associate for ACS's Department of Career Services. And the number of interviews being conducted at ACS's regional meetings also is on the rise, he says.
On-campus recruiting for industrial positions has already begun, and "it sure looks like we've got some more activity" than last year, says Rebecca J. Simon, placement director for the school of chemical sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "I guess what heartens me is that I see a pickup in Ph.D. recruiting. The companies tell us they're serious [about hiring]. But it's really the offers that come in that are proof of the pudding." Simon estimates that Ph.D. recruiting at Illinois is up 10 to 15% from last year. Yet her outlook remains one of "cautious optimism," she says, because "companies are still playing their cards very tight to the vest."
Even so, "there's a certain 'normalcy' that has come back as companies realize it is necessary for them to continue to innovate and to develop," says Rohm and Haas' Burke. Industry is experiencing a" steady-state replacement" of people who move within an organization, he explains. In the normal course of events, "people are promoted or take positions elsewhere in the organization," he notes. Therefore, entry-level positions need to be filled so you have a flow of talented people moving into and through the organization.
Nonetheless, "students should take nothing for granted," cautions Burke." The smaller companies, the ones that are so darn hard to find, will continue to be robust employers, especially for bachelor's-level chemists." New graduates must be prepared to ferret out the hidden opportunities these companies offer, because "small companies often are too busy to advertise," says Mary W. Jordan, senior research analyst at the ACS Department of Career Services. "Yet, 45% of bachelor-level jobs are coming out of these little firms," she notes. Jordan was citing preliminary data obtained from ACS's" Starting Salaries 1996" (see page 47).
Many companies have stepped up on-campus recruiting for their co-op and summer internship programs to ensure a ready supply of B.S. graduates with appropriate hands-on training. "I don't ever remember seeing quite as many summer opportunities this early in the recruiting season," says Illinois' Simon. "And our students are actively pursuing them."
"If there was one piece of advice I could give to undergraduate students in engineering and the sciences," says James W. Brockington, director of university relations for Air Products & Chemical s, "it's to tell them that co-op and summer programs are very beneficial." Air Products spent a great deal of time on campus last year looking for students for these programs, he notes. The investment paid off, he says, producing "a very good selection of very qualified students" to choose from when they graduate.
Union Carbide will hire 25 B.S. chemists this year from its student employment program, says Donald E. Gatewood, manager of recruitment and college relations. And Dow Chemical "will hire B.S. chemists from a pool of students whom we have already developed relations with," notes Diane R. Dittenhafer, manager for recruiting and placement in the North and East. Neither company will be recruiting for B.S chemists on campus this fall. Nor will many others, as companies increasingly restrict technical recruiting in chemistry to chemical engineers at all degree levels and M.S. and Ph.D. chemists.
Dow, Carbide, DuPont, Air Products, Rohm and Haas, and Procter & Gamble are among the big chemical companies set to recruit on campus. Joining them will be petrochemical firm Phillips Petroleum, medium-size consumer products firm Clorox, and others.
Carbide will be looking for 25 Ph.D.s in chemistry and chemical engineering who are fresh out of graduate school or have up to two years of postdoctoral experience, says Gatewood. "We obviously have an interest in catalyst chemists - inorganic, physical organic, or organometallic - depending on a particular area." The company hired 37 Ph.D.s last year, he noted, although it set out to recruit only 23. If the need for experienced Ph.D.s develops during the year, "we do targeted recruiting," he says.
Dow will be looking for chemical and mechanical engineers, says Dittenhafer, and a few Ph.D. chemists - in organic and analytical chemistry and polymer and materials sciences. DuPont, which resumed recruiting on campus last year after recovering from a couple of rounds of downsizing in 1993, will be hiring chemists and chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers at all degree levels." DuPont is in an upward trend in hiring," says Robert L. Siegel, Ph.D. staffing manager for the company.
At Air Products, "we look very much to the long term, recruiting graduates for our career development program," says Brockington. The company will visit about 40 colleges and universities this year, he says, seeking out B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. chemical and mechanical engineers and Ph.D. chemists who are strong in physical, inorganic, or polymer chemistry.
Procter & Gamble will continue to hire at a steady to "slightly up" pace, says Joel Shulman, manager for external relations. "The bottom line as I see it," he says, "is that the number of jobs for Ph.D.s in large companies is a little higher than last year." But finding them is a lot more work than it used to be, he cautions. "Now, looking for a job is a job itself."
Shulman advises graduate students to pick a research project that allows them to gain technical breadth to complement the depth that goes along with getting a Ph.D. "With the fast cycle times companies have put in effect, newly hired Ph.D.s need to be able to contribute immediately. Employers are looking for expertise in a particular area as the first cut. When they find a person with that expertise, he or she will need to have ancillary skills to get hired." A high-octane pedigree isn't enough anymore, says Shulman, because companies are searching for the absolutely best person to fill a slot. And sometimes, that person might be a foreign national, he notes (see page 58).
Unlike most of its industrial counterparts, P&G will be actively recruiting on campus for B.S. chemists in addition to hiring graduates from the company's co-op pool. "P&G will be doing a lot of scale-up this year," says Scott A. Read, manager of research associate recruiting in the U.S." So we're looking like crazy for people who have process chemistry backgrounds." Chemical engineers will be hired at the usual rate, he says, but "we're turning over rocks" to find the right B.S. chemists.
Last year, P&G filled 115 research associate positions with a combination of B.S. chemists, B.S. biologists, and graduates of two-year technology programs. The year before, the company "hired 200, which was more than [it had] projected." This year, he says, the goal is 130.
Eastman Chemical currently is assessing its needs, but expects it may be hiring fewer people this year than in 1996, says Manager of Employment Hoyt H. Denton. The company will be looking for B.S. and M.S. chemists and chemical engineers, he says. Information on employment opportunities at Eastman, the universities at which the company will recruit, and the preferred way to submit a résumé are available on the Internet (http://www. eastman.com), Denton notes.
Companies are starting to use the Internet to post jobs and search for résumés, says DuPont's Siegel. "And I think that is a dynamic change within the job-search market." He advises students to put their résumés on the Internet in several locations, noting that "there are a lot of free places to post them." DuPont posts positions on its home page (http:// www.dupont.com), although "we don't put all our jobs on there," he notes. The Internet is an emerging field, he says, and an increasing number of jobs for scientists are being posted on it.
This year marks Phillips Petroleum's third year back on campus, after being absent for about two, notes David Blakemo re, manager of employment and college relations. "We've hired modestly over the past three years, but hiring increased each year. It's a lot more fun when you're bringing people in," he admits. Phillips will be recruiting for chemical engineers at all degree levels and for a few Ph.D. chemists - probably analytical.
"We've just finished a month of career fairs on campus, and we noticed a significant increase in the number of employer s that were represented," Blakemore says." If that's any indication that those employers will be back on campus recruiting, then I think there's a major shift toward an improved employment situation."
Clorox will be hiring "enough people to account for attrition and then a couple of percent more," says Kelly J. Brodbeck, project leader, home-cleaning product development. The company expects to hire five to 10 chemical engineers in R&D and 10 to 15 in manufacturing, he says. "But we'll also be hiring five or six Ph.D. chemists" with expertise in organic synthesis and physical chemistry.
"Independent leadership skills and the ability to work with others are basic traits that we look for," he says. "We're a fairly small company, so everyone needs to be self-sustaining." The company recruits mainly from universities in California, but also from institutions - including Georgia Tech and Cornell - th at have alumni working at Clorox.
Hiring picked up a bit at pharmaceutical firms last year as the dust of downsizing began to settle. This year, by all accounts, the pharmaceutical job market will continue to rebound.
"Most of the major pharmaceutical companies are hiring chemists in a variety of areas and at all levels," says David M. Floyd, vice president of discovery chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb. One reason is that companies are continuing to supplement their efforts in medicinal chemistry as a way to increase the number of candidates for drug development, he explains. He believes many of the big firms will have positions opening up in process and development this year. "As in the past, Bristol-Myers Squibb will have a major presence on campus this year," he says. The company plans to add "significant numbers" of Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. chemists.
A background in synthetic organic chemistry is critically important in drug research, he notes. Advantages include familiarity with computing, automation, and other areas that are assets in the drug discovery process, he says.
"In terms of cyclical employment for the pharmaceutical business, I think we're back in an upswing," says Alan J. Main, senior vice president of research at Ciba Pharmaceutical, Summit, N.J. "Many companies actually are hiring a lot of sales reps again - they were laying them off a couple of years ago."
P>Ciba, which is in the process of merging with Sandoz, will delay hiring until" everything settles down," he says. Novartis, the company that will result from the merger, "will be the number two [pharmaceutical] company in the world," and its second largest research center will be in Summit, Main notes. Novartis, which Main explains is Latin for "new arts," expresses "our philosophy for the application of new technology to the biomedical sciences," he says.Main believes the market is robust for Ph.D.s who have strong backgrounds in chemistry, especially in synthetic organic or organic chemistry, but who also are competent in areas such as molecular modeling or molecular biology. "Everything in the pharmaceutical industry is done in interdisciplinary teams now," he points out. "Which doesn't mean that everyone is doing everything. It means that everyone brings a bit of expertise to the team but understands everyone else's science." So chemists need to be able to talk about cloning, for example, although they don't need to be experts in it, he explains.
Technological areas he projects will grow include X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, combinatorial chemistry, "and the whole area of automation and robotics." People with unusual combinations of expertise will be in demand, he says - people who understand chemistry structures and can program a robot and do an analysis.
"People should be looking to us for jobs," says Edward M. Scolnick, president of Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, Pa. "We'll be hiring chemists, chemical engineers, biochemical engineers- all the disciplines that a drug firm is interested in." The company probably will hire more people than it did last year, he predicts.
Lilly Research Labs and Glaxo Wellcome also will be hiring this year. Lilly is "opening up in life sciences, molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and statis tics," but not in chemistry, says Ph.D. recruiter Joerg Pfeifer. "Although we have recruited on campus for organic chemists this year, we have also delivered the message that our hiring is tight. But, we're always looking for outstanding talent. If we find someone we want to make an offer to, we will do what it takes."
Glaxo's U.S.-based facility at Research Triangle Park, N.C., is set to hire B.S. and M.S. chemists - for research associate positions - and Ph.D.s in organic chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry, says Corporate Communications Associa te William Chapman. Hiring will be up from last year, he says.
This year's on-campus recruiting at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is an indication of the upturn in pharmaceutical hiring. "Four years ago, we had 18 recruiters interviewing graduate students," says John W. Birks, chairman of the university's chemistry and biochemistry department. "Three years ago, this dropped to zero. Last year, we had four; and this year, eight. All of the recruiters this year represented pharmaceutical companies, and they primarily interviewed synthetic organic chemists."
At biotechnology companies, R&D hiring continues to move along, with some companies adding positions in marketing and sales.
Gilead Sciences, a biotechnology/ drug discovery firm in Foster City, Calif., is one example. The company brought its first product to market this year (a formulation for treating a type of retinitis), says Human Resources Assistant Irene H. Thomas, so it will "be looking for people with technical backgrounds" to fill sales and marketing slots.
Gilead is maintaining a 20% annual growth rate and will be hiring "the usual across-the-board Ph.D.s," she says, including some in biology, chemistry, and toxicology.
"All of our people are finding jobs," says Catherine Connor, director of placement for the biotechnology center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "We have four [Ph.D.s] who would like to have found jobs by now, but that's not bad. Times are hard, but they aren't really that hard for those who have done a job search. It's a good market." Most small companies will not recruit on campus, she emphasizes, and that's why peopl e really need to do their own search.
Analytical testing labs traditionally need B.S. chemists to carry out analyses and develop new methodologies. "From what I'm hearing and reading, there are more B.S. chemists available this year than [there are] positions," says Carol D. Hess, executive vice president for Lancaster Laboratories, Lancaster, Pa. "But I can't say that we're seeing a glut in the marketplace. Someone who comes out of school with a strong grade-point average is not going to have any trouble" finding a job.
Lancaster Labs, which has 500 employees, "recruits actively year round," says Hess. "If we find a good candidate and we don't have the right position available, we'll keep them informed when a position opens up. The environmental part of our business generally slows down in winter because of the weather in the Northeast. So we won't do a lot of hiring until spring." Lancaster Labs posts its positions on the Internet (http://www.lancasterlabs.com ). "We're getting résumés that way, and that's working very well," she says.
A spot-check of universities around the country suggests faculty positions are becoming more available as long-awaited retirements become a reality.
"If the activity at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is an indicator of trends," says chemistry department chairman Edward T. Samulski, "then the situation for academic job openings is very dynamic." Five chemistry faculty members at Chapel Hill retired in June, he notes, and the department has been authorized to search for three replacements this year, "at a time when there is a general hiring freeze within the college."
Prospective candidates will be expected to have interdisciplinary training. The department is looking for organic, physical, and analytical chemists who can" bridge disciplines" with molecular biology, materials science, and macromolecular chemistry, because" this is where curricula and funding seem to be going," says Samulski.
An early retirement package offered last year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has opened up more than the usual number of positions, says chemistry department chairman Stephen J. Lippard. MIT is looking for the best people in any area, but has "specific needs in theoretical chemistry, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry." The school hopes to make several appointments this year.
Early retirement incentives offered between 1991 and 1993 at the University of California system schools resulted in a fairly constant pattern of hiring during the past five years, says John C. Hemminger, a chemistry professor at UC Irvine. Between 1993 and 1996, his department hired five assistant professors and two full professors - in organic, physical, inorganic, and atmospheric chemistry. This year, he says, the department is planning to hire an atmospheric chemist and a physical chemist.
The University of California, Los Angeles, hired three junior faculty members last year - a biochemist and two physical chemists - and searched unsuccessfully for an inorganic chemist, says the chairman of the chemistry and biochemistry department, Charles M. Knobler. "We hope to make two senior appointments in organic chemistry this year, and we will probably be looking for a biochemist next year," he says. And the search for an inorganic chemist continues. However, all of this hiring will not give the department the number of faculty members it had before the UC system offered its retirement incentives, Knobler notes.
The list of chemistry departments with faculty openings goes on. A sampling: Duke University, Durham, N.C., is looking for two junior and two senior faculty members in chemistry, the latter to fill endowed chairs, says Steven W. Baldwin department chairman. Michigan State University, Lansing, has five faculty openin gs in chemistry and "has been authorized to fill all of them," says chemistry professor Harry A. Fick. Wayne State University, Detroit, also has five chemistry positions to fill and will be recruiting "every year for the next few years," says department chairman Richard L. Lintvedt. The State University of New York, Stony Brook, is looking "for people in bioorganic [chemistry], materials [science], and physical chemistry" to fill three positions over the next three years, says William le Noble, chemistry department chairman.
Harvard University has openings in organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry, according to the chemistry department chairman, David A. Evans.
Johns Hopkins University is looking for a junior faculty member in physical chemistry and a senior faculty member in organic chemistry, notes Paul J. Dagdigian, a chemistry professor there. And Colorado State University, Fort Collins, will be looking to fill a new faculty position in polymer chemistry, says the chemistry department chairman, Oren P. Anderson.
"Last year we didn't search," says Anderson," but only because we needed a breather from the terrific strain of putting togeth er start-up financial packages" - for the 11 faculty members the department hired in the six preceding years.
And, there's the academic rub. Start-up packages for new faculty members can run from $250,000 to $500,000 - or more, notes Duke's Baldwin. Hiring stakes have become so high and tenure expectations so severe that schools are looking for the "sure thing," he says. Most searches generate 100 to 200 candidates, he explains, but "interviews globally tend to focus on the same subset of five to 10' outstanding' candidates." Hence, the repetitive searches, he says.
"With the severe competition for federal funds, young faculty are generally not tapping into the funding stream until several years into their appointments," says Harvard's Evans. "As a consequence, start-up funds provided by universities must carry these individuals for a longer time than was experienced a decade ago. This situation naturally breeds a high level of conservatism in the appointments process. Everyone wants to hire the 'sure bet.'"
SUNY's le Noble puts it more succinctly:" We want people with proven grant-getting abilities," he says. "Three positions are all we can [recruit for], even though we lost seven people in the past few years."
Permission to search is no longer trivial to obtain from one's institution, notes a chemistry professor who asked that his name not be used. Among the obstacles, he notes, are decisions about areas in which to hire, a debate that "may tax the collegiality of departments, especially if searches are hard to come by"; space; and an ample supply of qualified grad students.
But, "the limiting factor in making appointments is not vacant positions but setup funds," says UCLA's Knobler. "In a time when university budgets are still constricted, it is hard to come up with this sort of money. And the problem is exacerbated by the increasing difficulty that young faculty have in obtaining grants."
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