Whether you're looking for chemistry jobs, summer
internships or research opportunities, the Internet
provides a wealth of information.
Several Web sites offer chemistry or science-specific
job boards and permit job seekers to post resumes.
These sites also share industry trends and interviewing
techniques. Some give guidance about potential
salaries.
Over the last few years, the number of college
graduates using the Internet to find jobs has
soared. A survey by the American
Chemical Society found that nearly a quarter
of new graduates with a B.S. in chemistry used
the Internet to find jobs in 2001, up from 3 percent
in 1996.
"Any time you're doing a job search, you have
to use all means available to you-whether it's
a first-time job or mid-career or advanced career-from
personal networking to print ads to online job
boards," said Mary Funke, former general manager
of the American Chemical Society's JobSpectrum.org
site.
JobSpectrum.org offers career resources for professional
chemists and chemistry students. Job seekers can
post resumes, search job listings, browse employer
information and receive e-mail alerts for new
jobs. The site also provides tips on evaluating
the job market and describes strategies for networking
and interviewing. Most services are free even
if you're not an ACS member.
Campus
Center, part of JobSpectrum, is tailored for
students, teachers and employers. Campus Center
helps students plan careers and find jobs, internships
and post-doc opportunities. It assists faculty
in showcasing students and aids employers in finding
entry-level talent.
Students can post resumes on Campus Center for
top companies and chemistry departments to see.
The job board lets students try a broad search
or narrow their search using keywords.
Funke recommends key word searches because drop
menus may just cover words that an employer highlighted.
Using a key word search, a job seeker could find,
for example, all entry-level pharmaceutical positions
in sales in Indiana.
ACS members have the additional benefit of calculating
potential salaries. The ACS
Salary Comparator computes a range of full-time
base salaries by factoring in experience, education,
professional specialties, types of employers and
geographic locations.
Students seeking internships and summer jobs
can search the ACS online version of the Directory
of Experience Opportunities. Updated each
fall, the directory lists internships, summer
jobs, fellowships and cooperative education (known
as "co-op") programs.
The National Science
Foundation, for example, runs the Research
Experiences for Undergraduates Program, which
gives schools grants to finance summer research
opportunities for students.
"If someone goes to school far away but is home
for the summer, they can look for a school near
them," said Emily Thompson, education assistant
in undergraduate programs at ACS. "If you're at
a smaller school, you might have the chance to
do research at a larger school."
Job seekers also can also check out classified
ads in another ACS publication, Chemical
and Engineering News.
"If I were a chemical professional, I would always
follow Chemical and Engineering News," Funke said.
"I would always follow JobSpectrum, and I would
pick one or two other science-related sites, such
as MedZilla
or, if you're looking for European opportunities,
sciencejobs.com."
Chemistry graduate students and professionals
interested in academic jobs can use The
Chronicle of Higher Education. You can link
onto jobs from there or go directly to http://chronicle.com/jobs/.
In addition to locating jobs, searchers can use
the Internet to investigate a potential employer.
Students can find company information at JobSpectrum.org's
Campus Center or go directly to a company's Web
site. Job seekers also can find financial information
and company news at Hoover's,
Inc. A company name search for Procter & Gamble,
for example, turns up a "capsule" summary that
says P&G is the N