Does Anybody have a Career in Science or Natural Resources?

Question

I'm really interested in becoming a scientist.

If you would, could you please answer the following:

Name:
Company:
Job Title:

Describe your job:

What you like most about your job:

What you like least:

Personal and Educational Requirements:

Working Hours (paid and unpaid):

What was Most Helpful in Preparing you for this Job:

How Important are High School classes/grades/attendance etc. when applying for this job:

What Other Jobs can be Done with the Same Background:

How Can I, a High School Student, Prepare for this Career:

If you feel uncomfortable providing me with your name/company publicly, please contact me at [e-mail].

Answer 1

Name/Company: I'm not giving this out over the internet. If you need it for a school assignment leave your email address and I will send it to you.
Job Title: QC Chemist II

I analyze medications at a pharmaceutical company, using chemistry. Most of what I do involves HPLC, but I also do gravimetric tests and others such as Karl Fisher. I analyze different properties of the medications, like % water content, impurities, and potency (make sure it has the right amount of active ingredient).

It's hard for me to say what I like most about my job right now, because I am very close to leaving. I guess I would say what I like most, is the short commute :( I also like doing the more challenging projects, like impurities.

Company politics aside, what I like least about my job is the monotony. 90% of the time I am doing basically the same thing over and over. I would like a job that is more challenging and more stimulating.

QC Chemist I requires a bachelor's degree in chemistry or a similar subject. Chem II also requires a year or two of experience.

I work 40 hours a week. Overtime on the weekend is paid, but during the week it is not paid.

Anybody who can follow directions can do this job, because we follow test methods that have already been established and can't make any decisions about how to test things. It's like following a recipe. The chemistry background helps, so that people understand why to do something a certain way.

High school is unimportant. What is important is what college classes you took, and to a lesser extent your college GPA. Once you have a college degree, almost any job isn't going to care about what you did in high school.

With the same background, you can have a similar job at a biotech company, a chemical manufacturer, or possibly other places like cosmetics factories. You can also do research, either for a company or for a university or private research center.

In high school, you should take the hardest math and science courses available to you, to prepare for college. I was a biochem major, and went to college orientation with other bio-related students. Many of them failed the entrance exams in math and chemistry and had to take remedial courses the first quarter, which is a little bit of a setback that you can avoid by trying to learn as much as you can in high school.

Answer 2

I do not have time to answer this now, as I am going off line. I will save it and answer tomorrow. I am an ethologist. A person who studies animal behavior in the wild. Until Friday, then.