For several years, I’ve given presentations to both collegiate and high school chemistry students on all sorts of careers in chemistry, not just those in laboratory research or collegiate professorship. Both the one-page outline, “Careers in Chemistry (or Is That Chem Diploma Worth Anything?)”, and a discussion based on it are now posted both on Gary Wiggins’ Chemical Information Sources Wiki (accessed June 2007) and as a link from the resources page for the Careers Committee of the Division of Chemical Information (accessed June 2007). Since it is assumed that collegiate professors at least have more first-hand experience for mentoring on laboratory and collegiate careers, “alternative careers” are stressed. The excellent book by Lisa M. Balbes, Nontraditional Careers for Chemists (3), is also a valuable resource.¹

Career mentoring is an important function of educators. I encourage educators in chemistry at all levels to utilize these resources and others cited therein to mentor students about the wealth of careers available to chemistry graduates.²

Notes

1. I’ve reviewed this book in CHOICE (4). Cheryl Frech recommended this book as part of Summer Reading in the June 2007 issue of JCE (ref 5, p 917).
2. To help others with career decisions, I make “road trips” to give presentations on chemistry careers topics.

Literature Cited

1. Caswell, M. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 169.
2. Buntrock, R. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 431.
3. Balbes, L. M. Nontraditional Careers for Chemists; Oxford University: New York, 2006.
4. Buntrock, R. E. CHOICE 2007, June, #44-5650.
5. Pagni, D.; Frech, C.; Coppola, B.; Kovac, J.; Harris, H. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 916–923.