Chemist Jobs: Chemist Job Description, Chemistry Career, Salary

Chemist Jobs: Chemist Job Description, Career and Salary.

Are you looking to be a chemist and are looking for information on chemist jobs, chemist job description, chemist job career, salary and pay scale? This is the right place for you.

Here I explain complete information on chemist jobs including job description, career options and salary.

How is a Chemist?

A chemist is a science professional dealing with different chemical substances including drugs and medicines. A chemist has a number of career options. He or she can work in various fields like pharmaceuticals, research and development, mining, food processing, sewage treatment, etc.

Types of Chemists

There are different types of chemists - analytical chemists, organic chemists, inorganic chemists, medical chemists and materials chemists

Educational qualification requirements to be chemist include thorough knowledge of chemistry, mathematics and computers. If you want to be a chemist, you should have intelligence and ability to plan and solve queries, complex numerical skills. You also need to have good communication skills for interaction with other professionals. A chemist student should have good knowledge about composition of all chemicals and their structure, properties and the chemical processes.

I order to start your own career as a chemist, you must acquire a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry. After obtaining this degree, one may choose to teach chemistry in high schools to gain more knowledge. Experience as a chemistry teacher is an added bonus. Other option is to assist an established and experienced chemist. This will give your practical experience.

Remember, chemist jobs are among the high-paying jobs and if you want to go for some high paying jobs in this field, then you will have to acquire a Master's degree in Chemistry. A Master’s degree in Chemistry is normally a 2-year course after graduation. A doctoral degree in Chemistry may also be obtained.

I have already mentioned that a chemist is a person or a scientist who studies and analyzes composition of different chemical elements. A Chemist can work in a government firm for pollution control, agriculture and sewage treatment. A chemist can also work with a private industry dealing with production of textiles, cosmetics or plastics.

A chemist who specializes in inorganic chemistry may go for jobs dealing with inorganic substances like metals and minerals.

A chemist who specializes in organic chemistry may go for jobs related to analyzing and research on matters that contain carbon, plastic etc.

Medical chemist or pharmaceutical chemist may go for jobs to develop and produce medicines.

An analytical chemist analyzes composition of various chemical substances.

From the above job description of chemists, we can conclude that the job and duties of a chemist depends on the area he or she specializes in. Below is a list of different duties of a chemist.

• Plan and synthesize new elements.
• Working to optimize the quality of an existing chemical product.
• Prepare test solutions, chemical compounds and performing various laboratory tests.
• Carrying out various analysis tests of various chemical compounds and chemical substances.
• Interact with other professionals in similar fields like chemical engineers and scientists.
• Prepare test reports, technical papers and standard specifications for the chemical product.
• Processing obtained data to information using computer software.

Salary of a chemist depends on several factors including qualification, experience, specialization and type of employer. Below is a table showing salary of chemists. Please note that I have gone through various resources before preparing this salary chart of chemists. Salary of a chemist mentioned here is approximate based on various sources.

Salary / Pay Scale of a Chemist Based on Type of Employer and Years of Experience