CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN SCIENTISTS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

  Dr. R. Saraswathi, Department of  Materials Science  
Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai - 625 021

  Introduction  

Every year a new group of science or chemical engineering graduates come into job market. Students are choosing science or chemical engineering for two reasons:  The main one is its appeal to young graduates due to new technological opportunities.  The other is attractive remuneration.  In fact, chemists and chemical engineers have regained their position among all bachelor-level disciplines as the top money-makers at graduation due to rapid industrialisation. On account of the improved prospects, science and chemical engineering departments begin attracting more number of  students.  Because of the time lag between when students enter college and when they graduate, the job market could undergo a change radically.  Hence when young graduates are in the job market they are forced to compete with each other for a decent placement.  

Tips for Job Seekers  

Advanced materials and environmental protection are growth areas for chemical engineering.  Cross-disciplinary research and work teams in, for  example, biology, physics or environmental sciences are to be pursued.  

Chemists and Chemical Engineers can find placement in the widest variety of Process Engineering Units.  They also face today, a challenging task at the higher managerial and technical consultancy level of services on an all India as well as State footing with regard to financial institutions, banks and development corporations where they seem to take little note of their own field of specialisation and expertise.  The Chemical Engineers and Chemists tackle the various branches of process engineering industries such as,  

  1. Organic and Inorganic Chemicals and organometallics  

  2. Plastics and Rubbers  

  3. Petroleum and Petro-chemicals  

  4. Oil, fats and paints

  5. Textiles  

  6. Papers  

  7. Leather  

  8. Solid Fuels

  9. Drugs and Pharmaceuticals

  10. Synthetic Chemicals and

  11. Nanotechnology

Secondary Careers

When a woman scientist or  engineer starts her career, she often finds that much of what she learned in college cannot be applied to the particular job at hand  at once.  Therefore many engineers and scientists, get the feeling that they have been over-trained.  Whether, in fact, this is so, quite a few discover that their skills and knowledge can be put to use in places other than on the job. One of the most satisfying types of secondary career is that which is based on applying one’s unused professional capabilities.

Being  an Industry Consultant

An engineer or a scientist who works for a large chemical company cannot usually, without conflict of interest, act as a consultant for other chemical companies.  But there are a  number of other industries in which her skills can be employed.  

For the extension of the economic life of the chemical plants she can render project management services involving construction, scheduling and quality monitoring of the projects from the start up to completion.

Serving as an Auditor  

Protecting Environment and Conserving Natural Resources

Women have been technologists and natural resource managers for centuries.  They are fully aware of the various species and ecosystems.  Hence they can contribute a lot in the environmental protection and  conservation of  natural resources to achieve cleaner and still cleaner environment.

Teaching

Women are most suited to take up teaching  profession in science and technology and be guides for undertaking research in various fields like, environment, chemistry, material science, engineering & technology, safety etc.

Working  as a Government Consultant

Today, many scientists and chemical engineers have become very familiar with solving waste-disposal  problem or pollution abatement practices.  At the same time, many small industries are confounded by these same problems.  Officials of local governments  usually do not have the technical skills to be able to properly evaluate the various options open to them.  Failure  can be most costly, as when statutory agencies force a  new small scale industry  be closed for expensive modifications.  Chemists and chemical engineers can play a vital role here not only in the identification of  problems but also in providing solutions to them.

Looking into a Small Business

In almost every community, there are small businesses that need capital investment to get started or to expand.  In some instances, new businesses are willing to take in small investors who have substantial technical skills to contribute.  Scientists and Chemical engineers can contribute their skills in such cases.

Becoming a Writer or Editor

There are hundreds of professional and semi-professional  publications that an engineer or a scientist can contribute to, either as a writer, editor, or both.  Here again, the income is not attractive, but the opportunities for recognition are good and the benefits of keeping abreast of the latest developments in her field of interest are significant.  

Most of us are forced to write many reports during the course of our daily jobs.  Our writing skills may not be great (at least not initially) but we have had experience in summarising the importance of what we have done.  

Writing for a magazine or journal is not too different.  One has to learn the requirements of content, style, length and so on, but once these are learned, and one has gained some experience, the task of writing or editing can become pleasurable.  The possibilities in this field are almost endless for those who have enough interest to learn the fundamentals.  

Setting the Goals  

She would have left college on a technical high.  Her goals, shaped by her professors, are to become an authority, to publish, to add something to the technical knowledge of her field.  

This is fine for the brilliant scientist or engineer who is mainly interested in research and who may eventually go into teaching.  But her grades are average and nonetheless, she takes a job in R & D.  For five years, she settles into becoming an expert in the role of a specific field of research in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering.  

Then, she decides to get an M.B.A. through part-time.  Now her goals are influenced by what the professors say at M.B.A school.  She decides to change jobs, so she sends out resumes detailing  her scientific expertise, also specifying that she is seeking a position “with profit and loss responsibility in general management.” This is what is called the career menopause: that is, a radical change in career objectives (usually too late in life to be achieved).  

At this stage, employers place more weight on both experience and education, so the chances are that her M.B.A. would help her much. The point is that she should not be overly influenced by anyone in setting her career goals.  She must decide what she thinks would be making her happiest.  

The Resume    

These young, academically brilliant chemists and engineers, start knocking at the doors of industries and institutions.  But when rejection letters are received, which is very common, they wonder what went wrong.  They are probably not effectively communicating their abilities via their resume and/or  during interviews. Therefore it is important to relay the pertinent qualifications to the potential employer.  One must make sure that a current style of resume is used. The state of new entrants remains almost similar.  Here are the suggestions to prepare an effective resume.

 

Keeping it Short

Sometimes the resume can be short.  So includes a card which induces the entrepreneur to seek more information.   Such a card returned is known as a “qualified lead” for a saleswoman, and she will be called soon to get “all the information’.  If the resume is written in this way one can easily keep it to one page, or no more than two. One may include just the information that will provoke interest and response.  

Writing  to the Point

Instead of beating around the bush, one should give only salient points of her research / project works, additional details which are relevant etc.

Explaining the Job Interest

To make her resume start right off with its sales pitch, she must avoid giving personal data which can interfere with the vital information.  Generally an employment manager will be much less interested in who an applicant is than in what she is.  Besides, if the resume is full with a listing of personal statistics it would inspire the employer less.  Also, if putting the age on her resume would give an employment manager another excuse for tossing it out let here not include it.  Let the chief engineer find out how old she is when he interviews her.  It’ll give her the chance to convince him that she is really too good to pass up.

Being Specific  

Although she won’t want to sting out her resume with excessive detail, this does not mean she should resort to glib generalities. By providing a very short resume she may miss the facts.  Above all a plain English is to be used avoiding semantics and engineering or scientific jargons.  If she is out of a job when finding one is tough, she’ll want to send out resumes that appeal broadly.  If, on the other hand, she  has a job but wants a promotion and a pay raise, she’ll probably have a certain position in mind, may be even a particular company.  Now she’ll tailor her resume suitably. She will stay with the details, but she will emphasise those that pertain more specifically to the job and the company.  

Covering  Letters Are Critical

The cover letter is no less important than her resume.  Too many excellent resumes are accompanied by skimpy, poorly worded cover letters.  When this happens, the first thought that probably crosses the employment manger’s mind is : a professional wrote the resume but the applicant did the cover letter herself.  

 She Should Be Different - But Not Too Different

There is no single best way of writing a resume. Her resume should be a summary of her qualifications and experience. No two resumes would look alike, it may not be a bad idea to purposely try to make hers different. Probably a differently light coloured bond paper, or proper arrangement of information or bold  & italic letters for headings will help.  

The Resume can also be Printed  

 

Getting the resume printed may be worthwhile.  A good printing job will give it a neat, crisp appearance.  Some companies will print the resume attractively with a computer composer.  

One should be ready to write her own resume by keeping in practice.  It’s a good idea to update her resume periodically even if she is not looking for another job.

Summary

Opportunities for women can be summarised as below :

 Acknowledgement  

The author wishes to express her gratitude to Dr.C.S.Balasubramanian, Joint General Manager ( Technical and Engineering Services ),  Madras Fertilizers Limited,  Manali, Chennai 600 068 for fruitful discussions on this subject.