Over the years I have interviewed many hopeful candidates for a position of entry level BS/BA bench chemist in a synthesis lab.  Recently, I have interviewed a couple of candidates for synthesis chemist position and have refreshed myself with the challenge. 

It is surprisingly difficult to find and hire a decent candidate for position as a synthetic chemist at the bachelors level.  In fact, I am having trouble finding fresh BS/BA graduates that can show me the mechanism for the acid catalyzed hydrolysis of an ester, or can suggest a reagent for the reduction of benzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol.  These are fundamental transformations and a BA/BS in chemist should be able to go to the board and noodle through a little bit of arrow pushing.

Most of the candidates sent in by our favorite temp agency are analysts either by temperament or by experience.  Granted, analysts may be the meat and potatoes of the temp chemist trade.  But what astonishes me is the small number of candidates out there with more than 2 semesters of organic chemistry and an even smaller number with any inorganic lab experience at all. 

In previous searches we have looked for BA/BS people from an ad in C&EN.  Rarely did we find that students had taken an advanced organic class/lab, let alone an organic qual class.  I know that such classes are offered out there.  Are all of these bachelors level students who take advances coursework going to grad school or med school?  Maybe most of them are.

As a former supervisor of undergraduate research, I am tickled pink that bachelors students are getting experience with advanced equipment, but we still need to graduate people who can make a target molecule and fish it out of a product mixture.  I’m glad that Bobby or Suzie can do capillary electrophoresis or use a peptide synthesizer to make a decapeptide.  I just hope that a few students are learning how to take a substrate through at least two steps of a literature procedure synthesis and then purify by fractional distillation or a recrystallization.  Furthermore, I hope that chemistry departments are still hiring an occasional mainstream organic chemist or inorganic chemist who can pass along lab techniques.

Perhaps the bachelors organikkers are drawn to grad school for advanced education.  That is what I did.  But I’m still shocked by the number of bachelors level candidates I see that show very little retention of organic concepts, apparently the result of disuse in their junior or senior years. 

Part of this problem might be geography as well.  My region does not have the industrial legacy that other regions have.  Perhaps the situation might be different in NJ, CT, or TX. 

Sorry. I’ve filled the position, so don’t send a resume.