It's also a good field to get into. This is because there are always jobs open in the field. They range from things as simple as technicians to full-blown chemists. There are also many specializations in chemistry, from agricultural chemistry to water chemistry.
What kind of job a potential chemist wants both dictates and depends on what kind of education that they get.
A chemical technician can get away with a 2 year degree. But, that doesn't give them a lot of job opportunities. A chem tech is the person who sets up the lab, takes care of the grunt work like washing the equipment and does all around maintenance work. There aren't a lot of career opportunities for a person with a 2 year degree. It's a way that someone could work their way through school.
A person who has a bachelors degree has many more options available to them. One is that they can teach at a high school level. This is a good way for someone who has a passion for both teaching and chemistry. A person who has a bachelors degree in this field can also do more assistance on the experiments. They may go further on setting up the lab and the experiments. They will require less supervision than a basic tech will. There are more opportunities for advancement. This is a better way for someone who wants to be a chemist to get in and get experience in this field. It's also a necessary degree for anyone who wants to go on and go further. A bachelors of art of a bachelors of science is needed to get into graduate school and go further.
A person who wants to be a chemist needs to go to graduate school. There are two levels of degrees at the graduate level. Those are masters and doctorate, or Ph.D.
A person with a masters degree has many, more opportunities. They can teach in college, at the undergraduate level. They can also be research chemists. A person with a masters degree with work directly under a Ph.D. They will supervise the techs that work in the lab. They will work with a minimum of supervision by the higher ups in the lab. They can write their own experiments and their own results, though the proposals and results may need to be run past the doctor in charge to make sure that they are OK.
A person who holds a Ph.D has the most opportunities and careers available to them. They can tun the lab. They write proposals and do the research. They make sure that the people who work under them are doing the work write. Some people who have doctorates in chemistry will work in administration, depending on what they specialized in.
The people who make advances in almost everything are chemists. Chemistry is directly responsible for many things, from developing lifesaving medicines to helping develop ways to create greener energy sources. Without chemists and chemical research, there aren't advances.
