Graduate Schemes

‘Tis the season to advertise graduate schemes, and Target Jobs seems to be the place to find them. Here’s a selection:

£33k + £3k settling allowance + relocation – BP (closes 28^th Dec)

£29-39k – Schlumberger

£29k – Unilever (23^rd Nov)

£28k + £2k joining bonus – Mars (1^st Nov)

£27.5k + £1.5k joining bonus – British Sugar (31^st Jan ’13)

£27k + £2k allowance – Nestle (3^rd Dec)

£27k + joining bonus – Kraft Foods (9^th Nov)

£25.5-27.5k + £2k joining bonus - Akzo Nobel (31^st Dec)

£25-27k – Civil Service Fast Stream (30^th Nov)

£24.3k – Tata Steel (7^th Jan ‘13)

£23.4-26.3k – Johnson Matthey (31^st Oct)

£23-29k – Tessella (open)

£22.4k – Atomic Weapons Establishment (open all year)

£22.4k + £3k relocation - Croda

With posting light here at the moment, take a look over at SeeArrOh’s website, JustLikeCooking for more inspiration of what can be done with a chemistry degree, or follow along using #ChemCoach on Twitter.

5th October Graduate Jobroll

A quick round-up of other positions available to graduates with little work experience, advertised in the last couple of weeks.

Hertfordshire: Production chemist (£23-25k + shift) to work in a manufacturing environment.

Cambridge: Customer service advisor (£17-18k) for a 1-year contract at a manufacturing company.

Liverpool: Synthetic chemist (£18-20k) with reporting responsibilities.

Dorset: Graduate chemist (£20-25k) to work on electrolytic capacitor technology in the new product development team. R&D chemist (£25-32k) positions are also available for PhD qualified candidates – relevant work experience desirable.

Cambridge: Graduate publishing editor (£23k) at the Royal Society of Chemistry. Degree or PhD required.

3rd October Graduate Jobroll

A collection of industrial placements and graduate schemes (mainly advertised on the RSC’s ChemistryWorldJobs).

Kraft Foods is offering both a rotational graduate scheme and a selection of industrial placements (6 and 12 months available). The adverts are light on detail, but their website offers more information. Graduate schemes are available in 5 key areas – the most relevant to chemists being Research Development & Quality. Within this is the chemistry department, which “offers chemical and physical measurement to characterise composition, functionality and nutritional value.” The starting salary is a healthy £27k (plus a graduate joining bonus), with a minimum of 27 days holiday and other incentives available. Industrial placements pay £16.3k for the year.

Novartis is offering industrial placements at their Institute for Biomedical Research in Horsham. Their website indicates up to 5 one-year placements are available within Global Discovery Chemistry – in the medicinal, large scale, parallel synthesis or exploratory chemistry teams. Also advertised on their site are positions for entry-level graduate medicinal chemists.

Johnson Matthey’s Precious Metals Products division is offering its rotational European graduate programme (£27-30k), open to graduates and postgrads. With the opportunity to rotate across locations in Europe, a second language (German or Dutch) is required. Relevant work experience highly desirable.

The Civil Service Fast Stream has opened for applications to its 2013 intake. Working at “the heart of current affairs and key government agendas”, the graduate fast stream has an option specifically for science and engineering. The four-year programme consists of multiple short placements in the first two years, to gain a broad experience; before undertaking two longer placements over the next two years. Applicants require a 2:2 degree, and the scheme is open to graduates of all ages. With a starting salary of £25-27k, and a potential salary of over £45k on promotion (typically after 4-5 years), this is an incredibly competitive grad scheme. 

26th Sept Graduate Jobroll

The graduate jobroll continues with a selection of positions away from the fumehood.

A personal care company is looking for a technical services associate (£24-26k) in the City of London, to manage manufacturers and stakeholders to ensure the quality and compliance of their products. This regulatory/quality role requires a degree, and will apparently “catapult you into the stratosphere”.

A Cheshire-based separation science company seeks a chromatography technical sales consultant to sell and support products and solutions to customers in New Zealand. Includes business travel. Requires a degree or PhD.

A Bristol-based supplier of scientific instruments is recruiting a chemistry graduate to the role of sales executive, pitching to the research industry in UK and Ireland. Includes frequent travel to meetings and exhibitions. Masters or PhD required.

Recruitment agency SCI is hiring an apprentice scientific recruitment consultant (£18-20k), to be located in Cheshire. With an OTE of £40k, this is an attractive option for a graduate looking to move away from the bench.

2nd Aug – Graduate Jobroll

Part two of the Grad Jobroll looks at office-based positions requiring little or no experience.

Two chemical emergency responders (£20-26k) are sought by an environmental consultancy company in Oxfordshire. Working in a shift pattern to provide 24/7 cover, the excellent communicator will provide information to callers dealing with chemical emergencies in the UK and abroad. There may also be the opportunity to get involved in consultancy work and project management.

Future Science Group is looking for an assistant editor in North London to work on their biomedical publishing portfolio of journals. An excellent opportunity to start a career in publishing.

A speciality chemicals company in Derbyshire is recruiting a graduate chemist (£17-18k) to provide support to their technical and sales teams. Duties include taking orders, providing quotes and dealing with technical questions. Includes opportunities to assist with conferences, exhibitions and symposia.

A company in Northamptonshire seeks a chemistry graduate – project manager (£18-22k) for a 9-month contract. Although requiring a good understanding of synthetic chemistry, the role appears to involve the coordination of synthetic chemistry projects for clinical trials, including collating study information and producing protocols. Knowledge of the clinical trials process, through placement or final year project required.

A graduate planning and scheduling engineer is required at a manufacturer in Worcestershire. Planning orders by coordinating with sales, production and operations, the role also involves learning the engineering processes being scheduled and developing IT systems.

Tessella are (again) looking for graduate scientific software developers (£23-29k) to join them in Stevenage, Abingdon and the USA. I like plugging this company because the more chemists we get working in software development, the better: there are far too may poorly-designed, user-unfriendly, feature-lacking (or over-loaded) programs that we have to endure as scientists, because there hasn’t been enough customer (chemist) input in the original design and development process. So, go learn a programming language (Jave/C-variants/VB/.NET/Python) and help save our sanity! Plus the role offers 20 days training a year, travel and extended work at customer sites and secondments. Oh, to be 21 again...

1st Aug – Graduate Jobroll

As if to make up for the recent drought of adverts, the job boards overfloweth this week – indeed, this week’s Grad Jobroll is a two-parter. First up, lab-based jobs requiring little or no experience.

MedPharm, a pharmaceutical development company in Guildford, are offering two roles. They’re looking for pharmaceutical scientists at all levels – from junior to those with 5 years pharm dev experience, and a graduate quality assurance scientist. Details are scarce, but the company itself develops therapeutic systems for topical drug delivery.

Syngenta in Bracknell are also hiring at a range of levels - from recent graduates to experienced chemists - for the role of formulation chemist (£23-31k). Duties include the design and characterisation of new agrochemicals, from lab to production scale, as well as supporting established products.

A firm in Oxfordshire that designs batteries for electric cars is hiring multiple chemists (£23-28k) to characterise materials, perform assembly operations and make measurements. This is a basic role, requiring only an A-level understanding of chemistry, and industrial experience (placement?) is essential – but for the salary, it may be worth an application.

17th July Graduate Jobroll

It’s been slim pickings on the job boards over the last couple of weeks, but here are a few offerings of interest.

Two government agencies are recruiting this month. The Food Standards Agency is looking for a number of office-based scientific officers (£22k) to interpret scientific information, provide advice and briefings, and help develop scientific policy. Based in London, degree required. The Food and Environment Research Agency is seeking a human and environment safety scientist (£25k) for a 3-year contract in York, planning and performing regulatory studies for human exposure to various chemical sources. Degree required, closing date 20^th July. Both roles may be appropriate for graduates, especially if an industrial placement or independent research was carried out.

Novartis are hiring entry-level medicinal chemists at their biomedical research facility in Horsham. A first degree with no industrial experience required; more experienced candidates may be considered.

A waste management company in East London is hoping to recruit a site chemist (£17-25k) to carry out the inspection and assessment of hazardous waste as it arrives on site. Chemistry qualification required; industrial experience (including placement) is advantageous but not essential.

A company carrying out high throughput screening in Glasgow is looking for a Scientist I, Production to help prepare and run HTS assays and ensure reagent inventories are kept up-to-date. HNC/HND/BSc required; prior experience not needed (0-2 years experience).