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Is a chemistry degree worth it?

I initially wanted to study medicine, however i feel like the work life balance is bad and there are so many other things i want to do other than just working extensive hours every day therefore i now want to study integrated masters degree in chemistry. I enjoy chemistry a lot, i have liked it since GCSE and I’m currently studying A level chemistry. There is so much negativity around the major, like people say there are no jobs and most are low paid. Also many people regret studying it saying its nothing like A level chemistry and just have a bad experience overall. So i’m quite confused right now and unsure what to look forward to I feel like giving up on medicine is a bad decision due to job security and everything. Can anyone share their experiences?
Work life balance is a feature of your job, not your degree. Your degree will not necessarily determine your job, and most graduates go into roles unrelated to their degree.

The first thing you need to determine is if you actually want to be a doctor. If not then there's no point considering medicine, regardless of job security. Equally if you do want to be a doctor, nothing else is going to allow you to become a doctor or do that job so accepting the working hours is part of what being a doctor is. However it's also worth bearing in mind not all specialties have the same working hours and some may simply be largely 9-5 (or 8-6) jobs with little or no out of hours requirements. And it's up to you to determine what you want to specialise in, and work life balance is a major consideration for doctors when considering their specialty areas as I understand.

Regarding chemistry, its also important to bear in mind if you enjoy chemistry and want to continue studying it, there's really no other degree that allows you to study chemistry in a substantive manner. So it's really your primary choice if you don't want to be a doctor but do want to continue studying chemistry.

However as above, your degree doesn't determine what job you do. While lab based roles with just a bachelors/MChem are probably going to be more limited in scope and lower paying, with a PhD and experience you may be able to live comfortably. Equally with just a bachelors/MChem you could just as well go into any generalist grad scheme in e.g. accountancy, the civil service, law and legal services (e.g. patent attorney work), other financial services, banking or management consulting, etc, etc. You have a lot of choice in determining how you want to balance salary vs work-life balance there. While most will be unrelated there may be scope in some to leverage your scientific background (e.g. in the civil service - which I gather struggles with recruiting for STEM related roles in general currently?).

Reply 2

Original post
by artful_lounger
Work life balance is a feature of your job, not your degree. Your degree will not necessarily determine your job, and most graduates go into roles unrelated to their degree.
The first thing you need to determine is if you actually want to be a doctor. If not then there's no point considering medicine, regardless of job security. Equally if you do want to be a doctor, nothing else is going to allow you to become a doctor or do that job so accepting the working hours is part of what being a doctor is. However it's also worth bearing in mind not all specialties have the same working hours and some may simply be largely 9-5 (or 8-6) jobs with little or no out of hours requirements. And it's up to you to determine what you want to specialise in, and work life balance is a major consideration for doctors when considering their specialty areas as I understand.
Regarding chemistry, its also important to bear in mind if you enjoy chemistry and want to continue studying it, there's really no other degree that allows you to study chemistry in a substantive manner. So it's really your primary choice if you don't want to be a doctor but do want to continue studying chemistry.
However as above, your degree doesn't determine what job you do. While lab based roles with just a bachelors/MChem are probably going to be more limited in scope and lower paying, with a PhD and experience you may be able to live comfortably. Equally with just a bachelors/MChem you could just as well go into any generalist grad scheme in e.g. accountancy, the civil service, law and legal services (e.g. patent attorney work), other financial services, banking or management consulting, etc, etc. You have a lot of choice in determining how you want to balance salary vs work-life balance there. While most will be unrelated there may be scope in some to leverage your scientific background (e.g. in the civil service - which I gather struggles with recruiting for STEM related roles in general currently?).


I understand that but what i mean is with chemistry degree i can work hybrid jobs and have more flexible work hours.It would take quite long as a doctor to get to that point of specialisation especially because my interest is specifically in surgery.
Original post
by cocoroses123
I understand that but what i mean is with chemistry degree i can work hybrid jobs and have more flexible work hours.It would take quite long as a doctor to get to that point of specialisation especially because my interest is specifically in surgery.

Several points -

Doctors begin their specialty training after completing the foundation programme, 2 years after completing the medical degree.

You shouldn't decide on your preferred specialty before even beginning your medical degree, as regardless you will need to study and work across the whole of medicine for your whole medical degree and the foundation programme. Also necessarily all surgeons will work long hours and not wanting to work long hours but wanting to be a surgeon makes no sense - it's like wanting to be an economist but not wanting to do maths. Fundamentally I think you don't want to be a surgeon and have chosen it for less legitimate reasons such as perceived prestige rather than anything to do with the actual job itself.

Also hybrid working is very variable and dependent on the employer (and you wouldn't be able to work hybrid as a lab tech for example as you'd need to be in the lab) and flexible working is also employer dependent. However doctors can and do work less than full time including during training.

Have you done any medical work experience yet?

Reply 4

Original post
by artful_lounger
Several points -
Doctors begin their specialty training after completing the foundation programme, 2 years after completing the medical degree.
You shouldn't decide on your preferred specialty before even beginning your medical degree, as regardless you will need to study and work across the whole of medicine for your whole medical degree and the foundation programme. Also necessarily all surgeons will work long hours and not wanting to work long hours but wanting to be a surgeon makes no sense - it's like wanting to be an economist but not wanting to do maths. Fundamentally I think you don't want to be a surgeon and have chosen it for less legitimate reasons such as perceived prestige rather than anything to do with the actual job itself.
Also hybrid working is very variable and dependent on the employer (and you wouldn't be able to work hybrid as a lab tech for example as you'd need to be in the lab) and flexible working is also employer dependent. However doctors can and do work less than full time including during training.
Have you done any medical work experience yet?


Not much experience but i have been volunteering at a hospital. I wanted to go into medicine due to my interest in surgery specifically cardiac surgery. it’s nothing do with prestige I genuinely want to help people and I really enjoyed learning about the heart and surgery the process of it i find it intriguing. But obviously I didn’t do much research because medicine is something i wanted to do for a long time so i didn’t even think about the work hours or anything. I don’t know what to do honestly, like there are things i want to do like start side business art related and also go to pilot school for private license (random things) and i just feel like it won’t be possible with med school. With chemistry i’m mainly interested in research and more of the materials side. I need to apply this September so i want to make up my mind before its late and i have to rush everything.
Original post
by cocoroses123
Not much experience but i have been volunteering at a hospital. I wanted to go into medicine due to my interest in surgery specifically cardiac surgery. it’s nothing do with prestige I genuinely want to help people and I really enjoyed learning about the heart and surgery the process of it i find it intriguing. But obviously I didn’t do much research because medicine is something i wanted to do for a long time so i didn’t even think about the work hours or anything. I don’t know what to do honestly, like there are things i want to do like start side business art related and also go to pilot school for private license (random things) and i just feel like it won’t be possible with med school. With chemistry i’m mainly interested in research and more of the materials side. I need to apply this September so i want to make up my mind before its late and i have to rush everything.

Firstly I'd note cardiac surgery is largely disappearing as a specialty as I understand and I believe most current cardiothoracic training posts and substantive roles are for thoracic surgeons rather than cardiac surgeons. As a lot of stuff they used to do I understand is now treated by new drugs and less invasive procedures through catheter procedures.

Secondly if your aim is to "help people" arguably surgery is one of the "worst" ways to do that - you have fewer patients, and many will be "screened out" before they even get to be operated on due to being either not being sick enough or being too sick for surgery. Compared to e.g. public health (who conduct health programmes benefiting millions at once for massive cumulative benefit in years of lives saved), GP (who see far more patients and are often the first point of contact for patients who need care to determine who actually needs to be referred for specialist intervention), or things like radiology or pathology who conduct diagnostics to catch cancers etc early. The fact you picked cardiac surgery, which basically everyone has heard of and considers prestigious, suggests to me there were at least unconscious if not conscious biases in picking a specialty you consider "prestigious".

Thirdly if medicine is something you have "always wanted to do" how have you not done much research? If you really wanted to do it surely you would have spent a great deal of time understanding the realities of what doctors do, the real scope of cardiac surgery at present (limited evidently), etc.

Honestly from your comments, you don't seem to have considered medicine in a very deep way and just having a somewhat superficial attachment to it for a long time I don't think is a strong indicator to pursue it personally. I would recommend you spend some more time doing some actual research into medicine as a career, and doing some more work experience. At the same time you can explore your subject interests in chemistry a bit more and look at the varied careers chemistry graduates go into.

September is 4 months away, that's a very long time. However if you intend to study medicine you need to do work experience so you can reflect on that experience and think about what it is doctors actually do rather than what you perceive them to do.

Reply 6

Honestly, it has nothing to do with prestige but simply interest. We did a heart dissection at A-level, which made me want to learn more about it, and I just love everything about the heart and its functions. I would say that there was a point where I really wanted to do medicine, but I would say not as much as I used to. And I never researched much because I was always just researching how to get into medicine, never what happens after graduation. And yes, I want to help people, but whilst doing something I like, trauma surgery was also something I liked a lot, but again, something that requires a lot of hours. So I do believe that I had an attachment to it, but I was genuinely interested, but I guess maybe I don't like the process of getting there. And GP is something I didn't really want to do is because I wanted to work in hospitals and trauma centres, I'm surprised that I don't want to do it anymore like I used to, like for me, it was getting into medicine no matter what.

Reply 7

Also I hate A-level biology even though I'm doing it at A-level which is why I don't want to do anything to do with biology, but it's mainly the plants stuff that I don't like and species taxonomy all that stuff. My main interest is in materials and industrial processes right now, maybe i should consider chemical engineering.
(edited 10 months ago)

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