Question: chemistry is my favourite area of science what tips are there to help me get to where you are today

Will Reynolds answered on 11 Jun 2012:

Hi gpap08, thanks for your question, its great to hear you are interested in Chemistry. The first thing I would say is do as well as you can in your GCSE’s and A-Levels. You don’t have to be a straight-A student, but chemistry is quite an academic subject and you will need decent A-Levels (3 or 4 A-C) to get into university. Also if you haven’t chosen your A-levels yet it is a good idea to do at least one other science subject as well to widen your background knowledge.

When you are choosing universities go for one of the top 20 for chemistry, you can find these in several university league tables and searching by subject. They will vary but the quality and opportunities of each of their degrees are all pretty good. Make sure you are happy with the location of the university as well, because the city you live in will have as much of an influence on your degree as the subject! I would recommend you aim for an MChem degree (4 year masters in chemistry) as these are certified by the Royal Society of Chemistry and will prepare you well for research. During the degree try and get a placement either in industry or abroad as this can really help when it comes to getting jobs later on.

At the moment I am doing a PhD, which is a 3-4 year research degree after which I can hopefully have a career in chemistry research. If you get that far and decide you would like to do a PhD then usually you will need at least a 2:1 MChem degree classification to be accepted. It is also important that you chose a research area that you find interesting and a supervisor that you get on with, as both of these things will have a big impact on your motivation and enjoyment during those 3-4 years which can seem like a very long time if you are not having fun!

Aside from all the academic stuff just having a general interest in scientific developments and even who wins the Nobel prize each year can help. My boss likes to ask students about Nobel prize winners when he is doing interviews. Reading popular science magazines like New Scientist and Chemistry World, or going to public lectures can also be interesting and give you another perspective on current science issues.

Sorry that’s quite a long answer. If there is anything else more specific you would like to know that I haven’t covered please keep asking questions. Above all I would say that it is important to have other interests like sport, music and other non-sciency things to help unwind and forget about science from time to time, otherwise you go a bit crazy! I hope this helps.