I am currently a college student majoring in chemistry and physics. I have about 3 semesters remaining of my coursework and I am begining to look around for employment opportunities. I am finding that companies are not looking favorably on academic lab experience. Right now I have three full years experience in the lab in general, organic and analytical chemistry. Employers are seeking people with relavant "work" experience and most do not consider academic experience relavant. I would like to voice my opinion to the contrary. Anyone who has taken a college level chemistry course knows the demands set forth for success in the course, often times these demands are more pressing than those that can be found in the work world. All students are required to analyze samples using various aparatus setups and instrumentation and have strick duedates or "deadlines" to meet along with all experiments. I feel confident that my expereince in the academic lab has prepared me for the real-world lab environment and urge employers to consider this as a possibility.
