Scientists With M.S. Degrees Find Good Career Prospects In Industry

Prospects In Industry For the scientist who left graduate school holding a master's degree, career prospects in industry look good, according to those involved in corporate hiring. A primary reason for this, they note, is that industry openings at the master's level aren't suffering from a mismatch of supply and demand. Ph.D.'s, on the other hand, are graduating faster than university faculty positions are opening up, and the business world is not picking up the doctoral-level researchers left behind. 'LOTS OF JOBS' : Placement officer Catherine Connor says that in many cases, opportunities are better for master's scientists than for Ph.D.'s "At the master's level, there are lots of jobs. The opportunities are better than for Ph.D.'s," says Catherine Connor, director of placement for the Biotechnology Center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "Master's students are being hired. I don't want to say [they are being hired] in preference over Ph.D.'s, although in some cases it appears that way." 'A RISING STAR' : Recruiter David Jensen says M.S. jobs can be found in applied science, operations and manufactoring. "The master's degree is somewhat of a rising star; the Ph.D. is somewhat tarnished," concurs David Jensen, managing director of Search Masters International, a Sedona, Ariz.-based recruiting firm specializing in the biotechnology industry. "I think you'll find there are lots of jobs in applied science, in operations, and in manufacturing types of jobs [for master's-degree holders]." Jensen says that of the 40 to 50 candidate searches his firm conducts each month for employers, eight to 10 involve looking for people with master's degrees. The job search for the M.S. scientist is complicated because companies may not be explicit about the degree requirements of the most desirable candidates. For example, employment ads frequently combine B.S. and M.S. degrees as the educational requirement. In other ads, an M.S. or Ph.D. degree might be listed as a prerequisite, leaving open the question of how employers evaluate the master's degree. Is it a step beyond, but similar to, a bachelor's degree? Or are the graduate studies leading to a master's viewed as advanced knowledge approaching that of a doctorate-holding scientist? "We like master's-degree scientists," says Barbara Carter, senior director of human resources at Genetics Institute in Cambridge, Mass. However, her company routinely combines the B.S. and M.S. degrees in ads: "We list the [educational] qualification that way to cast a wider net." Carter explains that her company looks at years of education and work experience as somewhat interchangeable, so a recent master's-degree graduate will be seen as roughly equivalent to someone with a bachelor's degree and two or three years in the work force. "The master's degree is a plus in most cases, which gives you a jump on someone with just a bachelor's," she states. Tony Dekovich, a business analyst for Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, Calif., notes that such attitudes on the part of employers are an obstacle that M.S.-holding job applicants must overcome. "The biggest challenge for somebody with a master's degree is that you have to live with knowing that you've not done enough for the recognition of a Ph.D. and done more than the B.S. scientist, although the master's-degree people are often lumped together [with the bachelor's degree rather than the Ph.D.]," observes Dekovitch, who holds two master's degrees-one in biology and an MBA. OPEN OPTIONS: Pharmaceutical company scientist William Wernau says the M.S. degree offers versatility. The scientist with a master's degree offers more versatility than the B.S. graduate, according to William Wernau, director of biophysical processes for Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Groton, Conn. Versatility is important, he adds, because project assignments and the skills that scientists must bring to their projects are changing more rapidly than they did 20 years ago. "Earning a master's gives [someone] the chance to get more in-depth training in a particular area. [And] they've already demonstrated the ability to 'do' science," not only learn and understand it, he says. The degree also provides greater breadth, making it easier to communicate with the diverse mix of scientists who often constitute a project team. In addition, going beyond the bachelor's degree opens up more career paths, master's-degree holders say. For example, Kenneth Kodilla, who earned an M.S. in medical microbiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has worked for Lee Laboratories, a Grayson, Ga., manufacturer of immunological diagnostics, since 1983. Kodilla was a quality-control supervisor and quality-assurance manager before becoming manufacturing manager, the position he holds today. "A bachelor's would not enable me to pursue my career the way I would want to do, while a master's enabled me to get some graduate work and do research" before going into the work world, he comments. Brook Morse, an associate scientist in the bioprocesses research group directed by Pfizer's Wernau, holds a master's degree in molecular biology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Morse says she stopped her education with a master's degree because she believed it would be more compatible than a Ph.D. with her plans for marriage and a family. "After seeing other women with Ph.D.'s, I thought it [a doctorate] wouldn't fit with that lifestyle," Morse states. In particular, she didn't want to live like one woman professor she encountered in graduate school, who seemed to be always working on grant applications and spent such long hours in the office that she sometimes brought her children along and put them in a playpen alongside her desk. In comparison, the prospects of regular hours that scientists with master's degrees can usually anticipate seemed more attractive to her. Money can also be a reason to forgo a Ph.D., even though Conner and others say that the starting salary of someone with a life sciences doctorate is usually $10,000 to $20,000 greater than the starting salary for a scientist with a master's. Kodilla decided against a Ph.D. because the "financial return" didn't look favorable. With four more years of school and then postdoctoral work at low pay, he calculated that it would take 15 years to make up the money he could make by taking his master's and going to work. The long-term opportunities for scientists with a master's degree look good, according to human resources personnel and company scientists who hire and supervise master's scientists. Positions typically filled by those with a master's range from laboratory research to clinical studies to jobs involving production-related assignments. RESEARCH AREA: Wyeth Randy Miller notes clinical opportunities for scientists holding master degress. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories employs a large cadre of master's-degree scientists in several areas, notes Randy Miller, director of training and organizational development for the Radnor, Pa.-based pharmaceutical company. "These individuals [in quality assurance] are responsible for internal audits [of government-regulated activities] to make sure we're in compliance with the regulations. They have to keep track of the infinite details that must be followed to meet [Food and Drug Administration] expectations," explains Miller. Additionally, Miller points out, clinical studies are full of opportunities for scientists with master's degrees in biology, chemistry, nursing, or other life sciences. At Wyeth, "regional clinical associates" work in the field as company liaisons with the physicians and patients involved in clinical tests of new drugs. "Clinical scientists" help design clinical studies of new drugs, often on a team with a higher-level scientist or manager responsible for all aspects of a drug's development and testing. "The clinical scientist will write the protocols-the procedures for the study-or, once the protocol has been accepted, will monitor the study results and handle questions from the physicians involved in the study," says Miller. How high up the career ladder can the scientist with a master's degree climb? What Connor hears from her placement-center vantage is that it depends on the employer. "Some [companies] will tell you that the master's [scientist] will be promoted and get good raises for the first seven years, then begin to level off. But others say that if someone with a master's wants to keep moving up, they can do so." At Pfizer, according to Wernau, some M.S. scientists have had the opportunity to move into laboratory leadership positions usually occupied by Ph.D. researchers: "It may take a little longer to get there, but the options are there for a master's scientist with the ability to supervise people and lead projects" if the M.S.-holder has been with the company for a number of years. A new Ph.D. graduate may be a somewhat greater risk, Wernau comments, noting that "the people-skills part of a job is often neglected in science education." Genetics Institute's Carter says her company will also consider promoting a master's-level scientist into the Ph.D. job family, "although it's unlikely they'd ever head a major research group of, say, 35 people. All of our senior technical people have Ph.D.'s." But Kodilla of Lee Laboratories believes that companies today-in contrast to 15 years ago, when he earned his master's degree-increasingly require a Ph.D. to advance. "If I left the company tomorrow, I feel it would probably replace me with a Ph.D.-trained scientist," he says. "I do worry that 10 years [or] 15 years down the road I will want to move and won't be able to," because he lacks a Ph.D. A prejudice, attributed mainly to academics, that a master's degree represents the "failed" pursuit of a Ph.D. may also hold back some careers, although Carter believes that attitude is fading. "It was more prevalent 10 or 15 years ago, in part because there were far fewer master's programs, and the degree was frequently given to a student who hadn't succeeded in progressing toward the doctorate," she notes. "I think there's definitely a pecking order," says Amgen's Dekovitch. "All of the [Ph.D.] people I've worked with have been very good people and don't hold their degree over others. But I've seen others be very authoritative and dictatorial." Ironically, some Ph.D. scientists now seem to envy the master's scientist. With Ph.D. positions in some fields drying up, more people with doctorates are applying for positions for which an M.S. is listed as the educational requirement. For example, Jensen says that over the last year or two, he has seen ads for a molecular biologist with a master's degree typically drawing 500 responses-with 90 percent of them from Ph.D.-holding scientists. Some of these Ph.D. applicants are those born and educated outside the United States who are seeking experience in the U.S., remarks Genetics Institute's Carter. These international scientists might be considered for M.S. positions simply because a doctorate earned in some countries may not be equivalent to one earned at a U.S. university. But she says her company would never place an American-educated Ph.D. scientist in an M.S. position. "It wouldn't be compatible with their degree, training, and the expectations of what a Ph.D. should be able to do," she comments. At least one company has disagreed with Carter's assessment. David Malehorn, director of the molecular biology group for Midland Certified Reagent Co. in Midland, Texas, says he advertised in the spring of 1994 for a scientist with a bachelor's or master's degree to work the night shift in the DNA synthesis and gene cloning operation he supervises. Of some 200 scientists who applied for the position, Malehorn was "shocked" that more than half held Ph.D.'s and had postdoctoral experience. The company, he continues, decided to take advantage of this interest from Ph.D.-level scientists and hire one-yet it still offered the M.S. salary that had been budgeted for the job. "That person experienced a certain amount of exploitation," says Malehorn, although he adds that, with overtime pay, the compensation approached what a Ph.D. might expect to earn. Unless more companies adopt the same strategy of hiring Ph.D. scientists for master's-level positions, the job market should remain good for the master's scientist for some time, predicts Search Masters' Jensen. Industry is spending less on basic research and more on product development, the area in which companies use more people with master's degrees than those with Ph.D.'s. But, corporate employers stress, a successful career calls for more than just a degree-whether master's or any other. Declares Pfizer's Wernau: "I've always believed that a degree helps you get hired, while your performance on the job determines how far you'll go." Lee Katterman, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is editor of Research News, a publication of the University of Michigan.

Scientists With M.S. Degrees Find Good Career Prospects In Industry

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April 1996

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