I'm in the UK and am a PDRA in polymer chemistry. Desperate to get out. Would like to transfer to some type of coding. Pay and job security is far better. Just trying to work if I can manage with pay cut to a more junior role. It's not that I'm unsuccessful, I published plenty and work at a top institute. It's just that the jump from PDRA to permanent is impossible and I'm not interested in industrial chemistry
I've worked with a few chemists turned engineers, for some reason you lot always take to coding fantastically well. I suspect any pay cut you take would be quite temporary.
Interesting observation. I wonder if it's because chemical reactions read a lot like function calls. Complex reactions look a lot like programs written in some arcane language
