After 2.5 years of working in research and development (R&D) in the chemical manufacturing industry, I turned in my two-week notice on June 25, 2021. My last day will be July 9, 2021.
In a few weeks, I’m starting my PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study chemistry, with a focus on materials science.
This was my first “real” job after graduating from college in 2018, and it was also my first time officially leaving a job. I’ve had internships and research positions throughout undergrad, which were temporary positions and so they all had a natural ending.
During my meeting with my manager, I struggled to say “I am moving on to a new opportunity.” I started tearing up out of both nervousness and gratitude. I felt grateful for the opportunity to work in my field as I decided if whether grad school was for me. This job provided me with work experience and helped me build a strong financial foundation before going to grad school.
In this post, I wanted to share some important lessons I’ve learned while working in the chemical manufacturing industry.
Developing Industrial knowledge
For context, I worked in technical service within R&D. It’s similar to customer service because we resolve technical issues for the customer in the lab. We also developing our own formulations or methods to improve current market applications. Most of my work was very hands-on and application-based.
I learned a lot of technical skills in the first few months of my job. Over time, I noticed that I started working mindlessly and was simply going through the motions. On top of that, I felt like I still didn’t fully understand what I was doing or why.
Eventually, I realized that I wanted to provide more insight and analysis instead of generating samples and data. I needed to improve my knowledge by proactively honing my industrial knowledge.
First, I scheduled time to learn more about the industry and common practices and analytical techniques. Eventually, I realized that the best way to learn is through doing.
Gradually I participated in bigger projects with more customers and different market issues. I started learning through experimentation and was collaborating with other parts of the company, such as sales, engineering, and marketing.
In industry, it’s not enough just to know the books. It’s important to understand what’s currently being done and why someone would want a new application. By combining my critical thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity with industry experience, I learned to provide better insight and analysis.
The product of R&D is reliable, ready-to-go data.
My manager constantly reiterated that the product that R&D “sells” is reliable, ready-to-go data. Our job is to look at the facts and numbers. We must be careful not to twist or sugarcoat the results to suit other departments’ goals or biases.
He also described R&D as “lunchmeat.” For example, one day upper management called him to an internal meeting unexpectedly. He only had 15 minutes to prepare a presentation. Later, he told me that some chemical companies see R&D as “lunchmeat.” This means that we should always have data ready to present.
As chemists, we value creating reliable data. Although it can be annoying to present the data unexpectedly, it’s a good idea to have a general presentation prepared. The presentation can be ready to go with accessible data sets ranging from the big questions to small details.
Gathering all the info ahead of time and organizing made it easier for our team. When an unexpected meeting pops up, we don’t feel so much pressure or scramble to assemble data or slides.
R&D is not always valued in the chemical manufacturing industry
My manager used another analogy that I’ll never forget. He referred to R&D as the “middle” or “step-child” of the industry. It’s not a great analogy because it perpetuates certain stereotypes about parenting, but what he meant is that R&D gets the short end of the stick, especially when it comes to budget, salary, and recognition.
Companies see R&D as a “cost center” because they do not bring in any direct sales. Companies compare their progress with manufacturing (which produces tons of products) and sales (who get new customers to buy high volumes of product), but the goals of manufacturing, sales, and R&D are vastly different.
Some companies might even view R&D as expendable, especially during a bad economy. My coworkers told me that they had gone through multiple cycles of lay-offs in the past 20 years.
Sometimes it seems that other departments don’t understand the amount of work involved in R&D or the scientific process. At my company, the R&D lab is in a different city from the corporate office. People in other departments don’t see us in action, so they might not know what the R&D process entails. When they see a presentation from us, they see some slides with graphs and numbers. But they don’t see the amount of work it took to generate such data. For example, it typically takes at least 2 weeks to a month to acquire reliable data.
With R&D, it can be difficult to show quantifiable and tangible results. We may indirectly maintain sales by keeping the customer happy, but it’s rarely recognized.
Know when to be resourceful vs. efficient.
The great thing about working in the industry is that there are plenty of financial resources, especially at the beginning of the fiscal year.
However, there were times when parts were discontinued or too expensive. In these cases, we used our creative side to come up with a cost-effective solution.
For example, we have a tensiometer in the lab. A tensiometer measures the surface tension of liquids by using a platinum rod with a small plate (Wilhelmy plate). The Wilhelmy plate must be rinsed with DI water and burned with a butane torch. This ensures that plate is clean and will not affect the accuracy of the surface tension readings. Since it is a metal that is heated, the rod gets very hot quickly. Instead of holding it and risking burns, we found a weight with a small hole in it and used it as a holder.
That said, there were times when being resourceful was not efficient. In our lab, we use a lot of plastic bottles for our samples. When I first started at this job, I asked my colleagues how they washed it. In my previous lab, washing was the golden rule. They told me that it was easier to throw it away instead of washing it. They could always buy more instead of spending more time washing. This is an example of when efficiency matters more.
I attempted to reduce waste in the lab by suggesting that we wash, instead of trash, the bottles. This seemed like a good idea to me at the time. However, I realized that contamination could become a major issue if washing was not done sufficiently. Rather than risk sabotaging our future experiments, we decided to wash and recycle them instead.
Safety is a part of the work culture.
In the past year, I coordinated and wrote many standard operating procedures and lab safety reviews. When a new experiment or instrument came in -even if the chemical or product seemed tame, we needed to review it.
In general, the chemicals that I work with daily are non-toxic, non-hazardous, and non-reactive. My manager said he prefers to avoid chemicals that require extensive safety reviews and encourages us to find alternative solutions.
Some people may be jaded and have a “things have always been done this way” attitude towards safety. Corporate culture and safety officers can enforce policies, but everyone is responsible for encouraging others to observe lab safety.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I wish that I had taken a better inventory of all the things I’ve learned while in the industry. Hopefully, this gives you some insights into what it’s like to work in the industry.
If you have any questions about my experience in the chemical manufacturing industry, feel free to email me at hello@brittanytrinh.com!