<p>Maybe its because I went to a college that was very strong in the sciences, but my fellow BS Biochemistry friends had no problems finding jobs after graduation. Most of them work for Celanese and Emory, and a couple got jobs with the CDC in Atlanta. They don’t get paid a whole lot…think like ~32k ish a year, but you do get benefits, trust me. The work is usually menial testing and lab work. You basically do all the grunt work for the MS or PhD above you.</p>
<p>Getting a PhD greatly improves your pay, but the key is is choosing which field you want to go into. Getting a PhD in biochemistry doesn’t really mean you can get any biochemistry job you want…its the specialization and research you do during your candidacy that determines where you’ll end up and what your job prospects will be. </p>
<p>As for professors…well, I’m speaking just for my school…and the state of Georgia has an open records law that lets you view all of the salaries of state employees so these are actual numbers. The lowest salaried professor I had last year was paid $70k, the highest was paid $298k, and the median seems to be around $90 - 120k. There is a huge correlation between research and salary in University professor positions. If you’re tenured, run and active and highly published research lab on campus, then you can expect being paid along the higher side of the scale. If you’re a new professor, not tenured, or just starting up…expect to be paid along the lower side for a few years, until you get the gears turning and cranking out significant research.</p>