Chemist Career Assessment

2What is a Chemist?

A chemist works at a bench and at an instrument. You prepare samples, run them through equipment like a gas chromatograph or a mass spectrometer, and interpret what comes out. In a quality control lab you test each batch of a product against a specification and sign off, or do not. In an environmental or water lab you test samples for contaminants. In research and development you try new formulations and see what holds up. A lot of the job is method work: following a written procedure exactly, keeping the instrument calibrated, and documenting everything so the result would stand up if somebody questioned it. O*NET lists titles like Analytical Chemist, QC Chemist, Forensic Chemist, Air Quality Chemist, and Research Chemist.

The Reality: Two honest things. First, the degree. O*NET reports 56% of people in this job saying a bachelor's degree was required, 30% saying a doctoral degree, and 10% a master's. So a bachelor's gets you in the door at a quality control or testing lab, but the research jobs, the ones people picture when they picture a chemist, mostly want a PhD. Second, the size. North Dakota has about 160 chemists in the entire state and is projected to have about 160 in 2034. That is about 10 openings a year. You may well have to move for the right job, or stay put and wait. The good news is that when you do land one here, the pay is real: the ND middle is $97,330 a year against a national middle of $91,240.

Your Responsibilities:

• Prepare and run samples on lab instruments
• Follow written test methods exactly and document every step
• Calibrate and maintain instruments and troubleshoot them when they drift
• Test products against a specification and release or reject batches
• Analyze data and decide whether a result is real or an error
• Investigate why a batch or a test failed
• Write reports, method updates, and lab records
• Follow chemical safety and hazardous waste rules

Somebody downstream is trusting your number. That is the job.

3A Day in the Life

7:30 AM — Gown up. Check the overnight instrument runs and the queue.

8:00 AM — Calibration standards on the GC. Two are out of range. Rerun them.

9:30 AM — Prepare twelve production samples. Weigh, dilute, label.

11:00 AM — Start the run. Write up yesterday’s results while it goes.

12:00 PM — Lunch in the break room, away from the bench.

1:00 PM — A batch came back out of spec. Start the investigation.

3:00 PM — Pull the raw data, check the prep steps, find a pipetting error.

4:30 PM — Document the finding. Sign the lab notebook. Set up the overnight run.

Indoors, methodical, and quieter than most jobs on this list.

4Training in North Dakota

A four-year chemistry degree is the floor. North Dakota has good ones. You need a bachelor’s degree in chemistry or a very close field. Look for a program that is ACS certified or ACS accredited. ACS is the American Chemical Society, the national professional body for chemists, and its stamp tells an employer that the degree covered the full range of chemistry with enough lab hours. North Dakota has more than one of these, which is not true of every field on this list.

Training Pathways:

• Two years here, then transfer (4 years total): Start at NDSCS or BSC on a chemistry transfer track, then finish the bachelor’s at NDSU, UND, or Minot State. This is the cheapest way through and the credits are built to move.
• Straight to a four-year chemistry degree (4 years): NDSU, UND, and Minot State all offer a chemistry bachelor’s, and all three describe the program as ACS certified or ACS aligned. This is the standard route into quality control, testing, and environmental lab work.
• Bachelor’s plus graduate school (6 to 9 years): If you want research and development or a principal scientist track, plan on a master’s or a PhD, since O*NET shows 30% of people in this job reporting a doctorate. UND lists a combined BS/MS in chemistry that takes five years total.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Chemistry, BS, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. NDSU says the department is fully accredited by the American Chemical Society and offers programs leading to an ACS-certified Bachelor of Science degree — ndsu.edu/programs/undergraduate/chemistry
• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — BS in Chemistry, ACS certified, 120 credits, with seven emphasis tracks. UND also lists a combined BS/MS in chemistry completed in five years and a separate BS with a Major in Chemistry — und.edu/programs/chemistry-bs
• Minot State University (Minot) — Chemistry, BA, and Professional Chemistry, BS. MSU says the BS is aligned with American Chemical Society guidelines, and lists Chemist, Environmental Scientist, and Soil and Plant Scientist among its career outcomes — minotstateu.edu/enroll/programs/chemistry
• North Dakota State College of Science (Wahpeton) — Liberal Arts (Chemistry Transfer), AS, plus Biological Science, Biotechnology, and Physical Science transfer degrees. A cheap two-year start toward a chemistry bachelor’s — ndscs.edu/academics/programs
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Chemistry transfer program, plus Water and Wastewater Technology for people drawn to the applied testing side — bismarckstate.edu/academics/programs
• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — graduate chemistry programs, for the master’s or doctoral route into research and development — ndsu.edu/programs/undergraduate/chemistry

Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. Take chemistry, physics, and math through pre-calculus if your school offers it. You will need calculus in college, and organic chemistry is the course that sorts people out, so build the study habits early. Careful hands and patience matter as much as raw smarts.

Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota may be able to help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.

5Certification & Licensing

There is no license to be a chemist in North Dakota. This surprises people. Unlike engineers, nurses, or soil classifiers, chemists are not licensed by the state. What stands in for a license is the accreditation on your degree and, in some labs, the accreditation of the lab itself. Here is what actually carries weight.

What Employers Look At Instead of a License:

• An ACS-certified degree — the American Chemical Society reviews chemistry programs and certifies the ones that meet its standards. NDSU and UND both state their BS in chemistry is ACS certified or ACS accredited, and Minot State says its Professional Chemistry BS aligns with ACS guidelines
• Hands-on instrument experience — time on a gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer, HPLC, or ICP is what hiring managers ask about. Undergraduate research and lab internships are how you get it
• Good Laboratory Practice and quality system training — most regulated labs run under a documented quality system. Employers train you on theirs, but showing you understand why documentation matters helps you get hired
• Hazardous materials and lab safety training — required at essentially every employer, usually provided on the job
• A graduate degree — for research and development work this functions as the real credential. O*NET reports 30% of chemists saying a doctorate was required
• Specialty certifications — some niches, such as forensic or environmental testing, have their own credentials. These vary by employer and by lab accreditation, so ask a specific employer rather than assuming

The Exams: There is no state chemistry exam. The closest thing to a gatekeeping test is organic chemistry and the ACS standardized exams some programs use in their courses.

Cost: No licensing cost. The degree is the cost. A two-year start at NDSCS or BSC followed by a transfer is the least expensive route through.

Keeping It Current: Nothing to renew, because nothing is licensed. Keeping current means learning new instruments and methods, which employers usually pay for.

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Chemist Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $25.02–$30.28/hour ($52,050–$62,990/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $46.80/hour ($97,330/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $57.15–$63.62/hour ($118,870–$132,330/year)

What that means: North Dakota published full data for this job, so these are real ND numbers. The ND middle is $46.80 an hour, about $97,330 a year, which is ABOVE the national middle of $91,240. That is unusual on this list and worth noticing. But look at the bottom of the range before you celebrate: the ND 10th percentile is $52,050 and the 25th is $62,990, both under the national figures of $58,460 and $69,460. What that spread tells you is that entry-level lab jobs in North Dakota start lower than they do nationally, and then ND pay catches up and passes the national number in the middle of a career. The ND top end of $132,330 is below the national top of $160,830, because the very highest-paying research jobs are not here. Plan on starting modestly and climbing.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 160 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 160 (about 4% growth). Expect about 10 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 5% growth — faster than average.

Outlook: Steady but very small. North Dakota is projected at about 160 chemists in 2024 and about 160 in 2034, roughly 4% growth, with about 10 openings a year. Ten openings a year across the whole state is thin. This is not a field where you graduate and pick from five offers in Bismarck. It is a field where you watch the postings at a handful of employers, or you look at Minnesota and beyond. Nationally the picture is slightly better at about 5% growth and 6,300 openings a year.

Who Hires in ND: Oil refineries and gas processing plants, coal and power companies, agricultural and fertilizer companies, food and beverage processors, the ND Department of Environmental Quality, the ND Department of Health laboratory, city and regional water testing labs, private environmental and analytical testing labs, hospital and clinical labs, and the universities.

Work Setting: Indoors, in a lab, nearly all the time. Bench space, fume hoods, instrument rooms. Lab coat, safety glasses, gloves. Some labs run shifts, including nights and weekends, because instruments and production do not stop. This is the least weather-dependent job in this group.

Physical Demands: Low to medium. Standing at a bench for long stretches, fine hand work, and careful lifting of solvent bottles and gas cylinders. Good color vision helps with some tests. You must be able to work safely around chemicals and follow hazard rules exactly.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 19-2031); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Lab Technician or Analyst — Entry level, sometimes open to a two-year degree. Sample prep and routine tests.

Path 2: Quality Control Chemist — You test batches against specification and release or reject them.

Path 3: Analytical Chemist — You own the instruments and the methods, and you develop new ones.

Path 4: Environmental or Forensic Chemist — Specialized testing for agencies, labs, or law enforcement.

Path 5: Lab Supervisor or Quality Manager — You run the lab, the schedule, and the quality system.

Path 6: Research Scientist — New products and new chemistry. Usually needs a master’s or PhD.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• ND middle pay of $97,330 beats the US middle
• Three ND schools with ACS-recognized degrees
• Indoor, climate-controlled, weather-proof work
• Clear specification: the answer is right or it is not
• Skills transfer to any state and many industries
• A cheap two-year transfer start exists

What's Hard:

• Only about 160 chemists in the whole state
• About 10 ND openings a year
• Research jobs mostly want a PhD
• ND entry-level pay starts under the US figure
• Organic chemistry stops a lot of people
• Shift work in some labs

Be Honest: Can you get through calculus and organic chemistry? Are you patient enough to repeat a careful procedure exactly? Can you accept about 10 openings a year in North Dakota, and would you move if you had to?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Chemist Assessment Results