How can you be more adaptable in your analytical chemistry career?

To stay adaptable in your analytical chemistry career, embrace new technologies, continuously update your skills, and be open to learning. Stay curious, ask questions, and seek diverse projects to broaden your expertise. Networking with professionals in your field and attending industry events can help you stay informed about emerging trends. Flexibility and a proactive attitude will make you more resilient in the ever-evolving landscape of analytical chemistry.

Don't get type casted. Analytical chemists are often treated as technicians and not given the roles and responsibilities they're capable of. Step forward with validation and method development as a strength and show that instruments are only the surface of your depth of knowledge.

Don’t be afraid of pursuing a non-conventional path in your career. Start by trying different things, working with different people and research lines, seeking opportunities both in academia and industry, getting out of your comfort zone. Working and learning different techniques is extremely helpful in analytical chemistry. The sooner you start, the better. The truth is change always comes, and those who have more experience will be in a better position to adapt faster.

To stay competitive in analytical chemistry, stay updated on technological advancements, continuously learn, explore multidisciplinary approaches, develop programming and data analysis skills, adopt green chemistry practices, and engage with industry trends. Network, collaborate, adapt to regulatory changes, seek professional certifications, participate in conferences, and seek mentorship. Explore emerging fields, contribute to research publications, attend professional development workshops, and cultivate a curious mindset to stay at the forefront of industry developments.

Be a chemist first, analytical chemist second, and address challenges with the right tool. Try not to be boxed in as a mass spectroscopist, chromatographer, or electrochemist,.... It's important to go deep with a tool or two but knowing what the other tools can do will help you solve evolving measurement problems. As others have said, technology advances quickly and it is fun to keep up.

My first few posts in my scientific career were in analytical field (healthcare) and for those work in that field know how much is crucial to follow the rigorous rules in that world. The word "unexpected" often means bad, if not catastrophic, news where someone life is on the line. Yet, there were situations where uncharted territory must be crossed. Start handling the situation by being calm, define what you know and build next steps on it. Be logical, mindful, and realistic about what you can do, without letting your fear or uncertainties slowing you down. Lean on reliable methods but be open to take risk provided you come prepared for it. Recognize that sometimes you need to start somewhere so you can gain momentum.

My first area was in water quality in a Fish Hatchery. This gave me experience in doing field testing which later became part of earning a graduate degree. Keep an open mind and embrace the uncertainty.

Analytical world is constantly on the move: high demands, various investors/players, expanding workforce, integrated automation, and well entangled market and scientific fields network, all that resulted in growing field of applications with parallel growth in techniques and instrumentation. Many techniques found new applications in fields that they were not designed or developed for in the first place, thanks to interfacing physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, and much more. Therefore sharing lessons and expertise, and be open minded about new (something unusual) ways of supporting certain technique can be very rewarding.

This field is codependent on technology and is therefore always changing and moving forward. It is important to stay current and network with others.

In my own experience, the years I spent developing analytical expertise became my best expertise investment that I have ever done. That expertise and mentality was and continue to be very useful in supporting activities in both academic and industrial posts in the following years. Analytical skills and expertise are very important in conducting research in any field. The need to address "why" will always be followed by "how", that's where we will need analytical skills to apply and innovate ways to quantify observations, so we can draw conclusions. It is important to expand our experience to many fields, so we can learn how certain technique works in certain application, then consider new application that exploit its strength points.

Never use the phrase, "That's not in my job description". Always ask questions and constantly seek out ways to increase your responsibility in the workplace. At best you will discover you are great at something that you may not have known even existed!

Analytical career, just like any other field, can always be affected by mistake and failures due to various factors, including human error, sample preparation error, faulty procedure, instrumental error, misuse or inefficiency, and many others. Learning from mistakes is crucial for both individuals and institutions. It opens the way to improve performance, fix faulty procedure design or application, improve instrument utilization/maintenance, ensure accuracy, increase reliability and boost client confidence in the analytical outcome. It is important to build mutual trust environment where all players feel safe to share their experience with failures so correction measures can be made, and be taken seriously.

Learning new analytical techniques can be a daunting prospect but taking an approached based in critical parameter management, can be applied to almost any analytical method. Listing the input variables, outlining the measurable responses, and applying DoEs, is a great approach to method development regardless of the technique.