Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Me and my husband are currently living in Canada but are not happy here and are thinking of moving to the UK.
My husband is a polymer chemist,so can anyone suggest which would be the best city to move to find work in this field? We would love to be close enough to london so that we can commute..but in a town that has the 'countryside' feel.
And of course rent is a big issue! Canada has drained most of our money so we need a city which is not very expensive in terms of rent.
Any suggestions would be great from someone who works in a similar field in the UK..or from anyone who knows which are affordable towns to live in!

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Depends what sort of polymer chemist, but I would say Merseyside and Humberside are the areas with the plastics feedstock capability as far as I recall.

Does he have access to the Institute of Materials jobs classifieds or something similar, that would be a good starting point. I suspect most manufacturing is away from London, but really Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle etc have attractive features and can offer stellar value for money.

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Thanks so much for your reply,have you lived in the UK? I'll take a look into the cities that you suggested.
Do you work in the polymer field also?

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

I left the UK 13 years ago. I'm a materials scientist by training, so have a passing interest, but my speciality is ceramics.

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Which part of the UK were you living in? I used to live in Surrey. We've been in Canada for 5 months now(my husband is Canadian) and my husband has had no luck finding a job in his field even though he has a master's degree in polymer science from Germany. So that's why we've been thinking of moving to the UK,but were not sure of this industry in the UK. Do you think the UK has more opportunities in this field?

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Ive lived in a few bits, Merseyside, Home Counties, Yorkshire, Norfolk. I used to live in surrey (as a kid) and one brother is there, its nice for sure, but short on industrial jobs, and the cost of property there is scary.

The job market is tough everywhere Im afraid. Canada has its peculiarities as far as landing a job goes, a lot of it is networking and utilising contacts... there is a lot of info on job seeking in Canada in the wiki. I would keep an open mind on the job front and keep looking both places. 5 months isnt all that unusual for finding a job Im afraid.

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

miranecola

This is a link from a job site which gives you and idea where the jobs are in your husband field. My back ground is nuclear chemistry, so I in a different field than your husband. It took 18 months for me to find a chemist job when we lived in Canada.

http://www.reed.co.uk/Job/SearchResu...1&FromSector=1


Hudd

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Most of the major companies employing polymer chemists, Unilever and Croda, are based in Cheshire / Merseyside. There is also ICI in Middlesbrough. I agree that Reed Scientific seem to be the best place to look.

In my searches I saw a couple of jobs in Essex, but there is very little south of Birmingham. I think you will have to forget about commuting to the capital. Also, house prices in the South -East are extremely high. London is extortionate.

However, depending on your husband's qualifications and experience, he could consider doing a PhD. They are always available and are good for future career development. Learn lots of new skills, do cutting-edge science and it looks great on the CV. The salary is tax-free (paid quarterly) and guaranteed job security of three years / four years is a good plus, particularly in the current recession.

Downside is once you start you ideally have to stick with it and that can get a little tense and stressful if things are not going well in the lab. Research can be become all-consuming, which is unhealthy. Also, industry seems to be about 20 years behind research institutions and want simpler commercial products such as adhesives and resins. There is a danger that you can become too cutting-edge, which may hinder your job search in the future. Therefore you have to choose wisely.

Good luck with the move.

LSP

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Plus the stipend is usually at a subsistance level, at least it was back when I was a post grad student.

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

Thanks everyone for the very useful information. We looked up all of your suggestions and found quite a few useful ideas.
If anyone can think of anything else that may help us it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Re: Which city for Polymer Chemist?
 

You say that Canada has drained most of your money and I really wonder if that situation would not prevail here too. Irrespective of job opportunity it is the balance of the salary and costs that makes the difference. If you really just want to come to the UK then actually it does not matter what you do and you may reflect that you could abandon your field of work as it could be restricting you. You should not fear changing careers. I worked in a large cable plant in NW England which had a PVC factory in it - closed; all gone and all of us re-trained into new careers and did better out of it.