I ' m a college professor at a predominately undergrad school in chemistry and I have to beat into my students all the time the things they need to do to be marketable when they get their degree . If you take on REUs , do extra research at the school , keep your GPA above a 3 . 5 , use your available electives to specialize within the field , network your ass off , and don ' t mind moving to where you find a job what any scientist needs to do , regardless of degree , you WILL get a job in the sciences . I have several students a year get jobs in the sciences with a BS and I work in a very small department at a lowranked state school . The problem I see is students who don ' t do research , don ' t excel in their studies , don ' t specialize with their electives , and won ' t leave 10 minutes from mom ' s house . That won ' t get you a degree in any field generally but retail andor food . And a lot of advisors don ' t tell students this , because they assume it is intuitive . It ' s not for a lot of people .