If you aren’t on my mailing list or follow my socials, firstly, what?! But secondly, you will have missed the news. I got chartered status in my field ✨Chemistry✨. This is a reasonably big deal in the professional world, so let me explain.

You better believe it.

This girl is a chartered chemist!

What is chartered status/chartership

Chartership is an award that is recognised in the working world, that you are a reputable professional in the area you are chartered in. For companies, it’s a little stamp next to your name that says you have been assessed to be high performing, driven and actively contributing in your field, and it’s been verified. Chartered status is monitored, so every few years or so, they check that you are still worthy of holding this status, and if you aren’t then you lose the title, and have to go through the whole process of proving you’re worthy again.

For myself, it means in jobs that are looking for chemists my status says ‘Rue is a competent professional in chemistry, and is a trusted chemical professional’. This might mean in the interview they assess whether my personality, and character would be a good fit, rather than also checking my actual ability to do chemistry and apply the knowledge.

What did it take to get here?

I want to caveat that each subject area has their own chartership journey, so I can only talk about the chemistry journey, since that’s my subject of expertise. But I do know it’s very different from engineering and physics, thanks to my friends talking about their chartership journeys.

So, for me it took just over 8 years to get chartered:

Years 1 to 4

I spent these 4 years in a chemistry degree at a university that was accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Not all universities have this, and had I attended a university that didn’t, it would have taken me slightly longer to get to where I am now.

When I was on my placement scheme (year 3), the company I worked for had an accredited scheme for professional development, with the RSC. Some companies do offer this, and others don’t. The only thing this affects is your ‘user experience’. Since the company I work for has an approved scheme, it meant the mentor I was provided worked in the same company as me, so organising meetings was very easy. It also meant they knew more about the company than me, so could support me a lot more than if they were some random person outside the company (which is normal for other company experience). Also, my assessments (yes they have to assess you to prove you are worthy) were all done internally, so I wasn’t always meeting with strangers.

When I finished my placement scheme, I completed the first step in the RSC pathway. Which was the Registered Science Technician award. (RSci Tech)

Year 5

I started back at the company after finishing my degree (which was a master’s from an accredited university). So instead of taking 1 year to go to the next step, it meant I was automatically eligible to get the next award, without an assessment. If I had done the BSc at an RSC accredited university, then I still would have needed to do the 1 year of ork experience first.

This was the Associate Member of RSC. (AMRSC)

Year 6

I spent year 5 and year 6 gathering evidence for the penultimate step. I had to do my day job, but also keep record of my work and ensure I was understanding the chemistry that was going on in that work. I had to do an assessment at the end of year 6, where I was asked a series of questions based on the competencies I had to prove I had met. It was a 45 minutes conversation with the assessors, myself and my mentor. They kick me out for 10 minutes, so they can deliberate on whether I passed or not, and they tell me (along with my feedback) in those last 5 minutes.

My friends in the other STEM subjects are shocked that in the chemistry pathway, we find out there and then. But I have heard that they have to wait for months, which is way worse.

Anyways, I passed this and got my Member of RSC. (MRSC)

P.s. I nearly failed at this stage because I didn’t showcase my strengths and achievements well enough. So, all I can say is show yourself off. Moments like these are the time to be self-absorbed and pompous.

Year 7 – 8

The pathway in my company estimates that with the amount of work we do, and get exposed to, it takes 2 years to go from MRSC to Chartered. So, when my 24 month deadline came in July 2025, I did feel ready to go for the assessment. As with anything involving adults, the calendars needed to align. My date was changed 3 times, just because adulting life does that. 2 of those times were because of work/annual leave, so reasonable. But the last reason was because they read my evidence and said it wasn’t sufficient enough to pass me.

I was a little knocked down because I thought I would have to wait a few more months to collect more evidence, which takes forever. But they said how I described my work made it seem really simple, but they knew from the areas I was working in, that I was definitely doing some complex chemistry. But that wasn’t clear in the paperwork. And hypothetically, if the company didn’t have the accredited scheme, then the wording I had used in my evidence would not have been enough to prove that I am a very capable and professional chemist to the assessors who would not know where I work, and what I do.

Thankfully, it took me 2 weeks to turn that around. Bearing in mind for RSci Tech and MRSC I had to submit 5 pieces of evidence for the assessment, but for chartership I needed 14. To turn that around in 2 weeks was very impressive.

The Chartership assessment

I will admit, having done the RSci Tech and MRSC assessments, I knew what to expect in terms of the dynamic of the meeting. And since I knew 2 of the 3 assessors (since they were checking in on my progress), it made me feel less nervous. The questions focussed on checking how far my chemistry knowledge was based on my experience to that date. They pushed me to the edge of my knowledge on purpose, and that was the point. They asked me to explain points without using the evidence that I had provided (to prove that even with the date change, I was still working on things relevant to my development). Trust me, it sounds intense, but it really wasn’t. And again, it was 45 minutes, they sent me out to deliberate and brought me back in for the last 5 minutes.

And I passed. I got my Chartered Chemist (CChem) status!

Ironically, no part of my day job involves wearing a lab coat or being anywhere near a lab

What now?

My excitement for ‘reaching the end’ was short lived, as they recommended that later in the year, I should go for my Chartered Scientist (CSci) award. The good thing is that it only differs from CChem by 4 competencies, so since I have done the first 14, I just get assessed on the 4.

For now, I am living the high of being a Chartered Chemist. This does mean I can put those letters at the end of my name on everything (if I want). For now, my CV and LinkedIn have been updated, to let companies know I am even more respectable and professional (lol).

It has been a long journey, from starting my course as a student member with the RSC, through to becoming a full member with chartered status. In all of this, I met my mentor in year 3 and have had the same mentor the whole time, with regular check ins. I made sure to get them a nice thank you gift, because they had to put up with my whining and complaining at each stage.🤣 I do say that I was dragged through this process by the company, but maybe when I officially experience the benefits of being chartered (i.e. a promotion and/or new job), then I will definitely be more thankful of my company supporting me through this.

TL;DR

- I became chartered in my field and from starting my degree, to being chartered it took just under 9 years

- I became a chartered chemist, and haven’t set foot in a lab since completing my degree

Chartered status in chemistry