Whether they plan an industrial position or not, he says students should take an introductory course in business or economics. Chaodong Xiao, Ph.D. '92 - Senior Project Supervisor, National Starch and Chemical Co., Bridgewater, NJ, works on materials development, particularly curing mechanisms for adhesives. He has extensive responsibility for customer contact and problem-solving for internal and external customers. The diversity of the education in the Macro program was beneficial. Not many researchers know about many areas.
Schools tend to specialize, and some companies want that.
However in this type of company you need to be able to initiate a product and know the customer's needs. When you are hired you expect that, as a great Ph.D. student, you will be working on high-tech projects and that your research problem will be like those in graduate school. But once you have demonstrated your ability, you will have the freedom to do the things you like to after you have done the things you don't like to do. In industry, the problems faced may be broad in their scope, so you'll need a wider understanding of various aspects of polymers in order to approach the problem efficiently. The most important thing in industry is your personality, not your degree.