Importance of the College GPA

OP tbh if you did what I did and dig through Kelly Scientific science section or dig through any of the major pharmaceutical companies and their employment websites, you will get an idea of what the current caustic environment of the job market is and how you can compete in it. Looking for chemistry related work to me automatically translates into doing bench top work where the bigger company you work for the more singular your role in the company i.e. a classmate of mine at Merck was working Western Blots 24/7 before he became a shareholder for his own small scale biotech company and now dangles multiple hats in the work place. If you work in academia, you will also get to work a wide variety of tests and play a wider range of positions due to you being exposed to the collective department, even though you will primarily be doing research under the professor that hired you. This is generally good for aggregate skill development. I think that small companies and start-ups are a good idea also since they usually don't get as many applicants for bench top work as other companies due to being unknown. You're going to know what you need from researching and contacting actual positions to field where you need to take your education in terms of grades, skills, or connections. The sooner the better.

Also Dan brings up a good point that you didn't exclude yourself to those professions, but rather you aimed your question in general about "jobs." I'm solely focusing in on my experience with chemistry interviews and jobs which was frankly this long road of anguish and being told I was young and should consider going back to school for a Masters. Two of my classmates who were both incredibly bright with nearly perfect 4.0 GPAs and a slew of experience are now working in Cornell doing Cancer Research and another was doing blood analysis on patients with prostate cancer. We all majored in biotech. If you're going to go into a more liberal related job, then yes having cross-diverse experience might be a good thing. For one, it is less likely that you will be competing with thirty five year old chemists with ten years of bench experience. You really need to dive in yourself and take back what you get from the whole entire thing. Most of the advice you will get from here though is from people still in the bubble of academia who are paying schools to tell them that their labor is valued. You should really try to figure out some companies you would consider working for and then shoot them a resume, asking them how they value your experience and what you need to do to meet their expectations.