Go to graduate school, learn more Chemistry
I may apply to graduate school within the year, it's not too advantageous from a salary and general job availability consideration, however, it would definitely aid in becoming an expert in a variety of fields as opposed to being confined to becoming well versed in one special area. As far as administrative positions go, a B.S. degree seems to be equivalent to an M.S.; the prospect of getting into industrial research seems to favor the M.S. candidate a bit more. Yes, until now, I've been referring to the industry, one definitely needs to progress up the ladder from B.S. to M.S. and even towards a PhD to flourish in academia, even perhaps, to survive in it; you're not going to be a graduate student forever.
Chemistry is just more fun with a M.S. degree, one can be more versatile with it that's for sure, even in industry. I can hope to become a research scale industrial Chemist, however, I would be competing with all of the other candidates out there on the level of intelligence, and it won't be so easy getting into an R&D department of a reputable company which is doing research that is of interest to me. One would have to be pretty creative with a B.S. Chemistry degree to sustain oneself as an R&D Chemist with the authority to conduct research and provide advice on an independent, non-supervised, level of work.
Since I'm not too talented in research, the main incentive for attending graduate school is soley to learn more Chemistry. If it was strictly a pay basis, graduate school shouldn't be substituted for experience in the industry; some people get paid a meager $18,000 a year during their session in graduate school, then don't really find a job with an M.S. degree since they are expected to know a lot more. I know of a girl who came out of University of California with an undergrad, and went to the University of Iowa for her masters, she got paid the ~$18,000 a year and has graduated recently with a not too happy kind of look on her face. It seems that she didn't really develop much as a Chemist and now her sole option seems to be to become a community school professor.
