Gibonius
Stylish Dinosaur
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2009
- Messages
- 25,155
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I know we have a number of people here in the sciences and we don't really have a relevant career thread. I'd be interested to hear some other people's stories.
For me: I got my PhD a few years ago in physical chemistry. My wife is also a chemist, and I got a teaching job for a few years after graduation while waiting for her to finish. She finished up and got a nice government postdoc. We landed in the DC area, which is a great area for scientists, but I didn't manage to time anything to start at the right time and am still looking. I want to transition out of teaching, and don't want to do academic research (not that I'd get a job as a PI anyway to be realistic). I'm not really sure I understand industry yet, trying to figure out how to sell myself and my skills. I understand the procedure for academics and government but industry is a different story. I'm still learning which companies are even in my field, which certainly makes things interesting. Been spamming resumes, working the contacts network, but unfortunately most of my contact system from grad school was in academics from the nature of who I met rather than by design. Got some good leads in government but they're damn close about hiring and they all seem to be freaking out because of budget issues and such.
Not frustrated yet, but it's a dense web to penetrate. My set of skills puts me into the defense/aerospace industry, and lots of great looking jobs require a security clearance which of course I don't have yet.
For me: I got my PhD a few years ago in physical chemistry. My wife is also a chemist, and I got a teaching job for a few years after graduation while waiting for her to finish. She finished up and got a nice government postdoc. We landed in the DC area, which is a great area for scientists, but I didn't manage to time anything to start at the right time and am still looking. I want to transition out of teaching, and don't want to do academic research (not that I'd get a job as a PI anyway to be realistic). I'm not really sure I understand industry yet, trying to figure out how to sell myself and my skills. I understand the procedure for academics and government but industry is a different story. I'm still learning which companies are even in my field, which certainly makes things interesting. Been spamming resumes, working the contacts network, but unfortunately most of my contact system from grad school was in academics from the nature of who I met rather than by design. Got some good leads in government but they're damn close about hiring and they all seem to be freaking out because of budget issues and such.
Not frustrated yet, but it's a dense web to penetrate. My set of skills puts me into the defense/aerospace industry, and lots of great looking jobs require a security clearance which of course I don't have yet.