June Scientiae: Call for Posts! May 10, 2010
Posted by rocketscientista in Scientiae.2 comments
Hey there everybody. This month, I’ll be hosting the Scientiae Carnival. If you don’t already read it, you should, and if you haven’t contributed, now’s your chance to get in on the fun! The general thought is Scientiae posts explore “women in STEM”, but there are a lot of ways to contribute- we like to have guys jump in on the conversation, too!
Last month, we all talked about all those humps and bumps on the way to success, and now it’s time to celebrate getting through it! The theme for June’s Scientiae Carnival is:
I’ve been watching a lot of my friends graduate and defend their theses, and I’ve been seeing others publish their first papers. Some postdocs I know have gotten their first BIG fellowships, or gotten great grants, and I’ve seen some awesome faculty get some amazing awards. Some of my friends in STEM industry have completed big projects or have even gotten promotions! One thing I’ve noticed, through all these accomplishments and successes, is that we don’t tend to celebrate our awesomeness nearly enough. We end that now.
It’s almost summer, it’s the end of the academic year, and I’ll be hosting a huge Scientiae party. Come, bring a friend, and share with us your most recent successes and we’ll give you a big round of applause! Tell us how you’re planning on celebrating once you clear that next hurdle. Or maybe how you celebrated just getting something off your plate, no matter the outcome. Tell us about those humps and bumps you have overcome. Share a story about your grandest STEM victory.
You are cordially invited for a celebration of STEM win! Cheering provided, but BYOP (Bring Your Own Post). RSVP by Monday May 31 at 11:59PM.
To submit a post for the Scientiae Carnival, please email the permalink URL of your post to scientiaecarnival [a] gmail [dt] com by 11:59 pm on Monday, May 31. The carnival will be posted by June 3rd. I can’t wait!
What You Can Do With a PhD (or Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!) May 5, 2010
Posted by rocketscientista in Careers, Miscellaneous.4 comments
I was talking to my husband, MadMan, the other night about short-term and long-term goals. He seemed to think that I don’t think long-term, or at least not right now during studying. But see, the opposite is true for me. Sure, I agree with John Lennon that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Planning too much can drive one insane- things happen and other things happen, and all of this makes you deviate from that Master Plan somewhere in your head. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t help to at least consider where your path could diverge from your Master Plan, and what you might do to better prepare yourself for that.
In my case, that means some thinking about jobs. I’ve been a student for too long, and *currently* my hope is to become a professor. But what if that doesn’t work out? The percentage of PhDs who go on to tenure-track positions is LOW. I’ll leave the discussion of “why??” for another time, the main point is that in all likelihood I could be doing something completely different than I’m being trained for. So I’d like to be prepared for both following the academic track, and if I go off to do something else. But the big problem for figuring out how to be prepared for it is knowing what IT is. Teaching? Government something?
What can you do with a PhD in science anyway?
My absolutely AWESOME AWIS mentoring circle tackled this question a little while ago. We met over brunch and came armed with a list of people we knew who were doing super-cool jobs outside of academia. Most of these were things I had never dreamed of (but most sounded like something I could totally get in to). So, I ‘m going to share this list with you. Unfortunately, I can’t share links or specific job descriptions, so you’ll have to do some more research on your own. And in case you know of other great science people doing other cool jobs, comment or email me and I’ll add them to my list!
Things you can do with a degree in science:
Medical/Pharmaceutical:
Hospital technology/intellectual property consultant
Medical Science Liason (go-between between doctors and companies, no actual sales, need to keep up on literature)
Program Managers at research hospitals and institutions (facilitate and coordinate collaborations, grant administration, staff sharing– for people people who understand science and are good at administration)
Pharmaceutical company Admin or Education
Market Research for pharmaceutical companies
Writing and Media jobs/Creative work
Scientific Copywriter (write copy for ads, catalogs, pamphlets for pharmaceutical and science accounts)
Editors at science journals (good position, too, if you want to keep going in science- you can meet bigwigs and then get a different science job!)
Documentation Programming Consultant (makes sure scientific results like bands on gels aren’t photoshopped or faked)
National Academy work (write reports on scientific and technological topics for senators- good at reading and understanding the literature)
Magazine and newspaper science desk work
Textbook Editor
Online materials production (produce pictures, video, other online material for texts)
Media design (work for a biotech or R&D firm- make good powerpoints and other media to translate science)
Ghostwriter for physicians (write papers, do data analysis and interpretation)
NOVA and other science television show program work (these shows need tons of science literate people beyond the fancy pants experts they interview!)
Curator for online resources for research (ie Flybase)
ESL paper editor (put your science writing skills to work helping ESL speakers edit their papers)
University PR (They need people who speak science to make people realize it’s important!!)
Education/Public Outreach
Community College Teaching
High School Teaching (certification works differently if you have a PhD in some states)
Outreach Organization work (Many scientific programs for connecting with the general public- big NSF centers need to do big outreach projects, too!)
NASA EPO
MAD SCIENCE
Science Curriculum development for museums
Law/Law Enforcement/Public Policy
Intellectual Property law, Technology paralegal
Scientific Recruiter for law firms (recruits experts in various fields to work with law firms on cases)
Capital Hill (there’s policy internships- get a foot in the door, get a job later!)
Science Advisor to crime scene investigators
Crime Lab work
Tech “specialist” at law firms- consultants for patent law
Other Lab-work
Clinical Labs (if you love benchwork, it’s a great way to avoid the tenure process)
Goverment Labs
NASA engineer/researcher
Private Labs
SPACE X
Misc
Commercial Spaceflight companies
Computer Programming for just about anyone
Engineering firm work
Microsoft/Apple/Intel
Scientific Software company work (they need people who know the product/use the product to test/develope/educate on it)
Scientific Recruiter (help science R&D companies find scientists or lawyers or managers)
Consulting for Science Business Consultants (an mouthful- but they need science types to help them recruit business!)
And there’s my list *phew*. Turns out there’s a lot you can do with a degree in science. Calms me down a bit– I might just be marketable after all. Next time, maybe I’ll talk a bit about how I’m becoming a master of the world so that I’m qualified for (almost) everything I’ve listed here. Or I won’t share my secrets…. What do you want to do when you grow up?
