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Don't go for a career in science

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Engineers often have lower unemployment than the general working population over the long term in my country, the US, but in times of high unemployment, engineers have relatively high unemployment as well.
I think that varies a bit by discipline. I've found that civil engineering can be relatively recession-resistant: in bad times, governments try to stimulate the economy with infrastructure spending, so the civil engineers have work. In boom times, they get work with everyone else.

At my previous company, the general trend was that the health of the economy would affect the split between private sector vs. public sector work, not the total revenue so much.
 

Midnight Rain

Well-Known Member
For every one terminal level job (that's faculty for academia) there are hundreds of applicants. Research grants only fund 5% of faculty applicants. Many of those that do get funded get 1/2 of what they ask for.

Most scientists are spending their career in non-terminal positions like postdocs. These are temporary positions. It's not that bad, that job is easy to get, but no one thought this is how they would be spending their career. They pay is not very good, especially considering your excuisite expertise. The hours are long. Stress levels are high. You will not be famous. The most illustrious scientists in the world are completely unknown outside of their field.

If you are very smart and hard working, you may try if you really want it. Keep in mind that the smartest people in high school are average in college. The smartest in college are average in grad school. The most brilliant phds make up those hundreds of applicants for every one faculty job. The rest, by then, know enough to not bother trying. If you are in high school or college now, it is unlikely that you know how you measure up to the pros.

If you are that good, then you have to follow a specific formula for what your personality must be, where you go to study, who you work with, and what project you chose to work on. Deviation form the formula will shoot the best of you down. You have to figure all of that out before you chose your thesis lab, at the latest. Humbly, I only got it about 80% right by that time. Therefore, realistically, I think I can only be up to 80% of that Oxford professor or chief scientist at GSK that I dreamt of becoming.

If you say you want to be a science professor, you might as well say you want to be a pro footballer, famous actor, or rock star. your chances are about the same.

Don't go into science. Instead, go into something that your society will always need and can't outsource: auto mechanic, bartender, prostitute, soldier.

-Dr. Satan
I work as a Medical Technologist (that is my job title. Its also called bio-medical scientist or Medical Laboratory scientist/technician) and I am not the same kind of Academia based science degree but a functional for the purpose of doing a job. There are plenty of opportunities for it and it doesn't make bad money (though not as much as I would like). To just be a "scientist" is difficult since its hard to justify large amounts of money going towards theoretical knowledge based fields with no real applicable gain as of yet. My advice is not to avoid the sciences but get a degree that could either be research based or actually in something that makes money. Physics for example can do this. Physicists can sometimes make large amounts of money in fields where they put their knowledge and skill to practical uses or they could work at a university doing whatever.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I think that varies a bit by discipline. I've found that civil engineering can be relatively recession-resistant: in bad times, governments try to stimulate the economy with infrastructure spending, so the civil engineers have work. In boom times, they get work with everyone else.

At my previous company, the general trend was that the health of the economy would affect the split between private sector vs. public sector work, not the total revenue so much.
And as I'll often say, we (mechanical & aerospace engineers) appreciate your continual building of new targets.
 

ScottySatan

Well-Known Member
I work as a Medical Technologist (that is my job title. Its also called bio-medical scientist or Medical Laboratory scientist/technician) and I am not the same kind of Academia based science degree but a functional for the purpose of doing a job. There are plenty of opportunities for it and it doesn't make bad money (though not as much as I would like). To just be a "scientist" is difficult since its hard to justify large amounts of money going towards theoretical knowledge based fields with no real applicable gain as of yet. My advice is not to avoid the sciences but get a degree that could either be research based or actually in something that makes money. Physics for example can do this. Physicists can sometimes make large amounts of money in fields where they put their knowledge and skill to practical uses or they could work at a university doing whatever.

No, I was talking about the most profitable science there is in the West right now, medicine. Other sciences are worse than this. And by scientist I mean someone who is paid to create new knowledge and publish it in journals, not someone who runs diagnostics on patients. Those are very different.

Now that you mention it, that's a pretty good job; better than being a scientist. And you don't need to spend as much time in education.
 
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