Science as a Career

• What does a scientist spend his or her time doing?

  • teaching (even if you're not an academic)
  • research: that's the reason most of us join up
    • thinking up experiments and doing them
    • there's surprising amount of physical labor involved
      (few low-paid assistants available, and equipment is often heavy)
  • administration: committee work, planning, resource allocation
  • publications: writing up the results of research
  • seeking money: research costs money, and most of the inexpensive experiments have already been done.
  • reading: falling behind in reading can be stultifying, embarassing, and inefficient.
  • travel: scientific meetings, collaborations (see below)

• How lucrative is science?

  • Not terribly lucrative given the amount of training required
  • But over a full career it's pretty good
  • Few scientists (< 2%?) are unemployed; more are underemployed.
  • comparisons with other professions:
    • medicine: scientists make less but have fewer crises and ulcers
    • law:scientists make less but (in my opinion) don't get bored as often
    • engineering: scientists make somewhat less but get more intellectual stimulation
         engineers are more likely to succeed in playing competitive games with employers
      (I'll leave your company and join the one down the road unless you give me a raise.)

• Are there incidental benefits to a scientific career?

  • intelligent conversations with peers and coworkers
  • freedom to define your own schedule (usually)
  • travel: you can go interesting places
       sometimes you can escape the lab or the lecture hall while traveling!

• What personality type is best suited to a scientific career?

  • assertive (especially in a university)
  • cooperative (especially in industrial or government labs)
  • motivated by the thrill of the chase as well as practical benefits to humankind brought about by research
  • able to deal with the details and the big picture
  • intelligent
  • patient: need to wait for results or grant money to appear
  • organized? maybe; maybe not. Most scientists are well-organized in solving intellectual problems; they may not be well-organized in dealing with deadlines, budgets, and piles of papers on their desks. If they don't have that latter kind of organization, they need competent administrators to protect them from their own disorganization.

• How can scientific training prepare one for other work?

  • problem-solving mentality can be useful in public life, law, business
  • scientific training provides a good basis for engineering, meditation
  • (transcendental): science instills in one a curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.