Seeking perspective, I need advice, I need to be set right.(career, education)

[Chronomancer]

Hello,

 

My name is Tyler. I had been a Cook all my professional life, last year my girlfriend got pregnant, and I decided to get a real education, and attempt leading a legitimate life in society. So I started taking classes at my local community college. Initially I thought Civil Engineering sounded good, So I did a shadow day with my local water bureau and I took a term of "Engineering Technology." It was the hardest thing I've ever done, I was ill prepared, but I survived with a C that I am actually very proud of. I had only taken a basic pre-alegbra class before attempting these monstrous 3 dimensional statics problems that really blew my hair back.

 

What I've learned about Civil Engineering is this, It's stable, well paid, good benefits work. However, It's boring. The guys at the water bureau maintain the city water supply, and occasionally design new works. hardly cutting edge or thought provoking.

 

I've also learned that Physics and Engineering are very closely related scholastically. The two majors include many of the same courses. Physics seems to include every aspect of engineering simultaneously. While engineering appears to be a specialized form of some single aspect of applied physics. So that's neat.

 

Because I slacked off during high school, I have had to start math at the pre alegbra level, I won't be up to standard until sometime next year. I've been using this time to explore my options.

 

I've been in community college exactly one year this term. I've Taken a few different 100 level science classes with labs. Physics, chemistry, astronomy, and cellular biology. I had forgotten how cool biology is! Not to toot my own horn here, But I am getting an A in a class that the teacher said was "Very hard," during the summer (compressed course) where over half the class has dropped (after avg grade 73% on first exam, where I got a 90%).

 

I've begun to contemplate what life would be like in Research. If I'm smart enough for it and what would I need to do to ensure my success as a Research Scientist.

 

I've heard that it might go like this Undergraduate>graduate>postdoc>???>real job maybe w/luck? I've also heard alot of really discouraging talk on the web. "Phd's are worthless, Academia is busted and Science is a trap." Is this true? I've also heard that as a student moves up the ladder in education their research becomes so specialized that it's impossible to find work? Is this scenario true? is it unavoidable? or is the unlucky circumstance of a few individuals?

 

I'd like to talk briefly about my naive aspirations and childish idyllic dreams. I have seen every nature/science doc on netflicks, and the scientists I would seek to emulate are the "adventure type" scientists, the glamorous guys and gals who travel to Antarctica, low-earth orbit, and the deep sea trenches in pursuit of knowledge. I know Research can't be like this for the majority of Scientists out there, I just want to gauge how unrealistic this aspiration would be?

 

I work hard. I feel that I am at the very least above average intellectually, and I could live like a king on 30k a year. My years of abject poverty(American standard) have honed me into a disciple of thrift and frugality. I am Caucasoid male 26, I'm married with a 1.5 year old son. I'm contemplating pursuing a career in research science(no field specified). I want to make roughly 50k 5-10 years after completing a phd in some science. I want to be capable of studying as many subjects as possible. I want a diverse understanding of science that I can apply to Human problems, like the pacific plastic gyre, or Cannabis research. I want to avoid a "trapped in Middle America bible college studying tree frog sex" scenario. Civil Engineering is my saftey net, should I chicken-out of science, I will just do engineering. Is this unreasonable? Please set me straight here. I need perspective from honest people.

[CharonY]

I've heard that it might go like this Undergraduate>graduate>postdoc>???>real job maybe w/luck? I've also heard alot of really discouraging talk on the web. "Phd's are worthless, Academia is busted and Science is a trap." Is this true? I've also heard that as a student moves up the ladder in education their research becomes so specialized that it's impossible to find work? Is this scenario true? is it unavoidable? or is the unlucky circumstance of a few individuals?

 

 

Let me comment on this part here. It is correct that up to (and partially including) postdoc is a kind of training phase after which the real job hunt starts. If you are interested in academic research it should be noted that usually less than 20% of all candidates will get a tenured position. A big weakness in academia is that there is no real middle-ground between tenure and non-tenured position (i.e. if you want to stay it is expected that you eventually get tenure, with few exceptions).

The majority of your time spend on a tenure-track or tenured position is teaching, pulling in grants (and tightly connected to that, network), faculty work, organizing and leading the lab, advise students. Only in few cases actually lab work is possible, must of the time that is dedicated to science is spent reviewing data from students. So in most cases the actual research will not be the single biggest part in your actual day-to-day work (though it will be career-defining).

Up and including postdoc the reverse is the case, btw.

 

Purely research positions that are not time limited are very rare in academic settings. The majority of PhDs will find work outside of academia, but usually these jobs include even less research. Common examples include sales, support, product management, compliance officers (or whatever they are called) and project managers (sometimes these are also involved in some type of research).

 

Regarding diversification: you need a specialty. People hire faculty because they have the potential to be world-leader on a specific field. You cannot easily associate with a heap of different things that you have done, and it is sometimes hard to convey skills branching out into different scientific disciplines (just trust me on this, it is bloody hard). Often careers are made just by the very last thing you did, that happened to be a hot topic.

 

Bottom line is that a research career is highly competitive, and depends on many non-technical skills (i.e. it is hard to evaluate the trajectory of your career, but that can be said to about any competitive career). You will do a surprising amount of non-scientific stuff, requiring a boat load of soft skills. One thing that you have is that you have already worked, which will give you an edge up and including PhD. After that there is a certain amount of randomness in terms of career development (including knowing the right people, getting the right project etc.).