Alternative Careers in Science: Leaving the Ivory Tower

by Cynthia Robbins-Roth (Editor)

Many science students find themselves in the midst of graduate school or sitting at a lab bench, and realize that they hate lab work! Even worse is realizing that they may love science, but science (at least academic science) is not providing many job opportunities these days. What's a poor researcher to do !?
This book gives first-hand descriptions of the evolution of a band of hardy scientists out of the lab and into just about every career you can imagine. Researchers from every branch of science found their way into finance, public relations, consulting, business development, journalism, and more - and thrived there! Each author tells their personal story, including descriptions of their career path, a typical day, where to find information on their job, opportunities to career growth, and more. This is a must-read for every science major, and everyone who is looking for a way to break out of their career rut.
* An insider's look at the wide range of job opportunities for scientists yearning to leave the lab
* First-person stories from researchers who successfully made the leap from science into finance, journalism, law, public policy, and more.
* Tips on how to track down and get that job in a new industry
* Typical day scenarios for each career track
* List of resources (websites, associations, etc.) to help you in your search
* Completely revised, this latest edition includes six entirely new chapters

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1998

Reviews

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful read for where one can go after some specialization in the sciences. Each career path is a personal account of one person, which makes this book interesting and unique, but also makes if hard to relate to at times. Overall themes in career search and how to switch may emerge, depending on how attentively you read each account. Some updated stats on careers of scientists would be a useful addition to this book. As the landscape of the science careers change in the coming decades,imagine this book may change or other may be necessary, to address the impending collapse of the science machine, in overdrive on cheap and highly-skilled labor. As Beryl Lieff Benderly so aptly describes it in her article, The Real Science Gap, it is a problem of labor, not education...

[Svetlana Kurilova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of the career paths outside of the conventional academic one. The take home message for me is to look outside the box and have no fear for trying something different.

I was reading 2nd edition published in 2006 but described careers were from 70-80s and sometimes 90s. Now, we have jobs and fields that did not even exist a decade ago. Therefore, I thought the information in the book was pretty outdated.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Def outdated in some of the information but honestly a helpful read rn as I try to figure out potential jobs post phd

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter of this book is the personal story of one scientist’s journey into a career outside of academia – how they chose the career, what it took to get there, and the daily requirements of the new career. As silly as it may seem, a lot of this information was pretty invaluable. From my experience, when you study science at PhD level, you really don’t learn much about career alternatives at all. I (and many others I know) came out of the PhD feeling that I’m only qualified to do academic research, although logically that level of education should open doors, not close them. I only read the chapters of this book which directly pertained to careers which I would consider pursuing. The honesty with which people describe their careers is heartening… after having read this I feel much more confident that it is possible to move away from academia and it is really not that big of a deal at all.

[Elizabeth]

As recommended by Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development.

As featured in Science Career's "Careers Away from the Bench".

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

bleh

[Wendelle]

basically, develop and sell practical technical skills beyond the quantitative mindset you obtained from your degree