Job Prospects!

Its been an interesting couple of days.

I plan on graduating in December with my PhD, which means its high time I start looking into the job market. When I first entered the graduate program, it was with the intention of one day becoming a professor at a smallish liberal arts college and teaching chemistry and biochemistry. Well, that was before meeting and marrying the man I love, who also happens to have a job in chemistry - something that is rather geographically limiting. Unfortunately, the chemistry and biochemistry industry in Austin is limited at best. Both Greg and I love life here. Austin is a great place to live. We have a house and big plans for renovation. Greg absolutely loves his job and coworkers and is one of the few people I know who is truly happy in his career. I don't want to be the cause of uprooting us. We know too many of our friends who have moved on and would do just about anything to move back to Austin - we really are spoiled here. So staying means compromise when it comes to my job prospects.

I met with the careers counselor for natural sciences here at UT on Monday and spent a good hour in her office discussing job possibilities in the Austin area. She had a few prospects I hadn't thought of so far, one of which included coordinating programs in the natural science department here on the UT campus. The only problem is that most programs tend to come and go based on success, funding and interest - not the best option for job security but still very interesting. Then we found a somewhat promising possibility as a grant writing specialist for a group of 6 professors here at UT. The pay is good. I think I'd be well qualified, and it would be interesting because I'd be writing and learning about new science. I've TA'ed ('teaching assistant' for those of you who have never had the pleasure) for one of the professors (the one who has a reputation for being the hardest to work with), and I'm pretty sure he likes and respects me. Plus, my friend Alisha works with 2 of the guys involved so she was able to give me valuable insider info on the position. Thanks, Lish!

So I was somewhat excited about the prospects and then out of nowhere another one fell into my lap. A biochem prof upstairs wanted to talk to me about a TA job that would start in the Fall semester and continue through the Spring. It involves working in a relatively new program, where basically freshman and sophomore students are given the chance to learn lab skills and think critically about scientific problems in their early education, rather than just getting their hands dirty in their senior year as is usual. They're divided up into 'streams' and each stream works on individual aspects of one large, encompassing research project. They all do similar experiments but each has a separate protein, gene or whatever to work with. Well, this prof's stream is taught by a PhD biochemist who is pregnant and due in December. They were looking for someone reliable who could basically teach the stream while Grace is on maternity leave. And she thought of me. :)

I met with her and Grace yesterday to talk about the position. I let her know that my plan was to graduate by December so I wasn't sure if it would be possible. She suggested that I 'drag my feet' a bit on finishing so that I'd be eligible to TA in the Spring as well. The thought of this didn't really appeal to me until I finally got the message. She wasn't just asking me to be a TA. She was implying that next year new streams will be opened and they'll need Research Educators (Grace's job) to lead them. By taking this job, I'd be getting a sort of on-the-job training, meet all the movers and shakers of the program, and be in an excellent position to step into that role! Brad, Alisha's husband, is actually going to be a Research Educator for his PhD advisor. Judging from what Alisha said about the job, it also has very good pay and it would be more on the student schedule, i.e. I could potentially still have spring breaks and winter breaks, a big consideration for when we have kiddies. Best of all, it fits almost perfectly into my original goals! I'd be teaching a small group of students about lab techniques and critical thinking in the spring semesters. Then in the summer and fall semesters, I'd be supervising and overseeing their research endeavors.

This program is also one that is likely to remain intact for a long while. The dean of natural sciences is very excited about it, as are the NSF (National Science Foundation) and the HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) who provide the funding. From what I hear, it is going to continue to expand greatly in the following years, which translates to job security for me if I were to get a permanent position.

So I talked to my boss about delaying my graduation until the Spring, and he's on board. He realizes that this is a great opportunity for me, and its right up my alley. Its the closest thing to perfect that I can think of! I really can't believe it.

So that's the latest. I'll let you know how it progresses, but I really am looking forward to the next few semesters.