Report on Careers for Natural Scientists

Sherrie Hans, Program Officer for Biomedical Research Policy, Pew Charitable Trusts

Ph.D. in Biochemistry

Served on a National Academy of Sciences committee on careers for natural scientists which was charged with:

Documenting current trends in training and employment of life science graduates;

Report to come out at the end of the summer, 1998.

Her viewpoints based on the data she's observed:

Trends. The number of US doctorates awarded has grown. In the late 1980's it shot up rather dramatically. The time to degree and age of recipient has increased since 1970. It now takes 7.9 years to do a doctorate. The trend of increasing length of Ph.D. is similar to other fields although they don't take as long.

Trends in US Doctoral Production:

Larger number

Stay in school longer

Older when starting post doctoral fellowships

Implications:

What we don't know is whether doctoral students staying longer because

• the job market is poor.

Trends:

Predominant employment is moving away from tenured academia

Number of opportunities for stable employment are way down

Ph.D.'s no longer predominately working in the sector where they were trained

Employment is no longer in long-term, stable employment

Is current training appropriate for current career outcomes? There is a crisis in expectation. What students came in thinking they'd be doing in their careers compared to where they find positions are not well-matched. Extended periods of training at low pay with no benefits may be a questionable investment toward the financial and intellectual independence which are important life goals.

Is a postdoc training or experience? If it's training then the low pay should be accompanied by mentoring, opportunities to expand knowledge. If it's experience, it should be treated as such and salaries commensurate with market values should be provided.

Two Career Paths

Toni Feder, Associate Editor, Physics Today

Ph.D. in Physics

Toni is a reporter and writes one of the news departments of the magazine. She got into writing during her postdoc. She did freelancing for Nature and then became Manuscripts Editor at Nature.

She is now responsible for a news department for Physics Today. She has to find stories to write and research and write them. She works with someone else and they write about science policy, funding issues and issues of interest to physicists internationally.

She writes about an enormous variety of things. She finds the stories, talks to people and finds out what's happening and why. She chooses what to write and what to exclude.

She likes her work because she gets to communicate about issues, have the satisfaction of completing projects and do lots of analytical thinking. She also likes her autonomy, talking to people and staying in touch with science.

Having the Ph.D. is useful because she knows how the research world works. And it brings respect.

Find out as much as possible about what you are looking into. Write for your university papers, try freelancing, look for internships, and participate in science writing programs.

Sherrie Hans, Program Officer for Biomedical Research Policy, Pew Charitable Trusts

Ph.D. in Biochemistry

Pew is a large private foundation that is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 1998. The Pew family established the interests of the foundation at its inception and the board of trustees now guides its activities. There are six areas of interest at the Trusts: religion, culture, environment, health and human services, public policy and education.

Foundations can emphasize service vs. policy, can be reactive vs. proactive, or hands-off v. hands-on. Pew is proactive, hands-on and policy-oriented.

Bench science was not a good fit for Sherrie. She loves the work she does now. She has to think every day. She got this job out of graduate school because during graduate school she was involved in policy activities that included discussions to start a career office. She wrote a policy report on mentoring graduate education that she used to introduce herself to people and to meet the person who helped her get this job. Do informational interviews. Show people products that demonstrate what you have done. You may later be able to use them as references. An important skill to have is willingness to tackle things that are unfamiliar to you.