Getting to know you: academic/career edition

So sorry to hear of your mother's condition. Many prayers for her successful recovery. If you need a shoulder, I helped care for three of my closest friends (all mothers of friends of mine, and each of them became a mother figure to me as well). It is very stressful being a caregiver. Hugs!

You've had a tough time, Patrickssong - I wish you well.

This site can be the most wonderful escape platform - use it as often as you can! There aren't many ways you can immediately plug into a laugh, gorgeous photo, luscious story or witty chit chat anywhere you want, anytime you want - we are so lucky!

My gosh, everyone on this forum is highly educated! I'm in my last semester of university in biochemistry with a minor in French as a second language. It's been 5 years of extreme sleep deprivation, anxiety, and the likes, but I'll be relieved (to say the least) when it's all over!

This is one accomplished group!!!!

For my field they're not really short on job openings, especially for women. But if I went to grad school, I'd be "over-qualified" for the kind of work I do want. Without getting too in-depth, I'd most likely work in R&D or something, coming up with new ways of synthesizing materials, etc etc, whereas with just a bachelor's I'd be the one in the plant deciding how best to implement the new stuff and designing and maintaining the operation of the plant. Stuff like that.

Basically, I want to work in industry, not research.

So there was an opportunity to go full time at my job. I interviewed and got offered the job but through various soul searching I turned it down. So far in my life, it was probably the toughest decision I've had. In between all of this I decided to bring my porfolio into work. For whatever reason I really don't know. Just wanted to share my work I guess. I got an overwhelming response to it. To the point where my boss told her mom who is friends with a working graphic designer. I decided that it's time to put on my big girl panties and stop being scared of what I want. Even if it means that I will have to leave the state and despite the fact that 90% of the job postings say the need experience.

I so, so agree. The major lesson I've learned from life is to take those risks and try to make your dreams come true. The regrets from not having done so are much harder to bear than the financial/career losses which can be recouped. Time is the only thing you can't get more of.

acid.milque, that's the catch-22: you can't get a job without experience, and you obviously can't get experience without a job. I was unemployed for 4 months straight after school (IT WAS THE WORST) and basically every job needed experience. Eventually I just stopped paying attention to that part in the listings and applying anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've only been in this, my first job, for 6 months and I've applied for one that has 12 months experience as a desirable. Although both of these jobs are just placeholders for something I have to wait at least a couple of years to do, but that's a whole other story..

Just keep pushing on, you'll get there. I spent March through December last year applying for jobs, and eventually just started ignoring the "x amount of experience needed" part unless it was something outrageous and went hand-in-hand with a PhD in a field that I would never ever hold.

Fortunately for me, the job I took upon graduating that was supposed to be temporary was extended indefinitely, and I finally pulled myself from a rut and got my shit together and decided I was going to attempt to get into a graduate program. So, I have stopped job hunting, but it turns out that my unrelenting persistence resulted in several in-person interviews for jobs that I ultimately turned down. I could be making loads of money right now, but I'm so blissfully happy doing part-time work that's mostly research-based while nannying my three little munchkins. It has afforded me the breathing space I needed to recuperate from my first round of graduate school while also allowing me to be incredibly flexible with my time -- some truly stressful things happened to come up in my family in the past year, and I was able to be there to help where I otherwise would not have. And for most of it, I would have gone ballistic not being able to.

I never once imagined that my life would look like this post-MA, but it is what it is and I am where I need to be. Things could be exceedingly worse, and within four months I will be moving on to chase what I was after three years ago. And I'm so glad that I'll be walking into it at age 22 rather than age 19. I could have done it, but these last three years have done a LOT to change me for the better.

Hey! I just wanted to share some great news with all of you. Last night, I graduated from university! Honours Bachelor of Science with Major in Biochemistry and Minor in French as a Second Language, Magna Cum Laude. I am so thrilled yet so relived that I have finally finished school. Now, onto new adventures!

Congratulations! What an awesome achievement. I remember how exciting that was when I walked and received my B.A. It's definitely a feeling of accomplishment.

This is amazing news! What an achievement!

I have a degree in microbiology but ended up in law school! I so admire you for continuing all the way thru! Hooray for science!

CONGRATLATONS! (SOME OF THE KEYS ON MY KEYOARD AREN'T WORKNG!)

bluesatinsashes, I loved that mRNA joke - hilarious! had me giggling for like 5 seconds!

As for research, yes i have done the long stints in the lab - coming in at all sorts of weird and wonderful hours (although most of my timecourse experiments I managed to organise so I wasn't in at 2am (more like midnight and 6 am), but lots of weekend work with checking animals etc so it can be full on at times. But now with a husband and 3 kids, I can't work those sorts of hours and due to that and the incredible LACK of funding which makes finding and keeping a job next to impossible, i've ditched the research career and I'm doing a teaching diploma (almost finished) so I'll do high school science teaching (years 7-12). After my first teaching placement about 1 month ago, I have a new found respect for teachers and the amount of work they do and also the quantity of knowledge they have to have (as well as all that classroom discipline thing of working with disinterested teenagers) - much harder work than I ever experienced while being a researcher!