The Career Wheel

Before I finished grad school I spent ~2 years trying to figure out what I wanted to do.  My interests cycled as if they were on a wheel.  Now I'm finding that my interest cycle along the wheel below:

Each area has it's challenges.  I don't have a great deal of experience in philanthropy, however I'm pulled towards job ads that offer nonprofit consulting opportunities in this area.  Science Education is something that I've always pursued as a volunteer and entrepreneurial effort.  But I don't give it the time it needs to become a full career.  Science Policy is also interesting but trying to get a job in the government requires significant effort--get ready to write-a 4 to 5 page resume and endure the mother of all bureaucracies.  I will do this but I'm not looking forward to it.  Finally, Research means low pay with no thanks.  It's self driven and you have to live with constant failure.  By the time I finished my grad program I was out of patience with science.

Now that I've had a year away, I think that I may have found a compromise.  Clinical Molecular Genetics is a laboratory-based , professional field that focuses on the discovery of and testing for DNA mutations that dictate disease. You can read more about it here.  There are training programs across the country (click on the second to last link at the bottom of the page).  There are commercial and academic job options as well as residency programs and board certification.  The more I read about it the more I want to do a post-doc that will enable me to enroll in this program (most programs are not individually funded). 

Could it be that the idea of being a scientist is seducing me again like an attractive woman showing her leg to make a car stop by the road?  I think I'm being seduced again but I may be able to do this on my own terms.

I think that the problem that I had with doing a post-doc originally was that they could be open-ended in terms of finding a job.  Most academic faculty positions at research universities have a 300:1 applicant to job ratio.  This is a real statistic!

At the time, the science controlled me--I wasn't controlling the science nor did I feel in control of my future until my degree was in my hands.   

It's funny how a one year stint in Corporate America has me longing for the lab!  Now that I've had some time away, I'm going to do some thinking and outline of a research program that I would run, incorporating a clinical genetics residency in the mix.  Let's see where this rabbit hole will take me--I'm curious to find out!

Chi-Chi