Reply To: “I’m Angry About My Future Financial Situation”

I feel for you. The natural sciences job market is brutal. Too many academic advisors don’t give the true picture to their department’s majors — I think in part to keep enrollment up so the department isn’t closed or at least doesn’t lose slots. Back almost 60 years ago the valedictorian of my H.S. class majored in biology, got his PhD specializing in fresh-water invertebrates and had a teaching/research job at University of Michigan. When his grant wasn’t renewed, he lost that job at age 45. He loved biology and that job. It was very sad. Forty years ago, when I was working on a development project funded by Department of Energy, who sent a review team to meet with us twice a year, the only woman on the team was a PhD biologist. She loved her job and had a long tenure with DOE. Her daughter wanted to follow in her footsteps, but she said no, she wouldn’t pay for a bio degree. She explained it that DOE at the time accepted job application year-round for most college majors, but only for one month for bio majors. Get the app in early and it was returned, if received a day late, sorry, try again next year. Simply brutal.

I worked in environmental, health, and safety with a Fortune 500 chemical company. We interviewed college students with general environmental science or conservation B.S. degrees. Most of the time was spent trying to figure out exactly what skills and knowledge were taught in these programs. It made hiring chancy. Natural sciences job market has been brutal for at least the past 50 years.

If you and your husband are basically technicians in the environmental/conservation field, I can give some encouragement from observing the career arcs of a number of technicians (bio as well as chemistry and physics and machining or welding). Many advanced to well-paying jobs. Within the company they moved into more business-related jobs, some left for pharmaceutical sales, a couple became plant managers for smaller companies, some had long careers in R&D, one of whom became a principal investigator on his own analytical project. It could be done back then and I suspect it can still happen today. There is a shortage of qualified workers.

Adding additional skills is key as is looking for higher-paying jobs a little divorced from your current work.