Non-Academic Careers for Astronomers and Physicists

by Julia Silge

Slide 1

Slide 1 text

NON-ACADEMIC CAREERS FOR ASTRONOMERS AND PHYSICISTS Julia Silge @juliasilge • http://juliasilge.com/

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

WHO AM I? HOW DID I GET HERE?

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

No content

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

MY BACKGROUND ➤ BS in physics in 2000 ➤ PhD in astronomy in 2005 ➤ Studied galaxy kinematics and dynamics Silge, J.D., Gebhardt, K., Bergmann, M., & Richstone, D. 2005, AJ, 130, 406

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

MY BACKGROUND ➤ Developed near-IR spectroscopy techniques to trace the older, redder stars in galaxies and reduce the eﬀects of dust ➤ Used dynamical modeling to ﬁnd masses, etc from kinematics ➤ Measured supermassive black holes!

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

No content

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

MY BACKGROUND Silge, J.D., Gebhardt, K., Bergmann, M., & Richstone, D. 2005, AJ, 130, 406 My work was observational in focus, with lots of DATA ANALYSIS

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

PhD in astronomy postdoc in physics adjunct professor teaching physics, astronomy, etc stay-at- home mom data scientist ed tech content developer

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

WHERE DO PHDS GO? STEM PhD finishers in the UK

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

UNDER PRESSURE Science & Engineering PhDs awarded and faculty positions

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

SINCE 1982, ALMOST 800,000 PHDS WERE AWARDED IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FIELDS. ABOUT 100,000 ACADEMIC FACULTY POSITIONS WERE CREATED IN THOSE FIELDS IN THE SAME TIME FRAME. Science & Engineering PhDs awarded and faculty positions

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

WHERE DO PHDS GO? ➤ A large portion of people who ﬁnish astronomy/physics PhDs end up, like me, working outside of academia ➤ A variety of forces within academia and outside of it work together to limit the number of people who eventually get tenure track jobs

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

WHERE DO PHDS GO? ➤ Talking to someone with a tenure track faculty job? ➤ Remember that she or he is the exception, not the rule

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

UNDER PRESSURE Declining Proposal Success Rates

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

WHERE HAS MY GRAD SCHOOL COHORT LANDED? ➤ Tenure track astronomy jobs ➤ Soft-money astronomy research positions (see Pamela Gay’s recent discussion of her experiences) ➤ Non-tenured teaching positions (full-time or adjunct) ➤ National labs or government research jobs ➤ Finance ➤ Various jobs in tech ➤ Data science

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

WHERE HAS MY GRAD SCHOOL COHORT LANDED? from Katie Mack

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

WHAT IS DATA SCIENCE? from Josh Wills

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

WHAT IS DATA SCIENCE? from Drew Conway

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

WHAT IS DATA SCIENCE? from someone who thought he was hot stuff

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

WHAT IS DATA SCIENCE? from Oliver Keyes

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

PROBABLY ALL OF YOU COULD DO DATA SCIENCE

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

“ I am a grad student/postdoc. What can I do to prepare for a job outside academia? -you, probably

Slide 24

Slide 24 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK

Slide 25

Slide 25 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK Carefully consider the tools you invest time to become proﬁcient in ➤ IDL and IRAF ➤ Python and R

Slide 26

Slide 26 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK This is not a value judgment on the quality of work done with any of these tools, but a comment on their use outside academia. Carefully consider the tools you invest time to become proﬁcient in ➤ IDL and IRAF ➤ Python and R

Slide 27

Slide 27 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK Learn key practices from software development ➤ version control ➤ unit testing ➤ test-driven development ➤ continuous integration

Slide 28

Slide 28 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK Build a public (online) portfolio/presence ➤ have an active GitHub account ➤ write a professional blog ➤ contribute to an open-source project

Slide 29

Slide 29 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK Don’t consider this separate from your academic work; find ways to integrate them so you make it happen. Build a public (online) portfolio/presence ➤ have an active GitHub account ➤ write a professional blog ➤ contribute to an open-source project

Slide 30

Slide 30 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK from David Robinson

Slide 31

Slide 31 text

LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK Emphasize communication skills ➤ speaking ➤ writing ➤ diverse audiences

Slide 32

Slide 32 text

➤ Consider taking an actual statistics course ➤ Should you study machine learning now? ➤ Data science bootcamps? LOOKING FOR A MIND AT WORK

Slide 33

Slide 33 text

I’M A TRUST FUND BABY, YOU CAN TRUST ME ➤ Most of us have never thought a lot about ethics in our research. ➤ Moving outside academia almost always means the work you do will impact real people.

Slide 34

Slide 34 text

I’M A TRUST FUND BABY, YOU CAN TRUST ME ➤ Ask what the ethical implications are of the work you are doing. ➤ Seek out organizations that have good ethical practices. ➤ Don’t be afraid to admit (or report) when you make a bad call.

Slide 35

Slide 35 text

“ I am a professor here. What does this have to do with me? -others of you, probably

Slide 36

Slide 36 text

FOR FACULTY ➤ Remember that your career path is atypical ➤ Consider the ramiﬁcations of your choices and students’/postdocs’ choices on a possible non-academic career

Slide 37

Slide 37 text

FOR FACULTY ➤ Be sensitive to the pressures on students and postdocs ➤ Expand your deﬁnition of success