Hi All,

I am a year away from earning a doctorate degree in science (env). However, after consulting with learned scholars and friends, the starting salary is ~ 40 grand/yr and have to go thorugh tenureship etc and after 20-30 yrs of teaching u might earn > 80 grand/yr. Till today, I have followed my passion but family problems never left me. And now, I am seriously thinking about becoming a pharmacist and this job fetch > 90 grand/yr and quick path to gc. I have background in pure science and and near perfect 4.0 GPA and think it won't take that long to get a degree.

I need your kind and helpful suggestions. Please no roundabout suggestions though!!

Appreciate your time.

SR

 

Could you specify in what you are getting your degree in? If you are getting your PhD in biology or chemistry, you can easily work for a pharmaceutical company, where the starting salary is ~90-100K. Chemist could also work for a chemical company. If your focus in materials science or engineering, you could apply in companies like Intel, IBM etc with aforementioned salary ranges. Other options are working for national labs, where starting salaries are around ~70K.

From my understanding, research oriented universities do give comparable salaries to industries.

Once you had your PhD, you can always apply for GC in EB1 category.  It does not have to be company sponsored if you have a good number of publications.

If you are planning to be a pharmacist and working in retail may fetch you a handsome salary, but your job could be monotonous.

You are near your Ph.D. degree in Environmental Science and having second thoughts now ?? There are enough jobs that starts well above 40 grand for your qualification in consultancies and industries man. It is a demanded job in this time as well. And i am sure even if you join a faculty starting salary is atleast 70 grand.  I think you are starting to get worried way ahead of time, do more research. You should be proud of yourself to have done an indepth study in the field of Environmental Science, and should be an advocate of clean energy, rather than trying to back away from the good stuff you are already in. Good Luck.

thank you for such constructive and supportive comments.

it is just that our very societal values that binds you such as family at home depending on you etc and as a responsible offspring, you cannot deny their desires. however, a phd study requires complete solace and peace and for me I have been fighting for such moments and persued my studies undeterred. Almost there though!

I do have some papers published out there (working on more currently) and I did most of the work in Nepal and have a passion to do so in the future (just a trivial contribution to my country).

Thanks though.

SR

thank you for such constructive and supportive comments.

it is just that our very societal values that binds you such as family at home depending on you etc and as a responsible offspring, you cannot deny their desires. however, a phd study requires complete solace and peace and for me I have been fighting for such moments and persued my studies undeterred. Almost there though!

I do have some papers published out there (working on more currently) and I did most of the work in Nepal and have a passion to do so in the future (just a trivial contribution to my country).

Thanks though.

SR

SR,
i am not really sure about which gives you higher salary, science(env) vs pharmaceutical science
but i heard that there's more demand for pharmaceutical science graduates.
So decide yourself. Live your live as it is. Family problems, well they comes and goes.
But you got to live your own life one day. Live your own life, choose your own career that you love.
"When you love what you do you'll never have to work a day in your life"

Take me for example, my family wanted me to study engineering, medicine or something that was constructive. Guess what?
I choose to study people, places and history. Well i may regret someday, somehow, i am absolutely sure this was my passion. I won't regret when i am about to die that i did what i wanted to do and not control by others decision.
Maybe one day i might be able to contribute an important aspects from Nepali archaeological and anthropological side.

Look on a bright side.
 cheers,
            jpg

Hey dude,

you are getting really bad suggestion. you are right track. don't change your field. present and future is in environment and don't listen to past (old ideas and experiences). try to build up confidence.

I don't know what specific field you have but you can add some more knowledge like Geo-spatial technology,  advocating etc----then you make more than 100k

Rivers,

open a new thread. here we are discussing about phd and pharmaceutical fields.

Krs 84,

my specialization is in gis (geographic info systems) and remote sensing [both comes under geospatial analysis), ecology, wildlife habitat management (big mammals) and geography. but today, when I look back at my 2 decades of academic career, I find myself as jack of all master of none. Started with pure science and now ended up with env.sci. i know it is a broad field and have broad applications and can easily mould my knowledge in any field I want to. Hence the thought of being a pharmacist. Sometimes, I think should have stuck with pure science.

Well, its too late to have second thoughts now.

Thanks.

SR

RS:

I suggest you to play with ArcHydro tools a bit, then give a week to learn MODFLOW groundwater model and GIS ArcHydro Groundwater Data Model tool a bit to sell your technical expertise in the market.  If you know how to process RS image data with algorithms and all that is much demanded in the field of agriculture to quantify crop evapotranspiration and water quality. My interest is in quantifying Carbondioxide in atmosphere so as to apply in global carbon management in which i am doing my part time Ph.D. These are only few examples, you will see a lot more. Try to see the Application field for GIS, you will easily be able to get a good paying job for sure. Good Luck.

Thanks Poon Hill,

I have strong hand in RS and have applied algorithms to classify landuse and landcover. I even came up with new accuracy technique using GPS points and random points in ERDAS. As for GIS, I play with spatial analyst to analyze data derived from landsat image.

I haven't used hydro models yet. As for GIS , they need strong computer programming skills that I dont have yet. Thinking of taking some programming classes.

Thanks Poon Hill,

I have strong hand in RS and have applied algorithms to classify landuse and landcover. I even came up with new accuracy technique using GPS points and random points in ERDAS. As for GIS, I play with spatial analyst to analyze data derived from landsat image.

I haven't used hydro models yet. As for GIS , they need strong computer programming skills that I dont have yet. Thinking of taking some programming classes.

Thanks Poon Hill,

I have strong hand in RS and have applied algorithms to classify landuse and landcover. I even came up with new accuracy technique using GPS points and random points in ERDAS. As for GIS, I play with spatial analyst to analyze data derived from landsat image.

I haven't used hydro models yet. As for GIS , they need strong computer programming skills that I dont have yet. Thinking of taking some programming classes.

SR,
     Still have one year. learn some GIS programming .net or java, and  learn Oracle spatial. it makes you more technical which is kind of pure science---.  you may develop your own software. its not easy---but you can do it----

Then get into Python programming and do some work on that: You will be "In Demand" person then. Good Luck

Thanks guys. For python programming, do u have to have pre-requisites? I have taken only one computer science course and took almost every gis and remote sensing courses including visual basic.

JPEG:

Nepal need some good archeologists/anthropologists. Finish ur degree before the stupids sell every artifacts we have.