CAREERS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond

CONTENTS

1. WHAT ARE YOUR CAREER GOALS?
   Action Points

2. HOW CAN YOU MEET YOUR CAREER GOALS?
   Envisioning a Career

   Planning a Career

   How Careers in Science and Engineering Are Changing

   The Case of the PhD

   Evaluating Possible Careers

   Tempo and Environment

   Relating Your Education to Your Occupation

   Personal Values and Your Occupation

   Evaluating an Occupation

   Evaluating Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses

   Action Points

3. WHAT SURVIVAL SKILLS AND PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES DO YOU NEED TO SUCCEED?
   What Are Skills and Attributes?

   Communication Skills

   Teaching Skills

   Mentoring Skills

   Team Skills

   Leadership Skills

   Action Points

4. WHAT EDUCATION DO YOU NEED TO REACH YOUR CAREER GOALS?
   The Undergraduate Years

   Decisions About Graduate School

   Deciding Whether To Attend Graduate School

   Deciding When To Attend Graduate School

   Deciding Where To Attend Graduate School

   Graduate School

   Choosing a Degree

   Choosing an Adviser

   The Adviser - Student Relationship

   Choosing a Research Topic

   Achieving Breadth

   Ensuring Steady Progress

   Postdoctoral Study

   Some Tips for Foreign Students

   After School, What Next?

   Action Points

5. HOW DO YOU GET THE JOB THAT IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

   Finding a Job

   Interviewing for a Job

   Finding a Job is Hard Work

   Career Changes

   Action Points

6. THE RESPONSIBILITY IS YOURS

   Action Points

• BIBLIOGRAPHY

• APPENDIX A: DISCUSSION OF SCENARIOS

• APPENDIX B: SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO SUCCESS IN SCIENCE OR ENGINEERING

• SCENARIOS
  Approaching a Career

  Evaluating Yourself

  Communication Skills

  Team Skills

  Deciding Whether to Attend Graduate School

  Choosing a Degree

  The Adviser-Student Relationship

  Choosing a Research Topic

  Finding a Job

  Career Changes

  

• PROFILES

  How does a Geneticist/Molecular Biologist Get to be a Patent Lawyer?

  How does a Chemical Engineer Get to be a Building Designer?

  How does a Mathematics Major Get to be an Actuary?

  How does a Chemistry Major Get to be a Professor?

  How does a Physicist Get to be a Financial Researcher?

  How does an Electronics Engineer Get to be a Science Journalist?

  How does a Molecular Biologist Get to be a Science Policy Adviser?

  How does a High School Chemistry Teacher Get to be a Research Chemist and then an Educational Consultant?

  How does a Nuclear Engineer Get to be a Therapeutic Radiation Physicist?

  How does a Nurse Get to be a Research Manager?

  How does a Research Biologist Get to be a High School Teacher?

  How does a Physicist Get to do Toxicology and Risk Assessment?

  How does an Experimental Psychologist Get to be a Human Factors Specialist?

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