14 November 2019
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Anderson Hall
University of Washington
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the SAFS Graduate Student Symposium. To mark the occasion, the student organizers solicitied proposals for workshops that would offer students something that they might not otherwise receive as part of their regular coursework at SAFS.
It can be daunting for graduate students to navigate the various career options available to scientists with advanced degrees in environmental sciences. By the time students graduate, they usually have a good idea of what it’s like to be a professor, due to the very nature of their graduate studies, but relatively few have an equal appreciation for the array of alternative career possibilities. Furthermore, although academic careers continue to be a preferred path for some individuals, those jobs are increasingly rare and extremely competitive, and hence more graduates are pursuing non-academic careers. Thus, I have assembled a panel of individuals who have advanced degrees in environmental science, and have chosen non-academic careers, to introduce graduate students to some of the options available to them. Each participant will take about 5 minutes to describe their background, the nature of their work, and share various pros and cons. This will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.