Question: Would you advise your career to others who are interested in science and why?

Barbara Shih answered on 10 Mar 2015:

This is a difficult question. I would advise my career to others who are interested in science if they are aware of the potential difficulties in pursuing a pure academic research career (i.e. not working for hospitals or industries).

Working in research has the benefit that:
1) You feel good about yourself. Everyday when you go to work, you might discover something new and help people on a large scale in some ways. I imagine it is not the case if you work in a company that has making profit as their main agenda.
2) It is usually quite flexible. I could work from home or change my work hours as I see fit.
3) It’s always new and exciting. I don’t think it ever gets repetitive (there might be the occasional “nothing is working” moments, but chances are they’ll pass if you keep at it).

The downsides though, are:
1) Insecure career ladder. People with an undergraduate degree and 4 year work experience would probably have a better career path/pay than someone who has a PhD.
2) It gets very competitive. When someone just graduated from their PhD, they’re most desirable. After their first few post-doctoral job, people stopped wanting to employ them. The problem is, the chances of getting onto the next part of the ladder is less than 1/10.
3) Jobs tend to be temporary. Typical jobs are half a year to 3 years, and you need to prepared for the possibility of moving cities or to be unemployed for some time if you want stay in a specific city.

That being said, I think you tend to have better chances with career if you work hard and are very picky with your supervisor (find the famous ones). I have enjoyed my career path so far 🙂