Thursday, December 3, 2009

So, now that I've Mastered science, what's next?

Boy that's a question you never stop getting asked, is it? "What do you want to be when you grow up?" With grad school wrapping up I've been applying for, what feels like, every job that comes along that I even barely qualify for. And I'm starting to get called in for interviews. So, just pretending that I'm not going to jump on any decent job that gets offered to me without exception, just pretending that I'll have multiple options for employment.

How do you evaluate a job offer?
I mean there's the obvious issues; salary, benefits, opportunity for advancement, yadda yadda.
But how do you determine if you'll enjoy the work environment?
How do you determine if your future supervisor is the type of person that takes their frustrations out on employees?
How do you evaluate if the ethics of the organization is aligned with your personal values? (if you have some.)
And how do you compare the opportunity to work for a private company to a public organization?

And the most difficult of all; are you supposed to negotiate your starting salary and benefits?
In the past I've read that the main reason for the gap between men's and women's salaries in the professional world is that women start out jobs at lower pay because we don't like to negotiate. But how can I justify negotiating when I feel like I'm not starting from a strong position?

One thing I know for sure, science is much easier that all this life stuff. Being a grownup kinda sucks.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Congratulations on finishing!
Hope you find a great job soon.