Job Quest – the beginning

A stack of possibilities.

It has been about half a year since the end of my last postdoctoral fellowship. Although I have kept an eye out for new academic positions, I mostly have used this period of “unemployment” to finish off some lingering projects, to travel around to see friends and family, and to train for a marathon (which I successfully finished last weekend [February 18]). With all of these things winding down, I am now pondering where to go next.

During much of the past 10 years, I have done what most people who aspire to have an academic career after a PHD do – postdocs. I spent a year and a half in Sweden, five years in Germany, and finally two years in Japan, where I currently reside. This time has allowed me to expand my knowledge in my chosen research specialty of ice sheet, sea level and geographical changes in the past. This period culminated in the publication of a widely cited reconstruction of the Earth’s topography over the past 80,000 year. I supervised several students and published 24 peer reviewed articles. On the whole, I think my postdoc years were productive and fulfilling in such a quest.

The reality, though, is that there are many people who are aspiring academics who also have excellent qualifications, and there are not many jobs. I applied for a position last October, and though I was longlisted, they said they had over 1400 applicants! This fact means that I need to be broader in my job quest.

I have not been idle on this front. I created a resume, which you can view here, with the help of one of my friends who succeeded in moving out of academia. I have sought the support of a local recruiter. I started being active on LinkedIn to get an idea of what kinds of positions are out there. During the past couple of months, I have come to think of a number of pathways I can pursue.

  1. I can still try to find an academic position. I am pretty happy here in Japan, but there are not so many positions advertised here. I have discussed with my spouse, and I can look for positions outside of Japan. Even then, new openings for longer term positions that would justify an overseas move are not common.
  2. Data science is in high demand, especially with AI applications. If I go into data science, I will need to spend some time brushing up on my programming skills, and to learn about Bayesian statistics and AI programming techniques.
  3. Climate tech is also a big business now. As a climate scientist, it is enticing to be involved in the solutions necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I would need to find a way to utilize my skills and knowledge to enter this field, likely in terms of assessing impact and risk.
  4. I could start a consulting business to offer professional opinions on climate and sea level changes. I have extensive knowledge about how climate changed in the past, and can use that knowledge to assess and communicate potential risks.
  5. I have always been interested in science communication, and could consider becoming active in that field. I had a great experience helping out with some parts of the BBC 2 documentary series, Earth. They found me via a movie I had posted on Youtube. I could find a way to make this kind of consultation into a more realized profession.
  6. I live in Japan, and although I am proficient enough in Japanese to have a conversation and to have a basic understand what I am reading, it is not sufficient for an office setting. Learning Japanese is one of the hardest things I have ever tried doing. Though it may take a long time to get it to a higher level, the benefit is that it would be pretty easy to find a job once I am at that level.

Each of these pathways comes with potential risk and reward. Obviously, I have been following (1) so far, with limited success. AI and climate tech are definitely hot right now, but I fear that they are just another tech fad, like cryptocurrency and and VR were a few years ago. A lot of money is getting invested, with little understanding if what is being promised is actually possible. Will there still be positions if I spend a lot of effort to gain the skills needed for these fields? Consulting and communication has the advantage of being in control of my own destiny, but at the expense of certainty. Any job I take will likely have to be remote, since after moving continents several times, I am not so keen to move unless it is for an exceptional position. Learning Japanese to get a local job is definitely an option, but also likely to be the most time consuming.

I think, though, I do know that whatever I do, it will need to include research, data archiving and analysis. My most successful projects have included these components, and I would say it is what I am most passionate about. Obviously the first step is to choose the pathway that seems most likely to pay dividends. I am fortunate to have the flexibility to take my time to make the right decision. I am hoping to meet people who have had to jump careers and find out the strategies to make the move.

I have long neglected my blog, and I think it is time to end that. I hope to share insights of my job quest along the way!