Alternative career options

Goodbye academia? Alternative career options

Degree in your hand, but not sure what to do next? Get some inspiration on what (alternative) career options you have with a background in the natural sciences. Here you find a list with many possibilities.

 

Industry

Job fields

 

Industries

  • Chemical
  • Biotech
  • Pharma
  • Instruments

Academia

We´ve written a number of articles about academic careers. Please see also our publication list for more articles. 

PhD in industry and My industry PhD

My last day as a postdoc

Postdoc or not?

Patent law

  • Patent lawyer in law firm or industry (National and/ or European patent lawyer)
  • National or European patent office
  • Patent engineer

 

Politics and government institutions

Job fields

 

Employers

  • International organisations: e.g. OPCW, European Commission
  • Think tanks
  • Research and testing facilities, e.g. Bundesamt für Materialforschung und ‑prüfung (BAM)
  • TÜV
  • Foundations like Stiftung Warentest
  • Industry clusters (e.g. biotech parks)
  • NGOs and Foundations (e.g. Volkswagen- or Robert-Bosch-Foundation)

 

Consulting

 

Publishing

  • Editor
  • Science writing

 

Teacher

Freelancer or company founder

Not sure what to do next? On the Science Careers homepage you can do the myIDP test for free. This test might help you explore career possibilities that fits you best. You´ll find more of these analysis tools in our Career resource Introspection.

Several of our Workshops and talks deal with (alternative) career options. Our workshop PhD! and, next? provides orientation about your own wishes and the career paths you can take. Our talk Graduated and now? – A look at career options is tightly focused on exploring career options. 

We interview professionals from various fields about their careers: how did you get the job, how is it to work in your profession and how do you use social media to leverage your professional success.

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