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Career Options: How to Choose
Ben Pollard/Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 
Do You Love the Work or the Environment?
I know a person who is now a successful educator, but she initially
made her choice to attend graduate school in the life sciences because
the lab
environment where she did undergraduate research was a lot of fun. Once
she
went on to graduate school, she never found the same type of environment
again,
and the nature of the actual work turned out not to be a good fit for
her. She
completed graduate school but then felt the need to explore other
careers
during her postdoc. It took several years to rebuild her career, and now
she's
very happy, but it probably would have been best if she had more
carefully considered
her reasons for attending graduate school to begin with. So when you are
in
your internships or other opportunities, make sure you objectively
evaluate how
well you enjoy the actual work, not just the people around you.
Are There Opportunities for Career Advancement?
Another common mistake that people make is choosing a career
but not considering the opportunities for advancement within that
career. I know another person who worked as a lab
technician for ten years and enjoyed the work, but realized after about
five years
that she wanted to do more with her life than be a lab tech. However,
the
chances for career advancement were extremely limited in research unless
she were
to go to graduate school, which she wasn't really interested in. She
networked
and applied for jobs for two years before getting a job as a program
manager
for HIV vaccine trials. She's happy in her current position, but
sometimes
wishes she hadn't stayed as a lab tech for so long. So, while you are in
your
internship, look around and ask colleagues about potential advancement
paths in
the field.
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