Career Profiles

• Career Profiles

Academic Career Information

• A Career in Undergraduate Education
• COSEPUP Postdoctoral Report
  A report discussing ways of enhancing the postdoctoral experience. It includes discussion of the responsibilities of postdoc, institution, funding agency and professional society.
• AAS member Robin Corbet has provided the AAS with a result from his 2004 survey of academic astronomy and physics programs in the US. It shows the number of assistant, associate, and full professors as a function of years from PhD.
• Tomorrow's Professor ListServe Site
  The listserve sends emails a few times a week with information about teaching, research, tenure and other topics of academic interest.
• Sabbaticalhomes.com
  A website dedicated to helping academic communities around the world find or list houses for rent, exchange or house-sit when on sabbatical leave.
• Jennifer Hodgdon on Leaving Academic Physics
  An article covering many aspects of career change.
• Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers
  A Guide for Postdoctoral Scholars, Advisers, Institutions, Funding Organizations, and Disciplinary Societies
• "Landing Your First Job," by John S. Rigden. June 2003, Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
• The Right Startup Package for Beginning Scientists
• Astronomy: The Search for a Stellar Career —Science Magazine article on Astronomy Careers
• Gaining Tenure: Rules Your Chairman Never Told You

Non-Academic Career Information

• Leaving the Bench for a Corporate Perch
• Why You'll Want a Mentor Outside the Ivory Tower, Too
• The Scientist as Consultant: Building New Career Opportunities by Carl J. Sinderman and Thomas K. Sawyer. A how-to book on learning to be a scientific consultant. I read this and it was good. This is useful if you are perhaps not fully-funded or looking to transition away from academia. This can also work if you are geographically constrained (can't move for a job).
• Alternate Careers in Science: Leaving the Ivory Tower edited by Cynthia Robbins-Roth. Each chapter covers a different career track.
• Career Renewal by Stephen Rosen and Celia Paul. A guide for successful career transition written for scientists and engineers.

AAS Workshops

• Career Workshops

Networks

• Non-Academic Astronomers Network — Check out the variety of career paths outside academia taken by people with astronomy degrees!
• MentorNet — An E-Mentoring Network for Diversity in Engineering and Science.
• National Postdoctoral Association — The NPA plays a leading role in addressing issues confronting the postdoc community.

Education and Employment Statistics

• AIP Statistical Research Center — a great source for data on education and employment in physics, astronomy and allied fields.
• NSF Science and Engineering Statistics — long term data on federal research funding, student and workforce demographics, public attitudes and understanding, industry, and more.
• NAS Career Reports — publications for career planning, doctoral program trends and rankings, ethics, and women in science.
• Survey Points to Mismatch Between Ph.D. Students, Their Programs, and Their Potential Employers
• The Production Rate and Employment of Ph.D. Astronomers — a paper about the astronomy job market, originally presented at the summer 2007 AAS meeting.

Communicating Research

• Tips for Writing the Abstract of an AAS Meeting Presentation
• How Do You Prepare a Research Poster?
• The Martial Art of Scientific Publication

Women and Minorities in Science

• Land of Plenty: Diversity as America's Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology — NSF report from the former Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development (CAWMSET)
• Michelle Thaller's Christian Science Monitor Article on women in science.

Relevant Publications

• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Ask the Headhunter website

Professional Organizations

• American Association of Physics Teachers
• Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• International Astronomical Union
• National Institute for Science Education
• The Society for College Science Teachers

Selected member and affiliated societies of the American Institute of Physics (AIP)

• American Chemical Society
• American Geophysical Union and the AGU Education Site
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• American Physical Society
• Geological Society of America
• Optical Society of America
• Society of Physics Students
• SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering