In Pursuit of Knowledge About Careers Outside of Academia

Abstract

By all accounts, ocean sciences graduate students are very interested in learning about jobs options outside of academia—jobs that are frequently but unfortunately called “alternate careers.” Students often lack access to information about such jobs in their current academic surroundings, but their curiosity about them was evident in the standing-room-only crowds at the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting career panels and CV writing workshops. It is also notable in the popularity of Oceanography’s career profiles column (https://tos.org/career-profiles), now in its fifteenth year. These profiles display the breadth of job opportunities for ocean scientists in government, industry, and the nonprofit sector. The number of career profiles published online and in hard copies of Oceanography quietly passed the 100 mark in late 2023. Recognizing students’ need for career information, professional societies—and many university departments—have been organizing activities to help fill this knowledge gap and enable students to make connections with scientists who have pursued careers outside of academia.