PhD Chemist Jobs
Many jobs as chemists or material scientists require a PhD in chemistry. These jobs are concerned with finding out about new chemicals and learning how to use them. This type of research has benefited society with the production of synthetic fibers and materials that have been useful, such as adhesives, paints, drugs, electronics components, and many other similar items. In addition, this type of work can involve reducing pollution and saving energy by refining petrochemicals with improved processing methods.
If you are a chemist who studies living things, you may also help with advances in medicine, food processing, agriculture, and other fields related to living organisms.
You may also work in research and development (also known as R&D). With your knowledge of property laws and how they work, you may be able to create new products and processes, improve those that already exist, or do any other number of things that benefit society. For example, plastics were discovered through research and development; today, plastics are so ubiquitous that most of us in society don't know what we would do without them.
Computers, too, have made this type of research and analysis much easier because large quantities of chemical compounds can be analyzed simultaneously. This has made so-called "combinatorial chemistry" much easier to do, as computers can analyze thousands of chemical compounds at one time. In fact, this is one of the factors that allowed human genes to be sequenced, which led to knowledge that can be used by chemists to create new drugs for all types of illnesses.
Math PhD Jobs
There are lots of jobs available for those who have math PhDs. You can be an applied mathematician and use mathematical modeling to help solve engineering problems and problems for the government, private business, and the social sciences. You can work with the airline industry to determine what the most efficient flight patterns are between cities, or you may work in the automobile industry and make cars more aerodynamic and therefore more efficient. You can even work in high levels of security by helping decipher encryption used in law enforcement or financial services, for example.
PhD Computer Science Jobs
You can work in computer science outside or within academia, too, with your PhD. You'll need to be highly skilled in theoretical problem solving and you'll need to be innovative. It can be very exciting to create new technology and then use it to solve difficult problems, whether by designing hardware, designing programming languages, figuring out theory, or applying applications. In academia, you can focus much more on theory in your research than you might be able to in the private sector, where most often these types of problem-solving techniques are going to be used to solve real-world problems.
Database administrators, too, often have PhDs in computer science. You may help with the development of database management software and figure out ways to make data much safer. You may have to coordinate changes to a company's systems or take care of problems as they arise. As a network architect, you may design and evaluate systems like local area networks or other Internet-related systems.
PhD Teaching Jobs
Most often, PhD teaching jobs occur within academia, in a college or university setting. However, this isn't always the case. You may get your teaching PhD and then choose to use it in another educational setting, such as being principal of an elementary school, or even working directly with children. Oftentimes, those with PhDs engage in a lot of research, and in those cases the teaching that goes on may be one-to-one as you work with graduate students on specific projects.
PhD Research Jobs
Research scientists are always needed in the field of medicine and the sciences. If research is your calling, you can go into any number of scientific fields and utilize your research skills to do everything from developing new vaccines to fighting bioterrorism, or from working on gene therapy to developing new plant hybrids. Most areas within the sciences require high-level research personnel, and in fact this field is growing quickly as science continues to evolve.
Conclusion
If you get your PhD within your field and you decide that you don't want to work in the academic world, or if competition there is too fierce, you can apply your skills in a variety of non-academic fields. Put your knowledge and your skills to good use by going into a field you're interested in and remain very excited about. Academia, too, needs PhD candidates, but with competition so high, you may find it easier and more enjoyable to break out of the academic mold. The choice is yours.
