Welcome!

The mission of this blog is to share information on the non-academic career options available to scientists with a PhD in volcanology. As PhD students are trained by academics, recent and current students might not be aware of the many career paths that exist outside of academia. Our aim is to highlight these paths through short bios, stats on non-academic careers, and article resources.

If you have a PhD in volcanology and are working in a non-academic position, we value your advice and can learn from your experience! To participate in our project, please take the survey. For more information, please do read our “mission” page.

Personal profiles are posted below as they become available, and are sorted by job type and decision path (see menu bars).

Spotlight: Charlotte Stamper

Summary: PhD in 2014 at the University of Bristol, UK in experimental petrology. Got first non-academic job as a renewable energy manager within a few months of completing PhD.

“Whatever you end up doing, it should be something you’re passionate about. That might not be what you did your PhD in and that should not be seen as a failure.”

Lessons learnt from a year of unemployment

Not all of us get jobs right away when we leave academia. I know most people do the wise thing and apply for non-academic jobs before they leave. In my case, I was just fed up, and I was in a position of privilege: I had money left over from my PhD (I know!) because I’d gotten one of those fancy Marie Curie grants, and I had enough to keep me going for a year. I also didn’t have any dependents, so I could afford to take a risk… So I left my postdoc in New York, went back to Belgium (where I’m from) and started looking for jobs. This was three months before the Covid outbreak – terrible timing. I often use Covid as an excuse for why I didn’t find a job right away, but plenty of people found work during that time. Whatever the reason, the point is: I was unemployed for a year. Here are a few things I learnt during my search. I would like to stress that this is geared to Belgium, where I was looking, and very much based on my own experience – I’m sure others will have different advice: please do share them in the comments, or get in touch to write a post!

Spotlight: Natasha Dowey

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Summary: PhD at the University of Liverpool. Got non-academic job <1 year after PhD. Currently a Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, specializing in volcanic hazards.

“Seek out positive role models, who you can identify with, and surround yourself with people who encourage and champion you wherever possible.”

Spotlight: Sarah Henton de Angelis

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Summary: Received her PhD in 2013 from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a specialty in Igneous Petrology and Volcanology. After a post-doc and a spell as a geologist for the British Government, she now runs her own scientific editing and consulting business (Tornillo Scientific). She continues to be actively involved in research.

“Despite taking the plunge to leave academia behind, and despite putting my family first, I had succeeded in building a career/business that allowed me to support my family and still be part of the wider Earth science community.”

Spotlight: Johannes Thun

Current occupation: Catastrophe modeller at Aon, in the Czech Republic

Summary: PhD in volcano seismology from University College Dublin (2017). Moved to Czechia during thesis write-up. Short-term postdoc. Got job <1 year after PhD.

“[…] in the end, if you work with nice people and carry out work that you believe is important and valued, I think it doesn’t really matter where and what exactly you are doing”

Virtual Career Panel

The IAVCEI Early Career Researcher Network hosted a virtual panel discussing the transition out of academia on April 30th, 2020. Below are some common questions that were asked during the panel, with responses from panelists Fred Witham and Jennifer Wade.

1. Coming from an environment where graduates are often funneled into industry, or the very few who pursue volcanology are assumed to remain in academia; how have you overcome the potential challenges of going down a path that is not considered conventional for volcanologists? 

     Fred Witham (FW) –    It didn’t really feel like there were many challenges, to be honest. The main one was probably that nobody within academia was advocating my career path. So, it was up to me to look around to see what I could find. Given that I wanted to stay in the same city, my scope was limited geographically. I just looked for everything within a commutable range. (And first preference was commutable by bike!)

    Jennifer Wade (JW) –    The only challenge I really faced was from faculty where I did my PhD who saw the non-faculty path as less valuable. I have had to remind myself that no one can choose my path but me, and I’ve tried to demonstrate back to them the value in non-academic positions (I think successfully!) To employers, I’ve always tried to highlight my skills, and not focus on my dissertation title. I demonstrate that I can use instruments, software, and I can communicate and think out problems. 

2. For jobs related to geoscience/volcanology, how useful is a Masters? Unsure of whether to do a Ph.D. or not, and how useful it would be. Did you encounter any companies that did not want to hire someone with a Ph.D.?

Virtual panel discussion: 30 April 2020, 17:00 UTC

Thinking about the future? Considering careers outside academia? Join our virtual career panel discussion on Thursday 30 April, 17:00 UTC. We will discuss a variety of career options for volcanologists with our panelists: Sheridan Ackiss (remote sensing scientist for Aerospace Corporation), Melissa Plail (senior editor at Nature Communications), Claudio Trovato (after school teacher and nature guide on Etna), Fred Witham (combustion engineer at Rolls Royce), and Jennifer Wade (Program Director at the US National Science Foundation)!

We’ll be using Zoom to host the panel on:
Apr 30, 2020 05:00 PM UTC

Register in advance at https://psu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwtc-ivqTwpHNW30ETNs8Cua5XEc5aBzeZg
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

If you have questions you’d like to ask the panelists, submit them by e-mail to ecrnetiavcei@gmail.com or tune in and ask them on the Zoom call!

Spotlight: Katharine Maussen

Current occupation: GIS production manager for the Belgian National Geographic Institute (NOT the magazine)

Summary: Ph.D. in Crater lake geochemistry obtained from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Got current job < 1 year after Ph.D., did not apply for postdocs.

“I was not prepared to go through the cycle of finding postdoc after postdoc and moving countries and continents on short notice.”

“[…] a big part of my job is developing new workflows which requires the abstraction and creativity which is typically developed during a PhD project.”

Spotlight: Jill Schleicher

Current Occupation: Consulting data and analytics modeler at KPMG consulting firm

PhD, University of Washington, 2017, magma dynamics and petrology

“While I’ll always love magmatic systems, I didn’t have the passion to make my whole career focus on them. I decided to find something that would allow me to use and develop the data techniques and skills I’ve always been drawn towards.”

Spotlight: Fred Witham

Current occupation: Combustion Engineer at Rolls-Royce

Summary: Ph.D. in Geophysics/Fluid Mechanics, awarded by Bristol University, UK. This was followed by 3.5 years postdoc experience before applying to engineering jobs.

'If you are good/lucky enough to make a career in academia without making too many other compromises then I believe it can be a fantastic life. But if the compromises pile up, keep in mind that you are very desirable in the outside world.'

During the last year of your Ph.D., what did you think was your next step? Did you feel supported or encouraged to discuss career paths outside academia?

Most of the options discussed were academic, at Bristol or elsewhere. My plan was to head for a postdoc.  I had a general understanding that there were jobs in the mineral mining industry for which I would have some relevant expertise. I did not investigate further as I had academic options that looked promising, and my desire at that time was to stay in academia.