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”

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.

Spotlight: Stephanie Laurie

Current occupation: Exploration geoscientist at a major oil and gas company

PhD from University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon, USA), Geological Sciences, 2012; Oil and Gas Industry; No postdocs (had the job offer at PhD completion)

Getting a PhD degree is not by default “being in academia” – in a sense, that is part of the problem. We assume that PhD = academia, rather than seeing it as a degree that can lead to many job opportunities

During the last year of your Ph.D., what did you think was your next step? How did you end up working in industry?

In my last year I had already gotten an offer for a job in industry. Prior to that I was open to academic options. I learned that my company was conducting screening interviews at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (they did not advertise widely that they were there). I signed up for an interview at the conference and liked what I experienced. I later networked with some folks at Oregon who were connected with the company and was able to learn more about opportunities while in my later years in grad school. Networking and proactively looking for opportunities is how I found my job.