As usual, I am poor poor poor. When people think of scientists, firstly I think that they think we are smart (not necessarily true), secondly they think we are nerdy (hmm... can be true but some of us are more normal than others), and thirdly, they probably don't think of us as poor people living paycheck to paycheck. Well, I am here to dispel that myth. Don't go to grad school thinking that you are going to make the big bucks or that it will be easy to live during and after the process. I can honestly tell you that after 12 years of grade school and high school, 4 years of college, and 5.5 years of graduate school I make less than $40,000 a year. I work about 50-60 hours a week (including weekends) in the lab and that doesn't include the time outside of lab where I am constantly reading papers, thinking about my project and planning experiments. So what does this mean? It means, don't get a PhD unless you come from money or don't mind being poor when you are 30 years old while all of your friends are settling down, getting married and buying houses.
I am currently on the hunt for yet another part-time job. Those of you that know me know that I have held part-timers since I was 15 years old- it's nothing new to me but things have changed this time. In the past my jobs were always to get me through school, but it is pretty humiliating when you have a PhD. I have the final degree that I am going to get, and it doesn't pay the bills. Now what? Now, I do what I have to and I find a job that doesn't interfere with my science career. Hmmm... how do I find a job that doesn't interfere with my 60 hour work week and is limited to nights and isn't stripping? I have no idea how I'm going to do this, but if I don't make it happen, the blog title will probably change to "Adventures of a homeless scientist".
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