The big leap

After more than two decades of school, it is finally time for you to venture out into the big wide world! Now what? Will you choose a traditional path, such as becoming a professor in academia or a research scientist in industry? Maybe instead you will pursue an alternative path within academia or business. How much will income level affect your thinking? Generally speaking, initial academic compensation will be lower than industry pay. Or possibly you will decide not to move immediately to outside employment, instead shifting your focus to a few more years of schooling, from a PhD to a postdoc or from one postdoc to another, or perhaps to become a patent attorney or to add a medical degree to your MS or PharmD or PhD. What an exciting time of your life this will be, but you will do well if you apply yourself. Remember, “the difficult we do immediately—the impossible takes only a little longer.”