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Science Rules

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Looking Forward After it’s Done.

May 3rd, 2015 by toren

Throughout my GRS career, the questions from friends and parents has always been “so what do you want to do once you’re finished?” or “What kind of jobs are there?”. These are good, difficult questions to answer, because frankly I just don’t know!

For those wanting to become engineers, there is a defined university program for that with well-laid out jobs waiting. Doctors, same thing. There are prescribed routes to become a professional of a certain kind. In studying environmental science, depending on your interests, there may not be a defined job, or even defined industry in which one could say they wanted to work! It is almost as if, in the GRS program, we are saying from the onset that what it is we want to do doesn’t exist yet, and we have to promote ourselves and create the type of job or industry where we want to work in the future. I think this is a pervasive way of thinking for many of us in the program, to not be satisfied with the way things are, with the way things are going and by making things a little harder for ourselves in the beginning,  be ultimately satisfied with ourselves for choosing the path less travelled.

For me, the hardest part about looking at future careers is determining where to focus my interests. I feel that one of the great strengths of the GRS program is the breadth of knowledge that students are able to glean from the variety of courses we are able to choose from, is also dangerous for those of us who can’t make decisions. From design and microbiology to soil science and conservation, my coursework has been varied and I have ben able to draw from these courses in order to enrich projects in future courses, at work, and in daily life. Being able to look at a problem from many sets of eyes is a strength that will certainly be an asset, and at the same time pulls me in different directions.

Having just met with a UBC professor in order to get advice on masters programs, and career direction, I was surprised to hear him tell me to get out of school, start working, and only come back if they tell you to. I left the meeting feeling somewhat disenchanted, but I now realize that this honest response was likely the reality check that I needed in order to begin thinking about the future; don’t focus on what a masters can do for you, think about the career you want and go after it head on, learn from it and leave the comfort of the university.

Not having the need for a prescribed path is what led us to this program in the first place, I suppose that anything done long enough, regardless of how varied, can become a narrow path. The hard part is looking from side to side and finding a turn that leads to the next one to travel down for a while.

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