I’ve started deep diving into genetic engineering at university but I’ve realized just how narrow of a field it is. That if I had to move cities or had a gap between GMO jobs, I’d be just as unemployable as someone who had just turned 18. Even for tangentially related biochem professions like hygiene inspection I’m missing the requisite papers. I wanted to ask if this is something you think is worth being concerned about. Would it make sense to get qualified as eg. an electrician so that I have a way to cover the financial gaps wherever I end up, and don’t have to resort to bar work?
Getting qualified as an electrician is not a simple undertaking. That would be beginning an entirely different career path. Not to dissuade from it, but it’s not the kind of thing you can just do on the side like tending bar.
It’s also worth considering that many people change career paths entirely, even after getting degrees in one field. A bachelors degree, more than anything, demonstrates that you are able to be taught and you can complete a long term, self directed project. Exactly what you get a degree in matters, but maybe not as much as you’d think, especially if you broaden your studies with taking a minor, or volunteering, or doing internships.
A bachelors degree, more than anything, demonstrates that you are able to be taught and you can complete a long term, self directed project.
Ah, I see.
Getting qualified as an electrician is not a simple undertaking.
I suppose what I’m really asking is not about being an electrician specifically but whether it’d be sensible/advisable to focus on developing a more broadly sought specialisation in parallel to the one at university.
Not unless you want to be halfway competent at both, rather than well-qualified and hireable for either. Genetic engineering in particular is a rapidly evolving field, and if you take tons of extra time to complete your degree (or finish and then work as an electrician or something else for 5 years) what you learned at the beginning probably won’t be more relevant than any other wet science experience. As the first response said, what’s important is that you demonstrate that you can self-motivate and learn. Any biology related bachelor degree should help you get your foot in the door of any biological or even chemical science job–you’ll have to sell yourself to a greater or lesser degree, but you have to do that for a job interview anyway.
All that a second qualification, whether that’s electrician, plumber, stenographer, etc. would do for you is make it more likely that your lifetime career will be that secondary qualification. If that’s what you want then why bother with genetic engineering, and if it’s not then fast-track genetic engineering and know that if you need a bridge job it’ll be at a lower salary, but that you’ll be getting your main job earlier in life so it’ll even out.
Just my own opinion, developed through my own lived experiences. I, consciously, chose to not specialize too deep into one field and instead developed a more broad set of skills. The recent research is starting to validate my decisions back then. As it turns out, college grads with multiple minors, rather than graduates with a traditional major trajectory, tend to be better suited to the work environments.
Where knowledge of a range of disciplines helps inform a more holistic approach to creative problem solving. “Wicked problems” are often tackled and solved by systems thinking generalists because they draw on a wide range of experiences across multiple disciplines, departments, and sets of knowledge.
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