September 14, 2020

Non-Traditional Careers for Science Majors | Dr. Dwight Randle | TEDxMountainViewCollege



"Hey Mr Dusch, I really like chemistry. I'm thinking about becoming a chemical engineer."

Replace that last part with "becoming a chemist", and you have nearly every beginning of a career conversation that I have with my students.

See, chemistry leads to being a chemist or a chemical engineer. That's about it as far as the students know. 

I'm always happy to have a few other suggested paths available for my students.

I've had former students go into labware glass blowing, illustrations for science textbooks, digging up dinosaur bones in Wyoming, counting birds along the upper Mississippi River, and nuclear submarine engineering.

I was really hoping that I would get a few more suggestions for chemistry-adjacent careers paths that I could provide for my students. Sadly, that's not what the above video provides - in spite of the title of the video. Instead, we get told that scientists have historically been portrayed as loner white guys. Scientists don't all look like that now. And then we get advice to follow the career path that fits you.

Overall, meh...

The below video, however, is a bit of that science-adjacent career exploration. It's a speech by a scientific illustrator explaining how her career combines art and science and why it's better than just taking photos to illustrate the text.



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