Everything's alright

So...it's been two days since I've written.  The lazy part of me wants to forget that I even started this blog.  And then, the socially conscious part of me thinks, No, any successful endeavor requires at the very least consistency.  Consistency.  So for the sake of consistency, I write.  Today hasn't been harrowing.  I've managed to ward off the addictive need to check my g-mail and phone by giving myself a veritable list of must dos.  I must apply to X number of places.  I must run and keep up with my physical health.  I must e-mail John Smith.  I must update blog.

Here's a running commentary in my head that might be worth mentioning.  In this blasted economy, is it worth going back to school for a professional degree?  At the moment, I'd parse this into a) is it worth it getting a professional degree and b) if it is, then what kind should it be?  With reference to a), I do think that PhDs (seeking to make the industrial switch) fall into this "weird" category where they are either inexperienced (due to their 0 years of industrial experience) or overqualified.  I'm suprised that not more PhDs are slamming their heads against their office desks for making such a poor decision early in their professional careers.  (Truly, I am not a cynic by nature; clearly, there is a gap here that must be filled.)  Having said that, which professional degree is worth getting?  For some of us (who have attempted some years of PDing, as strongly recommended by the higher ups of our profession), we would be in our 30s, which is still early.  Still, we struggle.  Yes, we have time.  Yes, we're still young. What right, therefore, have we to complain.  But we have every right.  We have every right because we have devoted 10 or so years of our lives (never mind our bodies and souls) to a profession that so clearly exists in some other planet.  In this planet, these 10 or so years are nil.  Never mind that you might have identified a gene that could solve the obesity problem in America.  If you have never performed next generation sequencing, you are basically worthless.  I agree that we are not as brilliant as we have deluded ourselves into thinking; however, we are admittedly one of the smartest groups in the nation.  At some point in our lives, we knew we could do something that might possibly change the world.  Why else would we want a PhD?  As I sit here in my kitchen counter blogging, I can't help but think, Did getting a PhD make me less of a human being?

Anyway, this post is definitely getting to that place where no man should even tread.  I will thus end this post here.  I will say though that I had a somewhat good day today.  I was "ridin' solo" during my run, which affirmed my decision that yes, wherever this journey leads, it will definitely be one of a kind.

Prologue

It's been almost two months since I resigned from my job in Academia.  Yes, I was one of those PDs (er, postdocs) with a glazed look in their eyes.  Jaded, yet hopeful enough to remain where they are.  After having survived 7 years of graduate school, I wasn't thrilled to know that I had 5 to 10 more years of hard work ahead of me.  In point of fact, being a PD is harder than being a graduate student, as weird and strange as that may sound to someone who is in his/her third or fourth year of graduate school.  It's incommunicable, the stress of being a PD.  Perhaps it's the emotional strain of wanting (if not, needing) to start a life (finally) and realizing that (despite having a Ph.D.) you're incapable of that.  Or working so hard to gather enough data to have a thesis, finally writing it and realizing that all your efforts can be found in some bound volume that will forever be hidden in the back of a university library where all the other theses reside.  All that and more have forced me to take considerable stock of my present and future -- rather, what I have left given that my past was taken hostage for 7 years.

So...

The present: I sit here now waiting to hear back from an on-site interview I did last week at a major Biotech company.  As I had informed my fellow g-chatters, I e-mailed the Coordinator who forwarded my e-mail (inquiring of a time frame for a hiring decision) to the Recruiter...who as of right now, has not responded.  Yes, it's been a heck of a week.  It makes me wonder how efficient I am in this process.  At the moment, I am digging deep within my scientific brain hoping to conjure up some system, some failsafe system, to succeed in this endeavour.  So far, the results are what you see before you...the random musings of someone who has dared to ask the question: IF not Academia, then what?  What happens when you make a conscious decision to veer off the main road?  What trails do you blaze?  And where do you begin?  Well, friends, this is the journey that I've decided to take.  The path of a Rogue Scientist...and let me be clear, I am not a revolutionary by any means.  Sadly, however, I am forced to be one.  I do not consider myself an academic nor an industrialist.  Which makes me for lack of a better word a revolutionary.

So...no response today...sigh...