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Dear Niall


Neil.

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:LOL: You must not have heeded Kev's warning about fooling around with your undertitle if you have a fancy one. Or maybe you n00bs didn't get a lecture. I haven't changed mine in 3 years. *iz scared*

 

Had mine for six... I WAS ATTRACTIVE ONCE :'(

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear Niall,

 

How viable is astronomy/astrophysics/etc as a career? I'm currently going down the engineering route, but space stuff has always been my true fascination within physics. We don't have it as part of our school curriculum, and there's not really anyone to talk to about it where I'm from.

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I have returned from Muenchen and will catch up with everything later! <3

 

Dear Niall,

 

How viable is astronomy/astrophysics/etc as a career? I'm currently going down the engineering route, but space stuff has always been my true fascination within physics. We don't have it as part of our school curriculum, and there's not really anyone to talk to about it where I'm from.

 

You have to like astronomy more than the people and places in your life and more than money essentially.

 

After your degree you'll need to maybe do a masters and definitely do a PhD. Then you'll need to apply for post doctoral positions. These are two to four year temporary positions and will almost certainly require you moving to a different country, or at least move across the country you're in but with a lot less options and a lot more competition. You'll have to do two to four of these before you can thing about applying for a permanent position as you'll need to build a sizable portfolio of publications and science to prove you're worthy of it.

 

Security and a permanent place to call home will be transient things until you're about 35-40 years old. If you want a relationship it will have to be with someone who can do a few years of long-distance at least or is willing to move with you.

 

Also you won't be paid nearly as much as those who have left astronomy after a PhD to pursue careers in finance etc. And you'll probably work just the same or more hours for it. If you like the idea of not being tied to anyone or anything then and working a lot to discover something new (albeit often quite trivial in the grand scheme) then you'll love it.

 

I wouldn't recommend it as a career plan unless you really, really, really do love astronomy. There's a lot of stress working long and very variable hours for not a lot of money. The perks include getting to travel and having a lot of control over what you do and having a job people perceive as being cool. But the caveat is you'll have to constantly justify people and governments giving you money to do this and meticulously questioning all the work you do.

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I have returned from Muenchen and will catch up with everything later! <3

 

 

 

You have to like astronomy more than the people and places in your life and more than money essentially.

 

After your degree you'll need to maybe do a masters and definitely do a PhD. Then you'll need to apply for post doctoral positions. These are two to four year temporary positions and will almost certainly require you moving to a different country, or at least move across the country you're in but with a lot less options and a lot more competition. You'll have to do two to four of these before you can thing about applying for a permanent position as you'll need to build a sizable portfolio of publications and science to prove you're worthy of a

 

Security and a permanent place to call home will be transient things until you're about 35-40 years old. If you want a relationship it will have to be with someone who can do a few years of long-distance at least or is willing to move with you.

 

Also you won't be paid nearly as much as those who have left astronomy after a PhD to pursue careers in finance etc. And you'll probably work just the same or more hours for it. If you like the idea of not being tied to anyone or anything then and working a lot to discover something new (albeit often quite trivial in the grand scheme) then you'll love it.

 

I wouldn't recommend it as a career plan unless you really, really, really do love astronomy. There's a lot of stress working long and very variable hours for not a lot of money. The perks include getting to travel and having a lot of control over what you do and having a job people perceive as being cool. But the caveat is you'll have to constantly justify people and governments giving you money to do this and meticulously questioning all the work you do.

 

One could always become a spare time astrologist.

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