I thought if you have a Ph.D. or a master’s degree, job comes easy…
Key is to be patient and positive…
In six weeks, I won’t have a job.
I’m a forensic chemist, with a master’s degree in analytical chemistry. I thought my job was secure, but then, the State-owned laboratory is closing.
Why its closing is a different story to tell.
And losing my job was fine for me wife is working, until she isn’t. She also lost her job.
So, two of us is not working.
I have a master’s degree; she has a Ph.D. also in analytical chemistry.
(Btw, one of my non-science friends once asked if we talk about isotopes in the dinner table. The answer is yes.)
Minted with higher education degree, we thought, job will come easy…
What we found is that sometimes though, we have to slug it off.
Last January, my wife Joy was laid off by Pfizer. I know, when you hear Pfizer, you think of vaccine, but she didn’t work with the famous vaccine research group. Joy was involved in making new drugs to lower blood pressure.
Last January too, was the time when big names such as Amazon and Google, the tech giants announced to lay-off thousands of their engineers and work force.
Good thing was, Pfizer gave her a good severance package which was a very good buffer for us to live for another year.
But we are not waiting for another year, we been applying for jobs and hitting up our network and connections for new jobs.
This is not our first rodeo…
A decade ago, we also both lost our job.
At that time, we were working for a start-up company that works on brain injury. Remember that time when brain injury went mainstream because of NFL’s concussion injury?
The Department of Defense granted us money to study brain injury. Our warriors were suffering brain injury from the roadside bombing.
But our company was burning more money without drugs in the pipeline. So, we have to close.
The start-up company went belly up.
I was dreaming of having stocks that will be worth millions when the start-up goes public.
It never happened.
We were left with no jobs, and a 3-year-old in tow. We were scared. How can we survive?
At the start, companies were looking for people with experience…
When we were applying for work at that time a decade ago, my wife and I were so frustrated cause we were not qualified for lack of experience.
I thought, the higher education and additional training in school would make up for that.
But no, experience was needed.
So, I applied for a teaching position at a nearby Community College. I was teaching General Chemistry to students who wanted to be nurses and physical therapists or radiologist.
Then through my network, I got a consulting job. And then a real job. My wife also got a real job eventually.
Today, when applying for job, sometimes, we are overqualified…
For the past decade or so, we accumulated a lot of experience under our belt. And sometimes, we thought we can do the job, they would reject us because we are overqualified.
This frustrates us.
We realized; we have to think differently now. We have to look for jobs that we want and would really enjoy.
I think that’s the perks of having higher education and experience. It may be harder to get a job because employers want you to stay and not just take their job because you needed a job right away.
You are led to jobs that we will certainly enjoy most and with better perks.
What now?
I been applying for jobs that I am qualified to do. So is Joy.
I broaden my horizon, and applying for jobs such as technical sales. It’s sales but you have to know your product.
I am applying for job at the United States Patent Office. This is a remote job examining patents from entrepreneurs and businesses. A
As a side note, Albert Einstein was a patent examiner before he published his seminal work on the theory of relativity.
Recruiters from LinkedIn is telling my wife that she can be in sales too but think about the job: you are not selling a commodity such as cotton or coffee.
She will be selling half a million-dollar instruments that only her can operate, and subsequently train scientist how to use it.
Some of her network is giving her consulting job at the moment, to process complicated data.
I thinnk these are the perks of having higher education and extensive experience.
Wish us luck.
