Why My Degree Did Not Dictate My Job Options

Some people go to college, pick a career or area of study that they enjoy and stick with for four or more years of schooling, and then go on to immediately find a job in that discipline.

I am not one of those people. You're probably not, either. And you know what? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I still use my degree on a daily basis.

As an undergraduate, I was really interested in microbiology in general, and fungi and algae in particular. I graduated with a B.S. in biology, then started grad school for botany. I was quite convinced that I wanted and was bound for a future in academia as a professor or researcher, and was excited to start work on a research project and work as a teaching assistant. It soon became apparent to me, however, that I really didn't enjoy doing research that much and that academia was just not a good fit for me. I wanted more job security, to see more tangible benefits emerge my work (not really an option for the particular area of study I was working on), and shorter-term projects; so, I decided to leave with just a master's degree, and seek my fortunes elsewhere.

Having been convinced for roughly eight years that I was heading towards a future as a professor, I was lost initially as to what to do with myself. I did enjoy teaching quite a bit--I always have--but my M.S. in Botany only really left me eligible for short-term, semester-to-semester type teaching appointments that I would have to compete against more experienced PhD's to get. I was discouraged, and wasn't sure what other types of jobs I might even be able to get with what I considered to be a fairly specialized skill set. I decided that I should utilize the resources available to me, and sought out career counseling at my university.

The most important thing that my career advisor taught me to do was to reevaluate my skills outside of the context that I learned them in. At the time, we were coming up with ways to write a good resume that really marketed me to prospective employers that weren't looking for a biology instructor or researcher, but through that experience, I got a much better sense of how many transferable skills I had actually developed during my time in college. I had experience doing research, yes; but more importantly, I had demonstrated & refined my ability to solve problems in novel ways. I had been trained in many lab techniques, and found ways to tweak them to improve them for my own projects, which showed that I could learn technical processes and improve upon them. I had taught a variety of classes to college freshmen through graduate students about a number of different biology topics, but what potential employers were more likely to care about was the fact that I had a lot of experience communicating orally as well as in writing, and that I was capable of explaining difficult technical concepts and tailoring materials to my audience.

At the time, I felt a little strange about presenting myself that way, but the resume we developed was not only a very truthful and accurate description of my abilities and training, but it also helped get me a job that I enjoy. As a software tester, the only time my botanical knowledge is ever really useful is when my coworkers bring in pictures of fungi they've found in their gardens and ask me to identify them. Despite that, I still use the skills I developed in college every day in my job, which I really enjoy. I certainly am not using my degree in the way that I imagined I'd use it when I started college, but being flexible and developing transferable skills allowed me to still find a fantastic job where much of my education still matters.