[extropy-chat] Career advice sought in nanotech/genetic engineering

[Brett Paatsch]

  From: FromYosee at aol.com 
  To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org 
  Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 12:48 PM
  Subject: [extropy-chat] Career advice sought in nanotech/genetic engineering


  I have a doctorate in the social sciences with little background in the natural
  sciences.  However, I am dissatisfied with the "soft" sciences and am finding
  an interest in the new medical technologies.  So I am contemplating a career
  change either to tissue engineering or nanotechnology.  I am looking for advice
  from anyone who is familiar with the future of these careers or who may already
  be working in those fields.  Since I am middle aged I would want to pick a
  program that I could complete in as little time as possible.  Any advice would
  be appreciated.  

Ok. I have some understanding of the future career prospects in the areas 
you mention and I have read your question so I will respond. (Though I should
probably be doing other work :-)

The only reason why either tissue engineering or nanotechnology would be
poor choices of study (generally speaking) would be if by the time you had
acquired the knowledge in those fields your knowledge was no longer 
relevant because it had been superceeded. That is incredibly unlikely in 
both the tissue engineering and the nanotechnology fields as both are
new and still being defined (nano is fuzzier but it is sexy as all hell and
governments the world over are funding it because they are afraid not to).
Anybody that decides to be a student in the areas that are leading edge
in ones day is going to find they are empowering themselves in a number 
of dimensions. 

Depending on your personal circumstances you might want to consider
part time study. You might also want to consider whether you want to 
acquire knowledge only (that can sometimes be done faster) or whether
you want to have a certificate saying you have the knowledge as well.

There are sound reasons for choosing either strategy but it really is 
a matter of customising them to yourself. 

Good luck and good learning.

Regards,
Brett 


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