Space Sciences/Astrophysics Seminar with Janie Hoormann on Navigating the Transition from Astrophysics to Data Science

Academia or industry? The question that plagues every graduate student and postdoc. You hear statistics thrown out about how few jobs there are in academia. You see talk in the media about AI/machine learning/data science. Through your research you have learned how to do some of these buzzwords but what does that mean in terms of a career? Which path is right for you? While I can't answer that last question I can share with you the story of how I went from a grad student fully convinced that academia was the only career for me to someone very happy they made the switch to industry upon completing their first postdoc. During this talk, I will share my perspective as someone who has done this career shift and is now in the position to be hiring data scientists from diverse academic backgrounds. I will talk about the research I did during my stint as an astrophysicist, how my day-to-day work changed as my job changed, and what skills I learned along the way that turned out to be particularly marketable as I started my next career.

Sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.