Still Thinking About That Astronomy Career? It may be worth the buy-in cost of education.  But such a decision comes with one major caveat: the rate of creation of new, permanent jobs in astronomy/astrophysics/planetary science is at or near zero.  It’s not clear where the 11% “projected ten-year growth” in the graphic is coming from, unless temporary, “soft money” positions — where the real ‘growth’ in astronomy is happening — are included. The good news: The training one gets in academic astronomy makes for skills marketable in many other areas from financial services to intelligence analysis.  Astronomers graduate with some hefty problem-solving skills, and those leaving the field find employment in some pretty diverse sectors of the economy. (Source: National Center for Educational Statistics and Yahoo calculator for 750 professions)
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Still Thinking About That Astronomy Career?

It may be worth the buy-in cost of education.  But such a decision comes with one major caveat: the rate of creation of new, permanent jobs in astronomy/astrophysics/planetary science is at or near zero.  It’s not clear where the 11% “projected ten-year growth” in the graphic is coming from, unless temporary, “soft money” positions — where the real ‘growth’ in astronomy is happening — are included.

The good news: The training one gets in academic astronomy makes for skills marketable in many other areas from financial services to intelligence analysis.  Astronomers graduate with some hefty problem-solving skills, and those leaving the field find employment in some pretty diverse sectors of the economy.

(Source: National Center for Educational Statistics and Yahoo calculator for 750 professions)