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A Question About Pursuing a Career in Astronomy

-- | April 28, 2016

Question: I’ve been interested in astronomy and all things space all my life and I’ve never taken the time to actually look into the job outlook until now. Everyone is telling me that if I become an astronomer then I won’t be able to support myself or pay off college. And that’s if I can even find a job. Everywhere I’m looking, I’m seeing that jobs available in the astronomy field and few and far between, a small pool of jobs for a larger pool of people and now all I can see is failure of I take this path. I’m a junior in high school and I can’t help but feel that I’m running out of time. I love astronomy and it hurts me that I might not be able to pursue that dream. Advice?  — Taylor

Answer: I often tell students who are interested in pursuing a career in astronomy to make sure that they develop skills that will make them capable of obtaining jobs in related fields, such as physics, engineering, or computing.  For example, most graduate students pursuing PhD degrees in astronomy develop marketable computing and data analysis skills which make them viable applicants to jobs in computing, software development, and even finance if they decide to pursue careers beyond astronomy.  So, I think that if you, as most students pursuing advanced degrees in astronomy do, acquire good computing and data analysis skills, you should be able to develop a “backup plan” in the event that jobs become more difficult to secure in your chosen field of astronomy.

Jeff Mangum