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Have a STEM PhD? Here’s a freelance opportunity for you
About six years ago, fresh from completing a University College London fellowship, I found myself in the unenviable position of searching for (but not finding) work. It wasn’t that there weren’t several well-matched job opportunies — it was just that, at my level of specialization, these jobs were geographically scattered across places like London, Brussels, California, Australia... With two young children and an husband on his own career track, it wasn’t realistic for me to consider relocation.
As a stop-gap measure, I answered a job advert posted on a mailing list for women in science. Little did I know that, within a few years, it would become my full-time job.
Research and development, these days, is an international activity. For better or worse, the main channels for research dissemnation are all in English. It is hard for a native English speaker to grasp what a substantial advantage their native language plays in their career. Think of all the effort you must put into understanding complex concepts, learning the underlying mathematics, and keeping up with your peers, all of whom are as smart and driven as you. Then, on top of all that, imagine that you must become fluent in Chinese, and that people will judge the quality of your research, no matter its intrinsic value, based on how well you can express it in…
