What can you do with a neuroscience degree?

Hey there brainiacs. I'm Alie Astrocyte and I am getting uncomfortably close to the end of my PhD program, which has me thinking a lot about something that a bunch of our viewers have been asking us to make a video on, which is what can you do with a degree in neuroscience? The thing is there are all kinds of different degrees in neuroscience from a bachelor's on up to a doctorate or a medical degree and there are all kinds of careers for people with a background in neuroscience so to distract myself from my job hunt I decided to do a little bit of research into what kinds of careers are available to neuroscientists I also invited a bunch of other people to contribute short videos explaining what they're doing with their degrees in neuroscience so make sure you stick around to the end to see what other people are working on. The traditional career paths in neuroscience looks something like this: first you start by getting an undergraduate degree in neuroscience or in a related field like psychology or biology from there you either do a master's degree or you spend a year or two working as a research technician to gain some practical lab experience then you apply to a 4 to 6 year ph.d program and then on to a two to six year post doctoral fellowship before you finally start applying for faculty jobs once you get a job as a faculty member and API or primary investigator you get to run your own research lab usually that includes training junior scientists and teaching classes for undergrads the thing is this is actually no longer the traditional career path in neuroscience even though lots of people are still getting PhDs in neuroscience faculty jobs are getting harder and harder to find and it's an incredibly competitive job market some people literally spend years applying to hundreds of jobs and never end up getting a faculty position on top of that some people just don't actually want to be PIs of their own labs so a lot of people are exploring non-academic or "alt-ac" career paths instead and there are a lot of different options available I'm gonna talk a little bit about the different kinds of degrees you can get in neuroscience and what kinds of jobs are available to people with those kinds of degrees so first up you can get a bachelor's degree in neuroscience which would include either Bachelors of Science or a Bachelors of Arts and that really just has more to do with what kinds of requirements your university has for your degree. Once you have your undergraduate degree you could do first of all what I did which is I got a job as a research technician in a lab and I helped a scientist do a bunch of research on endocrinology so these tend to be sort of support staff positions or you'd be helping other scientists with their experiments and data analysis and it's actually really good preparation if you want to pursue another degree in neuroscience like a doctorate or a medical degree because it actually gives you a chance to like get in lab and do hands-on research. Aside from being a research technician you could also get a job in industry which usually would be kind of similar so an industry you would also be doing research support you'd be assisting with research it just has a more industrial typically a pharmaceutical bent although not always and often has sort of a more like corporate bent to write it's gonna be like a little bit more profit driven. You could also go into education so that could include becoming like a STEM teacher in a K-12 classroom or you could work in an informal education setting so like science museum or developing curricula or things like that An undergraduate degree in neuroscience would also provide opportunities for you to get involved in science writing so you could become like a science journalist and write for a media outlet or you could write for like online platforms like digital media video platforms or you could do science writing for an academic journal or something like that you could also get into science advocacy and science policy so advocating for better funding for science or science education using your technical background in neuroscience and finally you could also get into academic administration which would be working for university in an administrative capacity so this could include things like overseeing degree programs or overseeing student body programs there's lots of opportunities available in academic settings to people with backgrounds in STEM fields so I'm a little bit less familiar with what you can do with a master's degree in neuroscience mostly because I never looked into getting one because it didn't make sense for my career plans but I know that there are a few things you can do including continuing to pursue the academic route so often people who don't feel like they had a very good GPA in undergrad will get a master's degree in neuroscience to sort of buff up and show that they're ready for the lab this can also be for people who don't have an undergraduate background in neuroscience but really want to go into neuroscience in the future but if you don't plan on going under a PhD you can also just work as a research associate in a lab doing research as a scientist you can also get a job working for an industry company as a research scientist and I actually think it's more common to find masters level scientists in industry companies you could also pursue a career in education so you could teach as I said before you could teach high school students or elementary school students or you could teach as an adjunct lecturer at a community college or at a university Other things you can do with a master's degree in neuroscience include things like science writing science journalism you get into policy and advocacy acting as a consultant you get into data science and do data science work the thing about a lot of these other career paths that you can pursue with a master's degree in neuroscience is that a lot of them will require some kind of additional training maybe not like formal schooling like another degree but some kind of like short training program or on-the-job training just because you're gonna mostly be trained to do research and not train as much to do these other things so what can you do with a PhD in neuroscience that's the question that's been on my mind a lot lately as I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with my PhD in neuroscience so I could go the obvious route which is to do a post doctoral fellowship this is a post doctoral scientists you typically have a little bit more independence than you would have as a PhD scientists the goal is sort of training you to be more independent as a researcher and to hopefully eventually help you launch your own lab at least typically that's the goal if you don't want to go the academic route there are also a lot of jobs available in industry for phd-level scientists so pretty similar sort of setup for you're sort of a more independent scientists but typically working under an investigator and under the guidance of other scientists and working collaboratively with other scientists in the lab another popular other people are interested in is advocacy and policy so a bunch of scientific professional societies offer fellowship opportunities to help new PhD graduates get involved in science policies so this can include acting like as a consultant for politicians to help them better understand scientific issues. It can include advocating for science policy like advocating for better scientific funding or science education. It can also include working for an organization or a non-profit that's interested in for example focusing on curing Alzheimer's disease these opportunities available in that sector as well you can also pursue a career in writing but typically if you're interested in science journalism you really don't need the PhD if you're interested in technical writing the PhD is actually pretty essential and technical writing is essentially where you help other scientists write grants and write their papers so this can mean finding position at a university or at a private Research Institute where you help other scientists develop these ideas and produce grants to hopefully get funding. People with PhDs in neuroscience can also go into consulting or patent law so often this includes acting as a consultant in sort of a biotech and pharmaceutical industry to sort of consult on scientific issues and particularly with a focus on patent law and basically kind of have to do some additional training in that but essentially I don't really know what you actually do but I do know you can make a lot of money doing it so it's very appealing to some people. Kind of the last like big field that I know of a lot of people with neuroscience PhD is going into is data science so data scientists typically end up working more in the tech sector although not always and data science usually involves sort of using and analyzing very large data sets to inform decisions made by the company or organization a lot of students who do neuroscience research in graduate programs end up doing a lot of coding and sort of related stuff for their data analysis and that creates this really valuable skill set that then makes them very desirable candidates for data science jobs and then of course there are all kinds of other little things you can do I know tons of people who have ended up becoming freelancers I know people who have gone on to essentially become just like public speakers and science communicators so there's lots of things you can do with the PhD in neuroscience and finally you could get a medical degree so technically a medical degree is not a degree in neuroscience but often people who are interested in neuroscience will pursue that because you can go into a specialty like neurology or psychiatry I also know a bunch people who have gotten MD PhDs which are dual degrees where you get both a doctorate in neuroscience and a medical degree and these are what we call medical scientists so these are people who are trained both in a clinical setting to work with patients but also in a research lab and these people often end up doing clinical research where they take the stuff that's been discovered in regular basic science labs and try to translate it into patient populations so as you can see there are a lot of different careers available to people with degrees in neuroscience and now I'm gonna have a bunch of my friends tell you what they do with their degrees Hey Neuro Transmissions I love your work please keep up so I'm Adam Tosa I have a PhD in neuroscience studies an electrophysiologist after four years of postdoc in I left the rig to become a science writer I ran the neuroscience Facebook page Neuroscience News and Research and more recently I've turned my hand to scientific content creation and I'm doing this we'll be starting a new job for a company called synthesis shortly but in my spare time I still advocate for neuroscience research and you can find me on Facebook and Twitter at @adamtosaneuwrite. Hi I'm Alicia Mosely Austin I have both a bachelor's and a PhD in neuroscience I'm an academic administrator at the University of Rhode Island I'm assistant dean at the grad school and I'm also associate director of the interdisciplinary neuroscience program so I have a fully administrative position in the graduate program. Hi my name is Nick Wan, I have PhD in neuroscience and I'm one of the data scientists for the Cincinnati Reds on a typical game day my view looks like this hi my name is Nour Marcus's I got my PhD in pharmacology with a focus in neuroscience I'm currently a postdoctoral fellow in the neuroscience department and I study how endocannabinoids modulate inhibition in the cortex. Hi my name is Anna, I have a PhD in neuroscience and I'm the owner and principal of dracania consultant I was always involved in way too many projects to keep a boss happy so eventually I embrace that became an independent consultant and now work with many different clients looking for therapies for rare neurological diseases and I love being an independent consultant. Hi my name is Kevin Rekha my undergraduate degree was in computer science and my PhD was in neuroscience I'm currently working in AI as a data scientist and machine learning engineer for Walmart technology and volunteer data scientists and researcher for Austin Pets Alive an animal shelter here in Austin Texas. Hello my name is Kalira Salas Ramirez and I work at the CUNY School of Medicine as an assistant medical professor my research focuses on looking at interventions for cognitive decline as a result of both illicit and therapeutic drug exposure with a focus on developmental drug exposure as well as sex differences for these interventions so look at efficacy of treatments for patients. Hey there, I'm Jens, I studied psychology in Germany I got a PhD in neuropsychology in Germany and then I transferred over to Florida where I study the brain using fMRI new neuroimaging and other methods. Hi I'm Ginny I studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge specializing in psychology and neuroscience and now I work as a science communicator I write books and blogs about science I make podcast I have my own YouTube channel and I also go to festivals and schools and do stage shows all about the brain Hi, my name is Brittany fair and I have a master's degree in neuroscience I am the science writer for the Salk Institute of biological studies in La Jolla California. At Salk, I meet with scientists to write press releases for their upcoming publications. I also co-host and coproduce a podcast, and I write articles for the magazine. I got a master's in neuroscience at the same University it's in France by the way today I'm a scientific communicator and entrepreneur which means that I you do the best job of the world I talk about neuroscience everyday I created a YouTube channel drop of curiosity and I make videos about neurons and brain like neural transmission that's in French. Hi my name is Dr. Jacqueline Dunphy and I recently earned a PhD in neuroscience from Tufts University where I studied how astrocytes talk to neurons at the tripartite synapse now I'm working in the exciting field of biotechnology where I work with a lot of other scientists to found and fund new life science companies I call what I do under preneur science because I get to combine my love for the brain with a need for making new medicines and therapies that will improve human health Hi my name is Thiago Zola I am a third year PhD student here at the Medical College of Wisconsin and I'm getting my PhD neuroscience my current work focuses on stem cells and how those can be models for certain neurological diseases and more specifically I studied things called cerebral organoids they can also be called mini brains and I think they're very cool. Hi my name is Phaedra and I got my bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in neuroscience from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and now I'm a second year graduate student in the Kent State biomedical sciences neuroscience program and I'm pursuing a PhD focusing on learning and memory and that's what I did with my degree in neuroscience Hello my name is Andrew Neff I did my PhD in neuroscience studying the connections between the gut microbiome and the brain I now teach part-time psychology at a local university and I started my own business creating science media. Hi neuro transmissions my name is Vy and I did my PhD studying the cognitive neuroscience of the human visual system and now I'm a research scientist at Intel and I'm applying what we know about the brain to help develop more sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. Hi my name is Justin Kagan's I have a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California in San Diego now I work as a product manager building open source software for scientists to analyze and visualize their data. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this video it's really fun to get to show off all of these amazing neuroscientists and all the cool work that they're doing. So even though I'm really stressed these days about finishing my PhD and applying for all these jobs and keeping Neuro Transmissions going and all the other cool stuff I get to do all the time it's really exciting to think about all of the possibilities that are available to me and I'm really excited to see what comes next in my career but whatever happens as I go through this whole process and life transition I'm really excited to take you on the journey with me and until our next transmission I'm Alie Astrocyte. Over and out. what can you do with a neuro degree what can you do with a neuro degree what can you do with a neuro degree after you graduate? will I get a job, oh, will I get a job, oh, will I get a job or will I be unemployed? Maybe it's best to go to grad school, maybe you can teach STEM, that sounds cool. Maybe you could just delay and wait til you garduate Maybe there's a job in science writing, Maybe I should go and do consulting, maybe this whole process feels insulting after I graduate

Channel: Neuro Transmissions

Views: 127,838

Rating: 4.9407058 out of 5

Keywords: neuroscience, science, college, brain, careers, premed, school, neurological sciences, medicine and health sciences, life sciences, undergraduate, experience, learn, higher education, university, neuro, education, major, medical school, career, college major, my major, studying neuroscience, neuro transmissions, class, degree, alie astrocyte, neuro science, why i love neuro, neuro passionate, graduate school, phd, phd (degree), scientist, stem, study, grad school, neuroscience major

Id: CLFfh7fS5Oo

Length: 15min 55sec (955 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/neuroyoutube]

Less than two weeks ago, we sent out a call for people to share how they’re using their neuroscience degrees and Y’ALL SHOWED UP! We got a ton of responses and we were so pleased with the diversity of careers and experiences in them. Hopefully this video can help just a little bit for people who are exploring what they want to do with their neuro education. Anyway, thanks for making the internet awesome and for being such a great community.

[u/BerttPork]

I've been waiting for this!

[u/KGBraddock]

This is awesome thanks for putting this together!

[u/Sarmacan]

Best timing! I was just going through different potential masters programs. You folks are the best :)

[u/sdlaji12334]

Is this channel run by the UCSD grad school program?

[u/J33rbus]

I was wondering, is it optional to do a masters before doing a PhD in the US? Here in Europe it is a must have to apply for a position as a PhD student. I did a BSc (which are 3 years here) in Psychology and Neuroscience, so to be able to continue on an academical path, I will do a (cognitive) neuroscience MSc (2 years) from next year.

[u/Neuromandudeguy]

I saw you guys post about this earlier and I really wanted to contribute. Only problem is, I just got my neuro degree a week ago so I am currently sitting on my ass! I’ll give it a watch haha

[u/EndingObject]

Is there a list of all the medical field available to pursue? I'm looking to going to college finally 5 years after highschool. I would like to hone in on what interests me the most. Thanks for an already amazing video of some of the medical fields :). Neuro science might actually be it for me as well, but it's still up in the air. Let me know!