Life after engineering PhD -- need advice

[natrium]

Hello everyone,

I am a 4th year graduate student in nuclear engineering at a top university. I am about a year out from graduation and am beginning to think about what to do when I grow up. I have seen many friends (and read plenty of threads) about PhD's not being able to find a job after graduation, so I am starting my job search early. I would really love some advice based on your past experience!

What to do? What not to do? What would you have done differently after your PhD?

A little about me: BS in physics, studying radiation detection for my dissertation, currently do research at a national laboratory. I have a lot of experimental background, and am ok with data analysis/simulation. My largest job criteria is that I don't want it to be computationally-heavy. I would much rather work in a lab. Oh I should mention that I live in the Bay Area and can't relocate due to my family situation (is it even possible to find a non-data science job here??). I should add -- I am really trying to avoid a postdoc as much as possible.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

Can you get a position at LLNL? That's where I would look first. They know you, you know them. You should be able to find something on the job board...

 

[Jon321]

Also look at Sandia National Labs in Livermore. They have a large satellite campus across the street from LLNL. There is a variety of research going on there, including bio, physics (mostly lasers I believe) and computer science / cyber security.