My question to the discussion group is whether if you were chosing a career
again whether you would pick microbiology?

I thought about this question this spring when I when to the house of my
friend and former colleague Steve Speigelman who died prematurely.  I was
talking with his son who had graduated from Princeton and was going on to
Law School.  I asked him if he had considered Microbiology or another
Science like his father and he replied that it was too difficult to make a
good and secure living as a Microbiologist. This made me think about why the
most able students are picking law, medicine and business as careers and not
the sciences.

My question is do you find working as a Microbiologist financially rewarding
and intellectually challenging as a career or would you make another choice
if you had the opportunity?

Do yo find had you need to leave Microbiology behind and move into
management to get a better salary, are the terms of your employment too
insecure, would you prefer working for yourself, it is too difficult to
change jobs without relocating, lossing benefits, etc?

I would be interested in hearing people's opinions.

Tony Cundell
Wyeth-Ayerst


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