What will we do in this class? I hope that you will try to attend regularly, unless you are ill or out of town for an observing run, etc. We may decide to cancel some meetings, or reschedule them for a different time and day, especially for outside speakers. Rather than asking you to give brief oral presentations, which is usually the only required work for Ast 185C, I propose that we collectively undertake an in-depth examination of the job market and how it is evolving. One possibility is to update the Career Path survey of graduates of UT's Astronomy program which I carried out in the late 1990's, with the goal of presenting the results on line, or possibly as a poster at the January 2008 AAS meeting in Austin.

Books, Resources:

1. "A Ph.D. is Not Enough! A Guide to Survival in Science," Peter J. Feibelman (1993)
2. "To Boldly Go: A Practical Career Guide for Scientists," Peter S. Fiske (1996)
3. "Building a Successful Career in Scientific Research: A Guide for PhD Students and Postdocs," Phil Dee (a pseudonym; 2006)
4. "Survival Skills for Scientists," Federico Rosei & Tudor Johnston (2006)
5. The Careers Services site of the AAS and links found there: http://www.aas.org/career/
6. The career advice section of the AAAS website: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/.