need help with career choice

**mek42** · 06-24-2010, 07:18 PM

I'm currently an analytical chemist in pharmaceutical industry with master degree in chemistry and 7 years experience. I'm going to be laid off by the end of August. There are very few chemistry jobs in my area. On the other hand, my wife has a very stable job with excellent benefits, just not as much income as I make when employed.

I've been taking some accounting classes thinking about a career change to something less geographically sensitive. However, I have been having some doubts about this possibility and have also been wondering if I would better serve myself by leveraging my existing skills and training by staying in a technical field.

While considering this possibility, I discovered that with 10 semester hours of radiation training, I meet the education requirements to be licensed as a Professional Medical Physicist in my state. Oregon State University offers an online master degree in radiation health physics, so these courses are accessible to me.

However, the classes are expensive. Just to meet the NY requirements, for 1 class each season, I will need $1,500 for Fall, 2010, and then $2000 for each of Winter, 2010, Spring, 2011 and Summer, 2011. I think that once I start taking courses I may be able to obtain a limited permit to do work in this field under supervision of a licensed person.

As a backup to this plan, there are three nuclear plants near where my wife works (and we are planning to move closer to where she works once I get laid off - we each work an hour plus from home in opposite directions, after mortgage, gas is our biggest budget item).

If I became employed as a medical physicist the pay would be very well and as I would be most likely in the public sector I would qualify for student loan forgiveness in 10 years. My student loans are very sizeable - I estimate this to be a $100,000 benefit.

I might be eligible for retraining money due to the layoff, but I don't know yet (Trade Act).

I think I should figure out how much it would cost to pay for the remaining accounting classes to sit for CPA exam and compare to the beginning nuke classes. I also need to follow up / make first contact with some local hospitals and the nuke plants to see if I could begin working for them and/or get a scholarship. I also want to make arrangements with my local hospital to shadow their radiology department on a weekend sometime to get a sense what it is about.

Starting salary in nuke field should be $40 - 60K and it will not be unreasonable to consider making 6 figures after a few (5) years of experience. Everyone is also talking about how allied health is one of the few growth sectors now.

What else should I be thinking of?

Thanks!

**frugalwarrior2** · 06-24-2010, 09:42 PM

I would lean towards the medical field because it is a field that is growing. Acct. is often outsourced right now. Could you finish the acct. later and do taxes seasonally on top of a career in the medical industry?
incidentally, I love how pro active your being.

**mek42** · 06-24-2010, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

I would lean towards the medical field because it is a field that is growing. Acct. is often outsourced right now. Could you finish the acct. later and do taxes seasonally on top of a career in the medical industry?
incidentally, I love how pro active your being.

I absolutely could. I can also if still unemployed maybe take a job at H&R for tax season 2011 (2010 taxes) if I'd report to a CPA to start logging hours towards the year of experience I'd need to be licensed as a CPA (in NY any accounting experience counts now, not just audit). For that matter, maybe I should try to do two internships in the Fall - ones in some sort of radiation medicine and the other in accounting.

Will post more numbers later to add up the accounting study cost. Oh, so far, all my numbers are just for tuition and fees, not books, but I usually scour Amazon and eBay for my books to save cash. Can't justify $200 at the college bookstore for something I can find elsewhere for $50 or even less.

I will hold of on spending any more money on classes until I get things more sorted out.

It's hard for me to accept the proactive compliment - part of me wants to relax a little, but another part is upset that the snowball will be slowing down. Yet another part is considering that this time around (I was unemployed 3 years ago when I found my current job), I may not need to comply with the letter of the law to maximize my unemployment benefits. (recession)

**ladykemma2** · 06-25-2010, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by mek42

I'm currently an analytical chemist in pharmaceutical industry with master degree in chemistry and 7 years experience. I'm going to be laid off by the end of August. There are very few chemistry jobs in my area. On the other hand, my wife has a very stable job with excellent benefits, just not as much income as I make when employed.

I've been taking some accounting classes thinking about a career change to something less geographically sensitive. However, I have been having some doubts about this possibility and have also been wondering if I would better serve myself by leveraging my existing skills and training by staying in a technical field.

While considering this possibility, I discovered that with 10 semester hours of radiation training, I meet the education requirements to be licensed as a Professional Medical Physicist in my state. Oregon State University offers an online master degree in radiation health physics, so these courses are accessible to me.

However, the classes are expensive. Just to meet the NY requirements, for 1 class each season, I will need $1,500 for Fall, 2010, and then $2000 for each of Winter, 2010, Spring, 2011 and Summer, 2011. I think that once I start taking courses I may be able to obtain a limited permit to do work in this field under supervision of a licensed person.

As a backup to this plan, there are three nuclear plants near where my wife works (and we are planning to move closer to where she works once I get laid off - we each work an hour plus from home in opposite directions, after mortgage, gas is our biggest budget item).

If I became employed as a medical physicist the pay would be very well and as I would be most likely in the public sector I would qualify for student loan forgiveness in 10 years. My student loans are very sizeable - I estimate this to be a $100,000 benefit.

I might be eligible for retraining money due to the layoff, but I don't know yet (Trade Act).

I think I should figure out how much it would cost to pay for the remaining accounting classes to sit for CPA exam and compare to the beginning nuke classes. I also need to follow up / make first contact with some local hospitals and the nuke plants to see if I could begin working for them and/or get a scholarship. I also want to make arrangements with my local hospital to shadow their radiology department on a weekend sometime to get a sense what it is about.

Starting salary in nuke field should be $40 - 60K and it will not be unreasonable to consider making 6 figures after a few (5) years of experience. Everyone is also talking about how allied health is one of the few growth sectors now.

What else should I be thinking of?

Thanks!

i have five friends who are CPAs and they keeep getting fired or laid off every six months. i vote for the nuke thing.

**Darlene** · 06-25-2010, 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by mek42

I also need to follow up / make first contact with some local hospitals and the nuke plants to see if I could begin working for them and/or get a scholarship. I also want to make arrangements with my local hospital to shadow their radiology department on a weekend sometime to get a sense what it is about

I know you're a guy and it's kinda girly but what does your heart say? You only live once and really should be doing what you want to do when possible. I think checking out the above will help you with your decision. Good luck!

**frugalwarrior2** · 06-25-2010, 09:07 AM

Mek42 take the compliment and DEAL W/ IT!!lol. This is FV we're nice,mostly. My DD is in college and we do Half.com. I have had fantastic results. She is going cash on a shoestring. The last books she got was $30. like crispy new and expidited FREE. Another book like new paperback $39. = $78. for over $300. at the college ripoff store. i told her for 1 month of school that was just insane.(summer session). They should be so ashamed. Community college is mostly people struggling to improve.

Good luck w/ whatever you choose. I am encouraging my kids to learn a hands on field and a degree. DD has a jewelry instructor job and sell jewelry at the college to buy books. DS is in highschool but make crazy cool stuff out of scrap metal and wood. Got to be versitile these days. sigh.

**MaryCarney** · 06-25-2010, 10:22 AM

What about a job you could most likely walk straight into in the medical field - medical laboratories?
The amount of jobs in the radiology end are limited by the number of machines - and the number of machines being purchased is and will continue to be severely limited, both by the economy and by 'healthcare reform'. Not so in the medical lab field.

**mek42** · 06-25-2010, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by MaryCarney

What about a job you could most likely walk straight into in the medical field - medical laboratories?
The amount of jobs in the radiology end are limited by the number of machines - and the number of machines being purchased is and will continue to be severely limited, both by the economy and by 'healthcare reform'. Not so in the medical lab field.

In my state I'd need to take a two year long third (for me) bachelor degree program to do med tech.

Having said this, maybe once we move and are closer to the nuke plants I can approach them for a work-scholarship deal in either chemistry or health physics while I study health physics.

**greekislandgirl** · 06-25-2010, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

My DD is in college and we do Half.com. I have had fantastic results. She is going cash on a shoestring. The last books she got was $30. like crispy new and expidited FREE. Another book like new paperback $39. = $78. for over $300. at the college ripoff store. i told her for 1 month of school that was just insane.(summer session). They should be so ashamed. Community college is mostly people struggling to improve.

mek - I have no advice, sorry for the following...

This is really off topic but FrugalWarrior - I am ashamed on behalf of your daughter's instructors. I have taught many college courses, and the cost of textbooks is VERY high in my list of concerns when choosing textbooks. I always give my students advice on how to get books more cheaply, and have been slowly (as it takes a lot of work) moving to course websites with articles and chapters posted online. All colleges and universities have someone who can advise professors about fair use, copyright and so on. There is no excuse whatsoever for a course to require a student to spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks. There is a growing number of professors which have stopped using books from textbook manufacturers who produce books with CDs that lock after a certain amount of time to prevent resale. This is a very real problem, and one that GOOD professors are aware of. Please suggest to your daughter that she mention this issue in her course evaluations at the end of the course. It is very important for the professor to be aware of it, if they aren't already.

Sorry mek, back to your thread... and I hope you make the right choice for you - you seem to have a very level head on your shoulders so I think you will

**mek42** · 06-25-2010, 12:19 PM

No problem, Hellene.

That's meant in a friendly way, please let me know if it is considered to refer to a Greek resident as a Hellene.

I don't have the workload to justify OT today, so I'll leave a little early and stop by some hospitals on the way home to ask about shadowing their radiology departments in the evenings prior to getting laid off.

**greekislandgirl** · 06-25-2010, 12:37 PM

Hellene is the best possible way , in fact

**mek42** · 06-25-2010, 05:31 PM

Stopped by a few hospitals on the way home and learned that medical physicists may not be a clinical provider but rather an equipment maintainer. This is confusing to me. This is the description of the license and it seems clinical to me.

I have some other contacts to try this weekend and next week. Will keep you posted. Helps with making things happen to post results here.

**frugalwarrior2** · 06-25-2010, 06:26 PM

Oh Greekisland girl that was so sweet. Actually the teachers are encouraging used books and some will photocopy parts for students. I just can't believe the bookstore.

MEK42-also forgot to mention CHEGG.COM actually rents books. Not as good as some other sources but another place to look for hard to find books.

**mek42** · 06-25-2010, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

...

MEK42-also forgot to mention CHEGG.COM actually rents books. Not as good as some other sources but another place to look for hard to find books.

Thank you for this suggestion, but I like to keep most of my textbooks. Now and then this practice has come in handy. I have started purging some old notes I took in lectures though.

**mek42** · 06-27-2010, 01:14 AM

Learned that the ABR (American Board of Radiology) is going to be tightening up the requirements to sit for their certifying exams before I'll meet the current requirements. This means that Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Oncology are out. However, I reread my state licensing requirements and learned that I can qualify for Nuclear Medicine or Medical Health Physics specialties through other governing bodies. So, time for more research.

Thanks for letting me check in here with periodic progress reports.