Finding paid post-baccalaureate remote research positions in climate science

The Problem:

I’ve noticed the academic side of climate science is split into various groups based on your current standing with respect to education (undergraduate student, Graduate student, and post-doc for example). This makes finding positions in academia challenging for anyone who doesn’t immediately identify with one of these titles. The lack of acknowledgment of groups that don’t fall under those categories also leads to the idea that one must put themselves into these categories to survive in this profession. This became apparent to me my senior year of my undergraduate and lead me to believe that there was no place for a B.S. in physics to do research in climate science and that even though I wasn’t sure what I was really interested in studying I had to enter graduate school right away. At first, I was accepted to one program which deep down I knew wasn’t the best fit for me. I also feared that if I didn’t accept it, I wouldn’t be able to support myself financially and If I applied again next year my application wouldn’t have changed much as there weren’t a lot of opportunities for post-baccalaureate research. If those are your only reasons for accepting a Ph.D. position, or you are not completely excited to start your program then you shouldn’t accept the offer. Someone wise once told me that a Ph.D. is a marathon and you need to show up rested, hydrated, carb-loaded, and ready to dedicate the next 5-6 years of your life to this endeavor.

The Solution:

A lot of jobs, no matter the profession, are found through networking in some way. In a world where everything falls into these categories (undergrad, grad,..) this is really the best avenue to take if you want to do research. There are some jobs (industry and government) that just require a B.S. but if you want to stay in academia this is how.

First, get comfortable with the cold email. Networking takes at least two parties and if you have no contacts in what you’re interested in then you need to find some. Professors are more than happy to set up a zoom call and chat about their research and potential avenues you can take. Your initial email to a professor doesn’t need to be super tailored to their research and you don’t need to do a whole bunch of research ahead of meeting or emailing them. A way to find professors to email is by looking at the professors from a program you are interested in on university websites and by finding a paper that interests you and google searching the first and second authors. As for the content of the email here is a cold email I sent to one of my current research advisors.

Dr. Linz,

I am undergraduate physics and math senior doing research in atmospheric science and oceanography. I am currently working with Dr. Nicolas Lutsko at Scripps and Dr. Andrew Stewart at UCLA. I enjoy creating and using idealized models to get at the underlying physics of our world among other theory heavy aspects of the field. I entered the field of climate a little late and during the application process I didn’t really know what I wanted. I got accepted to the AOS PhD program at Wisconsin Madison but am exploring the option of taking a year off to do more research before jumping into something like a PhD. From your website you seem like a good match for me and I was wondering if we could meet via zoom to talk about potentially working together for this year off.

Thank you, Nicole Neumann

At the time I was able to say that I was an undergraduate senior but I was not an undergraduate senior at the professor’s university and she didn’t hire me until I was already graduated so the process of getting hired was the same no matter my academic situation. In the email, I mention my current research, where you could mention something you did in the past or even something you like to read or watch that is related to your topic or research. This email shows how little you actually need to research before sending a cold email. All I knew at the time was that the professor mentioned using idealized models in her bio and that her papers included derivations which are important to me so I felt she was a good fit, emailed her and learned more about her research from the zoom call that followed. If you already have a contact in the field (past advisor, past research, mentor, friends) ask them if they know of anyone who does what you want to do and has what you need (funding). For me, this has proven to be the best method of finding research opportunities.

Secondly, if you need an income make that a talking point early on. Professor will be honest with you if they have the funds to pay you. I’m awkward when it comes to talking about money with potential employers but have found good ways to bring it up in the conversation. For example, you could ask if the research is funded by a grant. If that still seems too forward, you could ask it in a way that makes you sound like you’re just curious about the parameters of the research. For example, you could ask if there is any idea or rules that the research must follow because of its funding, like a grant for answering a specific question. Posing it like that has also led the conversation to compensation. If the professor does not have funding or is not a good match, you can ask them to recommend people that do and have what you need. If this happens, you can include in your email to these suggested advisors that you were sent to them by that other professor. For example, add something like “I was sent to you by your colleague ~insert name~”.

Lastly, join a community. I joined mentoring365 and meet with my mentor every two weeks. My mentor and I talk about my goals and what I need to do to reach them. They’re also really good at networking as they set up communication for me with various people so there is no need for a cold email and instead they are a friend of a friend.