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Re:The Materials Project by wanderingmind on Monday July 04, 2022 @07:20PM (#31982711)
A major shoutout to Materials Project team. Its one of the first open data initiatives from academia. Beyond its stated goal, Materials Project has also helped countless computation material scientists to pivot their career to become Data Scientists and have successful corporate careers.
Re:The Materials Project by ElevenPhonons on Tuesday July 05, 2022 @02:06AM (#31984884)
I believe this pivoting example might be useful to scientists, support staff and postdocs in other fields as well (e.g., physics, chemistry, bioinformatics, material science).

A few specifics that might be useful for scientists that are considering transitioning to industry.

Pivot sooner rather than later. The transition might be a bit rough early on. In general, you can't get away with the heroic/cowboy approach that you can in a smaller academic setting. The interview process can be rough and might have a bit of RNG to it.

Aim to jump around every 2 years (3 at the absolute most) early on in your career. This will help make sure you're leveling up your skill set, getting those hard earned experience points and seeing different approaches to the software development process.

Be mindful of "infrastructure"-ish positions that might make it hard to get noticed. You probably have a high skill ceiling, but you are rough around the edges. It's essential to find a mentor that sees your potential and can help you level up (this might be challenging for remote positions).

At a minimum, you'll have an order of magnitude more job opportunities and mobility. Mobility in academic projects can be challenging to navigate. It can be easier to find a place outside of the academic space where your interests and skills will be aligned. Industry can also have interesting problems to solve.

I suspect that the current economic climate combined with the current clusterfuck housing market might create challenges for retaining support staff and postdocs in these academic/national lab driven projects.

Re:The Materials Project by elcritch on Tuesday July 05, 2022 @01:35AM (#31984690)
This project is amazing. So much useful information! Even if it's just for students or graduate students to learn from.
Re:The Materials Project by mkhorton on Tuesday July 05, 2022 @11:32AM (#31989407)
Thanks both for the appreciation, it's really nice to see! Will forward to the team :)