How I found Crystallography
Sili has been leaving some great comments about his struggle to find a job in crystallography. Sili’s struggle reminds of me of my own introduction to crystallography. Lets just say I can relate.
I used to swim on the USA national team but, unfortunately, it did not pay the bills. I worked a whole string of minimum wage jobs from giving swim lessons to cleaning toilets. I worked 3 jobs at once and trained 35 hours each week. I was pretty busy. 
I ended up deciding to apply for a position at Los Alamos National Lab in genomics since I had a background in biology. After a number of interviews, I was offered the position and was excited for the change of scenery. My lease was up in about 6 weeks so I didn’t move right away. I notified my employer that I would be moving on.
I took a week off between the transition to visit my family and, while there, received a phone call from the person who had hired me. They no longer had the position. Yes, I had the offer in writing (twice, actually), but they simply were over budget and apologized for the inconvenience. So there I was with no job and no place to live. I decided to do the rational thing and drove nearly 1500 miles from Seattle to Los Alamos with everything I owned in my car.
I interviewed with anyone that would see me. It didn’t matter what kind of research they did. I was interested and willing to learn. After two weeks and 15 interviews, I finally had two job offers. One was in a crystallography lab. I was hooked after seeing those macromolecules spin around in Coot.
The message I’m trying to relay through this story is this: if you have the motivation and the perseverance, something WILL work out in your favor. So Sili, hang in there and if your passion is in crystallography – go for it.
For others, how did you first come across crystallography and decide that it was an area you were interested in?
Sili
October 20th, 2009 at 4:04 PM #
Thanks for the kind words – and encouragement.
But I doubt that I have the drive and passion. I guess I’ve reached an age where I’ll settle for just making an acceptable living.
Sean
October 21st, 2009 at 7:42 PM #
What age does settling happen?
Fred
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:01 AM #
I used to be a medical student (1st year) in 1976-1977 then 1977-1978 in the west of France. At medical school there was this Indian (or Pakistani) fellow whose name I have now forgotten. He was in charge of the electron microscopy unit at the medical school. He was also teaching a course on cells, cell structure, cell function. He advised us (the first year students) to get deeper into the topic and go read books. Like Lehninger (I hope I have the spelling right), or Loewy & Siekevitz’s Cell Structure and Function. I think I was the only one who did (the other students were only interested in where they would open their practice and how much money they were going to make). In the French edition of Loewy & Siekevitz there was this page where you had a precession photograph, and you flipped the page and there was the structure. I thought to myself “this is neat, I want to do that”. So at the end of the second year at medical school I left for England (Birkbeck College London) where I started anew. Don’t regret it one second. And there is one MD less in France.
Christine Beavers
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 PM #
My intro to crystallography: I was a forlorn grad student who had just gotten turned down on her first choice of lab. Realizing that, as an analytical chemist, I was going to get pidgeonholed into being a mass spectrometrist, and ugh that just sounded like drudgery, I started looking into the inorganic groups that needed an analytical hand. One of my friends, who was also wandering groupless, recommended that I talk to the crystallographer/professor who was looking for a student. I didn’t even know she existed, but I was running out of options. I met with her, and she showed me the lab and the crystals and then she showed my the newest structure she had solved. Peering at the rotating wireframe through some handy 3-d glasses convinced me that I had arrived: Crystallography – welcome home
Paul
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 AM #
My story – I was a biochemistry undergraduate who had no desire to continue in the life sciences. In fact, my plan was to get a job in marketing or finance once I graduated. That all changed when I did my thesis project in my final semester of my final year as an undergrad. I chose a protein structure analysis project as it didn’t seem like the same old stuff I had to do for lab lectures. Fell in love with proteins, and never looked back since.
Sean – as an extension to Sili’s job search, I would be extremely grateful if you could start a thread on people’s experience in moving from academia to industry. I am interested in doing this once I’ve finished my post-doc. Most people I’ve spoken to tell me I need previous industrial experience to have a good chance at landing that all important first job. To overcome this hurdle, I’ve started setting up computer-related life sciences company, but it hasn’t gained traction yet (and I think I’d rather work for company that doesn’t run out of an apartment!). It would be great to hear stories from people that have made the transition without prior industrial experience.
P.S: Best of luck, Sili
Sean
October 25th, 2009 at 6:45 PM #
Hello Paul,
Great idea for a topic!
Exciting times and a catch 22 in regards to needing experience in order to attain your first job in industry.
Very cool about trying to set up a computer-related life sciences company – a number of great companies have been started in apartments
Sean