u/throwaway_u_9201

Hello, I am 28 and I left my PhD with a master's in chemistry and I work currently as a paralegal. I am not confident that I want to spend my whole career in this field but I just feel kind of lost. I live in a small city with no network or support system and I have been applying to scientist jobs with no success because I don't have a PhD. Is applying to lab tech roles something worth considering? I just need a path forward, my current job works long hours for little pay and there isn't room to move up without going to law school. I am hesitant about applying to lab tech roles because they would pay less than my current position and surely require more hours, but perhaps it would be worth it because I am worried my scientific skills might atrophy while I don't work in science or a lab?

For context, I went to a very competitive university and it's been difficult watching my peers advance in their careers while I feel stuck. Many of my classmates have their PhD, JD, MBA, etc., are team leads, directors, vice presidents, staff scientists, etc., or are making a lot of money. I want to keep pushing myself because I'm used to setting big goals but I can't seem to move forward anymore: I'm stuck in a job that doesn't treat me well, and in my life I've set a lot of goals that I've failed to meet and now I am unsure if I can set new goals and meet them. I know I should be grateful that I have a stable job in this economy but I just cant help feeling like I need to move forward and not stay in this inertia of having a deadend-but-ok job.

Hello, I'm hoping for some advice from other chemists so I thought I'd post here. I have a BA and MS in chemistry, and my research experience during these degrees was largely in theory/computation, building small models in Python. Although I studied things like DFT and MD in classes I never got put on a project to use them in real research, my work was honestly not impressive and I never published. Also because of a persistently low GPA I never obtained internships at real companies, most of my summers I spent doing research in whatever lab I was working in.

I currently work in intellectual property with about a year of experience, and I'm wondering how to determine the next best move for me. I don't have wet lab experience other than teaching gen chem lab as a TA, and I don't have connections in any field. I've kind of identified a few options:

• move to a lab tech position in a wet lab, like 20/hr, kind of start from zero to gain experience as an experimentalist
• use my saved up PTO to briefly intern somewhere, although I'd have to check if that's allowed (my work does allow other jobs)
• stay in IP and gain a few years of experience, go to law school and make a career out of it
• in the grad school vein, maybe applying to MBA programs to move toward management or consulting
• save up for another few years and go back to undergrad to learn something different, like totally different. maybe finance or econ or marketing or something
• just keep applying for data science roles, maybe something would break my way eventually? i've assumed i'm not really qualified without a PhD (don't want to pursue one) and that a career path in simulations/modeling is kind of closed off to me without real projects or publications
• i'm also still applying to roles at national labs or government that only require an MS, like computation or modeling or physics or statistics, in addition to chemist roles

I'm wondering which is the most realistic for me to pursue. I have to say, although I know I shouldn't have an ego about these things, I did my undergrad at an Ivy and ever since then it's been really tough to see my classmates go on to great careers with great salaries, or start graduating from top PhD programs, and not have anything to say about my own career. I struggled throughout college and didn't get to intern during college and I can't help but feel like I've screwed my life up as a result.