Decision on Career Goals
In all of our lives, there seems to be a few critical decision points – crossroad experiences – when the next decision could possibly change the rest of our lives, forever. Usually, we don’t seem to be particularly aware at the time on just how such a step could influence every other decision in the future, like a long, spiraling array of falling dominoes.
For me, such a time is taking place now, in the summer of 1961, after I have successfully completed my four years of undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics at the Lowell Technological Institute, LTI,. Naturally, the first question that comes to mind is “What to do next?” I have no capable mentors with experience in the world of atomic energy research. Nobody in the interwoven chain of adult relatives ever even entered training beyond his or her high school years. I feel completely alone in handling this decision.
Yes, there is one exception, Uncle Lucien, the West Point graduate with an excellent military record in the U.S. Army, and today holding the rank of colonel. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania, the town where PSU is located. Since West Point is known to produce officers with better than average engineering backgrounds, he might serve nicely as a mentor in my making the right decision for a long-term career in scientific research.
However, West Point is not recognized world-wide as an institution of advanced research leading to the doctoral degree in science. But, nevertheless, Lucien will have to be my best advisor during these times of many unanswered questions. But, the details of this issue remain as open questions.
But, what about immediate employment in a local technical company that requires specialized expertise in chemical, electrical and mechanical technologies? Certainly, this solution presents several attractive possibilities, but it lacks a career track toward advanced R&D projects. Again, the best approach seems elusive.
A few, entry-level, technical jobs are open to LTI graduates, who hold Bacheler of Science, B.S., degrees in electrical or mechanical engineering, chemistry, electronics, plastics, etc. in the Lowell area. Others – not many, though – can be found in
different industries located in various states. Also, there might be a low-level position open at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories in Bedford, Massachusetts, for someone like me having only a humble B.S. degree in physics. The career pickings are scarce.
But, maybe, I ought to count my blessings because, at the end of this last semester, I was considered for employment at a paper mill factory located somewhere in North Carolina. The company representative, who interviewed me at the technical library on University Avenue, explained to me the salary and benefits that came with the job. Being wanted as a technical adjunct to a firm that transforms wood chips into paper pulp needed for the newspaper industry, came as a double, or mixed, message. Certainly, being a candidate for any legitimate position in any industry and in any field felt good – even, reassuring. The economic times are now, and have been, quite challenging so a real job paying an above average salary sounded attractive. So why did I not immediately jump at this career opportunity that would take me from the decaying cotton and textile industries of Lowell to the possibly fertile pulp paper industry down South? If the new jobs
are down South where the money is, why choose to stay in the gray, forlorn fields of eastern Massachusetts?
In contrast, the fantasies that fill my heady brain revolve around Rutherford’s work at the Cavendish Laboratories on the spatial arrangement of protons and electrons in an atom, Dirac’s seven-page doctoral thesis on the electron’s wavelength – a radical idea – and on the Law of Conservation of Mass in chemical reactions by Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry. These were all vital pivot points in the development of today’s scientific understanding of the physical world.
In passing, it is a sad comment regarding human behavior that Lavoisier was guillotined by the Parisian mob of the French Revolution during “La Terreur” in 1794. Seemingly, the fickle, under-educated and unwashed masses of that rabble had little to no tolerance for scientific inquiry, at least, at that time in history. Even today, I, sometimes, wonder when these disgruntled citizens will adopt less drastic expressions of their intense discontent.
For me, the successful churning of wood chips into paper pulp lacks much of the scientific glory and excitement listed above, although I will be the first to admit that newspapers and magazines certainly add much value to our world. However, other engineers might even find the pulp paper business quite rewarding, but my dreams go beyond wood chips and pulp. But, where, indeed, do they lead?
In contrast to garden-variety applications, R&D work is usually the stuff for someone holding a fresh Ph.D. degree in physics, chemistry, mathematics, etc. from a nationally recognized university. Clearly, I need another five years, minimum and perhaps more, of experience to fall into that advanced category. Do I have that intestinal fortitude to plow on?
What to do? What to do? The exciting particle-physics-based research using cyclotrons, linear accelerators and a Tokamak, a Russian designed, controlled fusion device, is happening at national laboratories like Los Alamos National Labs, Sandia Labs, Lawrence Livermore Labs, Oak Ridge Labs, etc. Work at that level is simply not taking place in Lowell, Haverhill, Springfield, Newton, or even in
Boston, although MIT does have some promising research in the field.
If I truly wanted to do research, to play ball, in those bigger research ballparks, then I would need to spread my wings and take a chance, at least, for a graduate physics degree from a well-known university. The physics department at LTI is fine, but as yet, it is an educational, scientific department with little name recognition across the nation or the planet.
Now, in contrast, the whole world has heard of the Pennsylvania State University, PSU. An advanced degree from PSU coupled with a fine recommendation or two from professors on the science faculty could be the necessary legitimacy that I seek for possibly being allowed to play in the big leagues, where Nobel Prize winning researchers hang their scientific hats. Maybe, I could learn from these master science craftsmen and craftswomen their special techniques for conducting research that is not taught at a small institution like LTI.
It seems that many factors and personal qualities go into becoming quite outstanding in a field. Some of these might only be conferred onto a newbie like me through osmosis in the daily exposure to that buzzing environment. I could be working in a modest capacity with the great minds in the field while still being a young green horn, the proverbial, New Kid on the Block. This setup would offer neat advantages for possible advancements in the future.
But, is all this psychological effort worth it? What if I don’t really enjoy decades of conducting experiments with their results being announced at the semi-annual American Physical Society, APS, conferences held across the nation.
These meetings, I am told, are often marked by confrontations of opposing technical teams each claiming its approach to be right and denouncing the shabby work of the competition. Confrontations and open technical disputes sound rather unappealing to me. Is this a part of the picture that I refuse to see at the moment?
Is this what I really hope to achieve? Where might there be a place for someone, who often seeks understanding, resolution, and a bit of respectful concord?
Where might there be a place for me, Paul E. Bolduc? Am I seeking fame and recognition in a world of sharp and cutting ego edges where “Publish or Perish” rule the game? Hopefully, Uncle Lucien might be of some help in my deciding for the long run..
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engineering backgrounds, he might serve nicely as a mentor in my making the right decision for a long-term career in scientific research.
However, West Point is not recognized world-wide as an institution of advanced research leading to the doctoral degree in science. But, nevertheless, Lucien will have to be my best advisor during these times of many unanswered questions. But, the details of this issue remain as open questions.
But, what about immediate employment in a local technical company that requires specialized expertise in chemical, electrical and mechanical technologies? Certainly, this solution presents several attractive possibilities, but it lacks a career track toward advanced R&D projects. Again, the best approach seems elusive.
A few, entry-level, technical jobs are open to LTI graduates, who hold Bacheler of Science, B.S., degrees in electrical or mechanical engineering, chemistry, electronics, plastics, etc. in the Lowell area. Others – not many, though – can be found in different industries located in various states. Also, there might be a low-level position open at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories in Bedford, Massachusetts, for someone like me having only a humble B.S. degree in physics. The career pickings are scarce.
But, maybe, I ought to count my blessings because, at the end of this last semester, I was considered for employment at a paper mill factory located somewhere in North Carolina. The company representative, who interviewed me at the technical library on