September 2025 | Oceanography
91
What did your oceanographic education (or academic
career) give you that is useful in your current job?
It’s hard to do science without a solid understanding of prior work
and established methods. The part of my education I rely on most is
the extensive reading I did in graduate school—both foundational
ecological theory and applied methods. That background helps me
stay grounded and build effectively on existing knowledge.
Is there any course or training you wish you had during
graduate school to better meet job market demands?
I always feel like I could use more statistics. I took several statis-
tics courses during my education, but I wish I’d taken even more.
A strong stats foundation is incredibly useful, no matter what area
of science you go into.
Is the job satisfying? What aspects do you like best
or least?
Yes, I find the job very satisfying. I still get to do my own science,
but I also work on projects that bring new people into the field and
make deep-sea science more accessible. It’s a really nice balance of
doing science and enabling others to do it, too.
Degree: When, where, what,
and what in?
I earned my bachelor’s degree in
physics (with a minor in French)
from Harvard University in 2011.
After spending a year taking classes
and doing research in Berlin,
Germany, I pursued a PhD in
physics (specifically, physical oceanography) at the University of
Michigan, finishing in 2019.
Did you stay in academia at all, and if so, for how long?
After completing my PhD, I continued to work for my PhD advisor
for about 10 months to wrap up a research project (while living in
Australia). I was then thrilled to be offered a postdoctoral position
at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
in New York. However, the COVID-19 shutdowns intervened
before I had the chance to move to New York City to start the
position. I ended up working as a postdoc at Australian National
University in Canberra, Australia, for just over a year, while begin-
ning collaboration with the Columbia University group. Finally,
I moved to New York City and started my Columbia University
postdoc. I stayed there for six months.
Paige E. Martin, User Training Team Lead, Australia’s Climate Simulator
(ACCESS-NRI) — paige.martin@anu.edu.au
How did you go about searching for a job outside of
the university setting?
After finishing my PhD, I applied to one or two non-academic jobs
that I found listed on the Earth Science Jobs Network email list. I
never heard back from those jobs and ended up deciding I should
look at more postdoctoral positions. I went that route for the first
few years post-PhD.
During my Lamont postdoc, I heard about a job opening at
NASA from someone in my (academic) professional network
whom I met co-convening a couple sessions at online conferences
during the COVID-19 shutdown. It was a job in “open science,”
directed toward someone with a solid scientific research back-
ground but also knowledge and experience with open science
(such as open-source software, open data, and generally making
science more accessible). My interests and experience lined up
extremely well, and I decided to apply. But before applying, I talked
with someone who had a similar position at NASA to get a sense of
the job—something I always recommend doing (for academic and
non-academic jobs alike).
Is this the only job (post-academia) that you’ve had?
If not, what else did you do?
No, I am currently working in my second job post-academia.
My first job post-academia was as a support scientist at NASA,
working in the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer at NASA
Do you have any recommendations for new grads
looking for jobs?
Two things come to mind. First, practice polite persistence.
Advocate for yourself, even if you’re being ignored at first. No one
will care about your career as much as you do, so you need to fol-
low up—sometimes that means emailing the same person multiple
times until you get a response. The key is to be persistent without
being a pest. It’s a delicate balance, but crucial.
Second, find something you’re really good at and lean into it.
Develop a specific, marketable skill—like GIS or data analysis—
that sets you apart. These skills are useful across many sectors and
show your commitment to learning. Becoming an expert in some-
thing that others find difficult can really help you stand out.
ARTICLE DOI. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2025.e306