You Have More Choices Than You Think

Career Story Blog Post By Athena Petrides, PhD, Instructor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, and Medical Director of Lab Control, Point-of-Care Testing, and Chemistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Five years ago I was a grad student at University of Rochester Medical Center and was at a point with my project where I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  After four years of hard work, finally, things were working out and I had an actual story to write about as a thesis.  That was a fleeting moment of excitement because then I asked myself – now what? So, naturally, I talked to many members of the faculty who pretty much said that I had two options: academia or industry. I was not thrilled. I was not at all excited by basic research anymore, and I no longer wanted to pipette, perform ELISAs, or pour gels. I did not want the bench; I wanted an office! After some soul searching I realized that I actually really did still like research, but I wanted to make some kind of contribution to science in real time. I wanted to help people – perhaps get involved in health care. Did that mean that I needed to do an MD? I didn’t want to go back to school: not at all