Nov 7, 2009
Should I stay or should I go (now?)
Not the Clash song, per se, but the question itself. Should I stay or should I go…from the ACS and APS.
For many moons, I’ve been a member of both the ACS (American Chemical Society) and APS (American Physical Society), the former for ten or more, the latter for a few. As a theoretical chemist, having a membership to these societies was quite useful. You get a subscription to a very good “popular” magazine, Chemical and Engineering News and Physics Today, discounted registration at conferences, and, perhaps most importantly, access to the respective job banks.
All this, though, comes at a cost. When you are a grad student and recent postdoc, the membership cost isn’t too expensive and the benefits well outweigh the costs. But once you are a “professional member” the costs double–I think–at least to $140 and $118 per annum.
Okay, that’s not bad, not great, but not horrible. *But*, I am no longer a practicing chemist/physicist. I’m a code monkey. A membership to IEEE or ACM would make more sense, really. Heck, I’m kind of attending SC09, the supercomputing conference, next weekend.
But, but, but. I am a chemist. I am a physicist (according to Feynman, no less). I still think of myself as such and I suppose a part of me thinks one day I might be a practicing chemist/physicist again.
I’m not sure what to do.
don’t lose your chemical roots!
you’re still a chemist. sure you might be a code monkey but you will still want to find some kind of job one day in chemicals physics and things, no?
it’s why you got a PhD in it, yes?
it’s hard for me to see people that studied one thing not do that in professional life.
maybe just keep one and join one of the others….
meesh´s last blog ..happy saturday
Having been/done many things in many previous worklives, I’ve been through the same deliberations a few times. I’ve usually kept up the memberships/subscriptions as long as I held out hope that I might actually work in the field again. It was a good way to keep up with developments, people, etc. Once I realized I was out for good, I’d let them drop. And anyway, I don’t think the IRS actually looks at what you list for an occupation until they decide to audit you (uh oh), so you can still claim the costs as business/personal development deductions.