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So, as some may know, I'm a postdoc in genetics at a small german university and in my early 30s. Originally I studied applied math with a focus on medicine/biology. I work with large (bio) data banks, and code a lot, especially high-throughput on our cluster, but obviously more natural science-style scripting than proper programming. Anyone in the space will know the wide gulf between these, though I have some experience in the latter as well (but rather from hobby modding than from work).
My wife wants a bigger house and while we can afford it, our buffer margin will be a lot smaller, in particular we will actually go into the negative during the first year if we should have a third child (and we both want it - it's one of the reasons we want to buy the house), or if one of us loses their job. Currently I'm looking through our expenses and ruthlessly cutting everything that can be cut, but we've both always been rather frugal in most ways, so it's not a terribly large amount. The biggest point is supermarket, but my wife is not really willing to cut there since it's mostly due to healthy food.
So I'm again considering a job change, both for more money and for security reasons (while my prof has made no noises so far in that direction, I still technically only ever get prolonged for a year each time and could get cut anytime his money runs out). Any recommendations for directions I should look into? Fortunately, one of the largest german cities is in commuting distance. My current ideas are: 1. data scientist, ideally medicine/bio adjacent, possibly remote, possibly international 2. trying my luck again in the pre-implantation genetic testing industry where I have worked for a short while, which would pretty much have to be remote international 3. actuary or other insurance/bank statistical work 4. becoming a regular gymnasium teacher in math/bio and going for that sweet civil servant status. Mostly an option if I lose my position though, since the income is almost identical if not a little lower 5. trying to go into finance - I've been asked by headhunters during my doctorate but back then I wasn't interested. But I'm unsure how realistic it still is. 6. simply doing some extra tutoring on the side.
In general my biggest constraints are that we decided not to move any time soon, and that I share child duties equally with my wife, so going high-powered career right now is not realistic. Might be different in a few years, though. Several of the options, such as actuary, would require me to get some additional credentials, which obviously I'd like to avoid. Also, the job situation in germany is a bit rough atm, we even actually have some nice local biomedical companies in our city I'd be interested in but they aren't hiring at all.
This is almost certainly incorrect. If you go all the way to civil servant, differences in social insurance contributions and pension fund contributions result in ~40% more take-home pay from the same net income. Add in the generous child payments (especially if you have 3) civil servants get, and you should be +>50% ahead on (arguably) -50% of the effort. German teachers like to complain, but it's a very attractive path if you don't have any grand aspirations career-wise and like spending time with your kids. Also, you can live about as rural as you want, which might give you another 500k EUR lifetime advantage just because of housing prices.
But yes, the first 2 years would suck. Much lower pay, more schooling, lots of work as you prepare each course for the first time.
Super dead labor market, in my experience. I wouldn't even try applying for jobs unless you have connections from your network.
Solid career. Depending on the firm, getting the actuary certification might be entirely optional and not even required for career progression.
On teaching, you're right of course once I'm actually a civil servant, but I need to get there, and I'm technically a Quereinsteiger, which makes it more difficult. As you say, my pay will be substantially lower for a long while, AFAIK much more than 2 years and the job market for teachers here locally doesn't appear all that great, especially not for getting into the Gymnasium. And elementary school teacher pay is both a lot worse, and it's also not something I'm at all interested in to be honest.
On data science, it's still the title that has by far the most posted openings. Though it's true that judging by some of the lowballing offers I've gotten in the past, many of those aren't really seriously looking.
On actuary, that's great. Most mention the certification in the application form though.
You probably have all the university credits necessary, so you're missing 1.5 years of accompanied teaching (with the seminar lessons running in parallel) and a few education science credit points. The latter can sometimes be gotten at the seminar itself, or you get them on the side at a PH or from a remote university. After that, you should directly qualify for civil service (if you're healthy, ect.). But most of those details vary a lot by state, so you need to do a lot of research anyway.
Yeah, math should still be somewhat in demand, biology not so much. If you can somehow convince them into accepting your data science/programming/math experience as credits for computer science, you're home safe.
If you really want to teach, you can keep an eye on Berufsschulen. They also need math teachers and have way lower/different requirements.
Berufsschulen are the middle level of German schools?
And I take it civil servant is the equivalent of getting tenure?
Berufsschulen are vocational schools. Around 50% of German students attend those schools after finishing high school for a few days a week while doing an formal 3 year apprenticeship with a company. Classically, all trades have vocational schools, but also careers that would attend college in the US (nursing, accounting, system administrators, ect.) have vocational schools in Germany.
Civil servants is another classically German thing. It's a large class of government employees that enjoy extreme protections (absurdly difficult to fire, must be allowed to work part time if requested, ect.) and benefits (very nice pension, child benefits, ect.) - often in exchange for working a job where you cannot easily find equivalent work outside of government service. So examples are police, judges, firefighters, district attorneys, building inspectors, tax inspectors, head administrative staff at the city/state/federal government, ect. And, somewhat controversially, public school teachers.
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No, Berufsschulen are a special kind of school for an Ausbildung, which you do after regular school. They help with the theoretic part of a practical education for a specific kind of job. As an example, if you want to become a mechatronic, you may learn the practical part working in an actual repair shop, and then for specific days you go to the Berufsschule and learn some basic electrical circuitry or whatever.
I would say it slightly differently, tenure is a special kind of being a civil servant, but yes.
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I guess math/CS would also be a fine combination given my background. I have as much programming credits as math in any case.
But after looking up actuary openings again, that still seems like the better and less complicated option. But it's hard to gauge.
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