Monday, May 01, 2006

Alternate Career Options

I am composing this blog after a long and boring reading session on bone physiology and cell signaling. No wonder I am thinking about alternate career options :D. Anyways, read on:

In case I get bored of my PhD, I thought I should have some alternative career options ready. With a completed MS degree, and a half-complete PhD in Biomedical Engineering; I don't think anyone will give me a job in a Non-Tissue-Engineering field. In case I happen to go back to India, I guess I will have to apply for some call-center job, or may be a clerical position in Bombay Municipal Corporation. I guess I can do bit better than that. Here are some alternative career options I thought would suit me.

I could be:

A barber: Trust me, I do okay haircuts. I have two years of practical experience. And I was doing good in those two years. Well, I recently upgraded myself. (Please control your emotions, and refrain from thinking that I am a mentally gone case). These days, I do my own haircuts. It's not a question of money, but I get amazing satisfaction after doing a good job with my own haircut. I always thought that cutting my own hair would be a big challenge (if you are not convinced, try trimming hair on the back of your head); I brought a trimmer one day and tried. It worked. And it works better with each passing experience. So I guess this would be a good job.

A trekking instructor: At one point (2 years back) I was actually thinking of joining the institute at Manali that trains individuals as trainers/ instructors for Everest Base Camp. During my Rohtang Pass trek 10 years back, I met some of the Everest mountaineers and some of those trainees; and I was totally fascinated with the idea of being close to the ultimate peak for entire life. The whole idea was to stay put at the Everest Base Camp and guide people coming there. I have some experience of teaching people rock climbing and rappelling. I guess this would be one excellent opportunity to pursue my hobby / passion as a profession.

Cook/ Chef: I just about manage to totally mess up food/ cuisine/ dish just at the end. Anything I prepare looks good, but same cant be said about the taste. I guess I (and my cooking) would be a very good example of how NOT to prepare food, and mess up with it. Yeah! even that could be a paid job. Why not ??

Domestic help: I have recently developed this liking with neatness and cleanliness. I guess I wont complain if I get 20-25 dollars per hour for cleaning someone's apartment.

A specimen: I am ridiculously pathetic in swimming, singing, and dancing (yeah you can add 'studies' to this ! ). I could be an excellent example of a lower limit in these cases. Every parameter needs a reference. If one says a certain thing is good / bad; one needs to compare that parameter with some reference frame (that is usually constant and is close to zero). I could be a very good reference. Absolute rubbish can be safely considered as zero. So, I am a very reliable reference frame :D.

Alternative fuel: I have excess of fat and muscle. And I have amazing ability of producing them in abundance. If someone is willing to invent a technology that converts fat and muscle to useful energy resource; I could be a big help to mankind. Seriously.

:).

OK, enough !. I guess I would do well to complete my PhD :D.

8 comments:

Sagar Joshi said...

excellent!

QnB said...

Hi,

I did a blog search of 'trekking in manali' and yours came up.

just wanted to know, in your semi-professional opinion, are organized trekking adventure trips any fun? or is it about one crew-cut guy in fatigues barking at you if you can't rappel too well?

ps- i have a cousin in the US who keeps complaining about the price of haircuts, if you ever make up your mind ...

Vivek said...

This is for GnB:

1: Organized trekking adventures are not as much fun as planning an independent adventure. Mainly because you dont know most of the participents, and there is a chance that you dont gel well with them. In that case, whole experience would be boring.

2: However, if you dont have time / equipments (like tent, sleeping bags), local knowledge of the area, and experience, it wont hurt to participate in organized treks.

3: I dont think the leader would bark at you if you dont rappell well. Remember, its not an army camp. You pay money, so it doesnt matter if you actually do these things or sit in your tent.

4: I charge 6.00 dollars + tip for the haircut. The traveling expenses are additional :).

QnB said...

thnx for the tip, though last time i planned an independent adventure I got stuck in a ski lift, nearly got frostbite and was almost poisoned by CO from a malfunctioning angeethi.

ps - $6 sounds like a good deal. wonder what the phil-cleveland airfare is.

Vinod Chandran said...

Hey if ur profession of being an Alternative Fuel works let me know too.. I can become a billionaire if that lines works out!!

Vindo.

Anonymous said...

do my own haircuts???? where do you have hair on the head for haircuts??? he he he am back after a long time.... so ater reading your blog... i go like... what could my alternative profession be??? you know me too is, sorry was, taking bone physiology and all....

alternative professions that i could take:

model for clothes in pink and red....

talk show host... i can talk if nothing else....

cooking disasters i could do too... so beware you have competiton.....

if someone featured a movie on people who sleep all day i could be the super duper hit star....

oops got to get back to reality.... qualifiers are coming up... :)

p.s. do people pay for scrapping on orkut all day???

Anonymous said...

Wow, you have improved tremendously on your usage of english..

I think you look at teaching english also as an alternate profession..

kage said...

errm... start looking at stocks... i got out of school only to realize i know nothing. 401(k), 529, trusts, health-insurance, mortgages, amortized payments, taxes... these are the things that ru(i)n one's life... don't know how much longer i can enjoy being a wage slave! :p