Hello, The job market for scientists in the U.S. depends upon what sort of educational background and research experience you have, if you are interested in teaching, or would prefer to do research in an academic, government, or industry setting. In solar and magnetospheric physics, most scientists will have degrees in physics or astrophysics, usually a PhD or doctoral degree. In the planetary sciences, you will also find people with these educational backgrounds, but you will also find scientists with degrees in geology/Earth science, chemistry, or even biology. Sometimes people working in the space sciences will have degrees in computer science or engineering. It can be difficult to find tenure track faculty positions at large state or private universities that do a lot of federally funded research. However, if you are mostly interested in teaching, it can be easier to find jobs teaching at small liberal arts colleges or community colleges. If you are mostly interested in research, civil servant positions at NASA centers and other government laboratories can also be difficult to find, but there are other options, such as working as a contractor or soft-money (grant funded) researcher at a NASA center or a university. There are also places like The Aerospace Corporation and Los Alamos National Laboratory, which are federally funded research and development centers, built around public-private partnerships that conduct research and development for the United States Government. There are also independent, nonprofit, applied research and development (R&D) organizations like Southwest Research Institute that support research in the space sciences. One thing to keep in mind is that many positions at some of these organizations require employees to be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, so it can be difficult for foreigners to obtain employment there. And of course, there are also scientists who work in industry, although the types of work they do will be different from a scientist employed at an educational institution or research and development laboratory. Kris
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