Patent Examiner Job or grad school

[invidia]

Ok, so I applied for a bunch of jobs and very few responded and even fewer offered a position. One of them was a patent examiner job for physics/nuclear engineering. I have a physics BS degree with zero work experience and a horrid GPA (<3.0), so I was lucky to even get any responses.

The pay may seem very low to many (42k a year) but that looks like a decent chunk of money to me; who is coming from an impoverish family whose parents make less than 25k a year combined.

Right now, I have 2 options:

1) To go to grad school back home (S. florida) for a Masters in comp sci, try to get an internship, and aim for a better paying job.

2) Just take the job, move to Virginia, and try to live off that 42k/year salary.


Any advice?

 

[BoomerD]

Take the job and do grad school nights?

 

[tfinch2]

What kind of job did you expect to get with a BS in Physics?

 

[Aluvus]

That's not bad pay for a first job out of school. You get government benefits, no? I understand patent examiners have a surprisingly high-stress job (which has led to some increases in pay recently), due to the pressure to catch up on the huge backlog of patents, so that's something to factor in.

Also a factor: low GPA does make it harder to get into graduate school straight away; you may find your options limited. The job is a bird in the hand, so to speak.

I would probably go with BoomerD's suggestion.

 

[Analog]

That's how Einstein started....

 

[BarneyFife]

Is that a government job?

 

[invidia]

Originally posted by: Aluvus
That's not bad pay for a first job out of school. You get government benefits, no? I understand patent examiners have a surprisingly high-stress job (which has led to some increases in pay recently), due to the pressure to catch up on the huge backlog of patents, so that's something to factor in.

Also a factor: low GPA does make it harder to get into graduate school straight away; you may find your options limited. The job is a bird in the hand, so to speak.

I would probably go with BoomerD's suggestion.

I got accepted to a grad school in S. Florida. I've read about the high stress patent examiners face and doing that + grad school may take stress to a new level. And is 42k a year sufficient enough to live in the DC area? I'm coming from florida where rent above 1k a month is considered high luxury.

Originally posted by: tfinch2
What kind of job did you expect to get with a BS in Physics?

It's not the degree that's the problem, it was my lack of experience and internships during school and a good enough GPA. A physics degree is alot more useful and versatile than the majority of majors out there. Since I'm the first in my family to get into college and the oldest, I'm the one that has to experience things first hand. In other words, I served as the guinea pig of the family.

 

[invidia]

Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Is that a government job?

Yes, it's pretty much this: http://www.usptocareers.gov/Pa...Positions/Default.aspx

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I would look into what options you have in the area for night school.

 

[gururu2]

i got a chemist right out of college paid 38k back in 1995. went to grad school in 1999 and got my Ph.D. taught for a yearly 47k til a few months ago. looking for a new job. a patent examiner job doesnt really sound like it would be adding to your CV, so you might want to stay in your field if that means grad school. my primary incentive for working early was to work my debt down and get some air from academics. by the end of my 3rd year working i had paid down quite a bit and was dieing to go back to school.

 

[brxndxn]

42k/year gov't job is damn good money. With ATOT, you have a lot of engineers that get decent offers.. and you have a lot of people that greatly exaggerate what they make.

With a GPA < 3.0 gpa, 42k to start is very very good.

 

[BarneyFife]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
42k/year gov't job is damn good money. With ATOT, you have a lot of engineers that get decent offers.. and you have a lot of people that greatly exaggerate what they make.

With a GPA < 3.0 gpa, 42k to start is very very good.

Yup plus you will get excellent benefits and nice raises every year for a few years. Best of all you will have job security.

 

[LordMorpheus]

People that examine patents go on to examine many things.

 

[Jeeper94]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Take the job

:thumbsup:

 

[Dirigible]

The patent examiner job is good experience if you want to be a patent examiner or go to law school and become a patent attorney. If you don't want to do those things, don't take the job. It'd be a waste of your time.

 

[Eeezee]

I'm in grad school right now for Physics. In hindsight, I wish I had gotten a job. But I'm biased, the first year is supposed to be the hardest and I'm just getting started.

It seems you've realized that once you get a job you will likely never go back to grad school. The statistics don't lie.

Personally, I would recommend you take the job and see how it goes. If you don't like it, reapply to grad school the next year?

 

[BoomerD]

Keep in mind that most jobs have a certain amount of stress...it's all in how well you deal with it...remember, stress can't get to ya if you don't give a shit!

 

[theeedude]

Take the job and study for the patent bar. Then you can become a patent agent, and eventually you can go to law school and become a patent lawyer.
Also, I think it's a good idea to get a job before going to grad school, IMO. It lets you see what kind of work you like before you invest the time to get a degree. You can always apply to grad school after working for a year.
On top of that, if you are such a mediocre student in physics, do you really think you are going to be competitive with just a masters in CS? I mean you are going to have to compete with thousands of experienced programmers from around the world who have been coding since they were babies.
At least as USPTO patent examiner, you have a big advantage from being in the US and knowing the language. More barriers to entry into that career.
The other thing to consider is timing. The jobs market may be even worse by the time you'd get out of a grad school. We could be well into a recession, and then even the best qualified programmers may have difficulty finding good jobs.

 

[magomago]

l say take the job. For a BS in physics with a GPA of less than 3.0 and ZERO work experience - getting 42k starting is GREAT. IMO you'll probably end up learning some cool things in the patents you check out - although I've done similar work, and searching for "prior art" and justifying it is an absolute BIATCH and the job can get frustrating at times (I want to rip out the people who invented writing crap like "using said device in said situation for said purpose as said" ). I think if you want to maybe learn stuff, for sure get a few years experience, get well versed in the legal aspect of the process, etc. etc. It sounds like a good option. See if you can defer grad school for a year or two.
and hopefully after a year or two of working, you will discover you either don't want to go back to school..or you are absolutely dying to go back.