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Skills that keep your options open

• Serious programming

  Python, version control and working with data sets measured in terabytes. This is the single most transferable thing you learn.

• Statistics and machine learning

  Modern surveys produce more data than anyone can look at. The methods are the same ones industry pays for.

• Instrument building

  Designing detectors, optics and electronics. Hardware people are rarer than data people and get hired by both labs and companies.

• Public outreach

  Planetariums, science museums and science communication are real careers for people who love the subject but not the grant treadmill.