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[quote=Anonymous]OP here.  Thanks so much for your advice.  In the bubble of graduate school, and can be really difficult to get a handle on what options are out there besides getting a postdoc and going into academia (which is a completely miserable job market).  I have a few friends in graduate school who got jobs as patent examiners through USPTO and they seem to generally enjoy the work.  One question--DH is interested in a more traditional type of PhD career and will likely want to do a post-doc followed by academia or working as an R&D scientist, and for this stage of his career there are not as many options in the DC area.  Do patent evaluator jobs exist in branches outside of DC?  All my peers who have gone onto that path have ended up in DC.

We are looking at biotech hubs to best coordinate our careers (San Diego, Boston, San Francisco), and it seems like a lot of IP firms are based out of those areas (as well as job opportunities in consulting, biotech, and great academic post-docs).  It seems like one path some take is getting hired as a technical specialist, and becoming an agent once they pass the patent bar--however most firms as you mentioned don't seem to want to train PhDs.  Would your advice be to look for smaller boutique type firms?

My father is a Big Law lawyer (although he's in tax law, and doesn't know much about IP), and he has made me very skeptical of entering law school, and it does seem like working as a patent agent offers an opportunity to make a decent living without incurring a lot of risky debt.  Another question--I feel sleazy asking this since my parents have always instilled a sense of independence in us, but would it be worthwhile to try to network with some colleagues/partners in my dad's firm?[/quote]

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