[matt_the_bass]

Well there are lots of opportunities for someone with strong software skills in ocean related sciences. Some questions for you to consider are:

- do you want to develop tools or do research?

- do you want a career path with lots of field work and travel or desk jobs?

- do you want to work for a small business or large company?

If you can provide some insight to those questions, I can offer some suggestions to consider.

I work for a small company that has a unique technology with software and hardware components. We work with some huge organizations and have some really interesting projects and customers. I think I’ve seen a lot of aspects of the marine market and I work with commercial, governmental, and scientific sides of the marine market.

A few things I can say in general about the marine industry as it relates to software is I don’t think it is the highest paid career path but I think it has a very high satisfaction rating. Maybe because there is something about the ocean that draws in certain types of people.

[Novashi]

I think the biggest motivation is impact -- I want to do something more useful than company or marketing websites. Tools or websites that someone relies on and that I can take some pride in. I find myself not caring about my current job to the point where I feel like I'm taking advantage of them. So I want out but I'm still investigating other options. I don't think I'm built for academic research though.

Travel would be nice but I'd prefer to stick to civilization and not do stuff like long-term scientific expeditions to an Antarctic glacier or something remote like that.

Company size really doesn't matter but I've found it's easier to break into industries by joining a larger company.

Salary isn't a huge deal as long as it's over $80k (with median cost-of-living).

Thanks for taking the time!