Hotel Capers - with some hidden careers advice

Last night I arrived -late- in Dublin (no use trying to disguise the city) due to dleayed flight (no prizes for guessing the airline). I finally got to the hotel I'd booked to discover 2 very worried looking receptionists who couldn't be more apologetic about the fact that their reservations dept had cocked up my booking. They seemed quite confused that I didn't mind especially as they got me a room (for the same price) in their uber-fancy sister hotel. I still can't work out why I should have been upset about this. I got a room with bed and bathroom - I don't need any more! It did make me realise that they must deal with lots of idiots who would get pissy about this kind if thing.

Still I'm here and I had a comfy bed which is all that matters. I spoke to the final year students at one of the universities (Who knew Dublin had so many?) and I'm off to their careers evening tonight.

The lovely academic who invited me took me out for lunch (no dinner for me tonight - yeay no hotel food!). We had a very interesting chat about careers. She reckons that every 5 years you should look at your career and try to work out if you could get paid a similar salary somewhere else - either same job or different. She feels that this is a good way of working out if you're going to be employable elsewhere. Sorry sentence structure has gone out the window today. It was kinda weird to have such unsolicited careers advice but I think she might be right. I know that I'm better paid doing my current job than when I was a real chemist doing research in Pharma but I do wonder what else I can do.

I love that my job is sociable - I can talk the hind legs off the proverbial donkey and I like meeting different people. However I should also probably admit that I'm ashamed of my job. People tend to look down on me as they see me as a salesperson or as a failed chemist (yes that's also how I see myself) and I admit that it gets to me. Is there a job out there where I can use my skills but feel like I'm acheiving something and still contributing to the advancement of chemical science? I thought this job would but if I'm honest I more feel like I've sold my soul here that I ever did in pharma.

Here's the quiz: What kind of job can a Marmoset do?

Skills:

• Public speaking - good (I really enjoy this and I'm pretty good at it)
• Logistics - I'm in to organisation big time
• Chemistry experience - I still want to be in the scientific world
• Technologically literate - as in networking terms
• Sociable - I'm a great actress and can be interested in anyone if I have to be. I'm also normally actually interested in what most people have to say.
• PR - I can schmooze with the best of them.
• Contacts - I know A LOT of chemists