House of Mind

I personally want a job in academia, which means I want to get a tenure-track position as a faculty member. Apart from getting a job in academia as a faculty or senior scientist, there are also many other options in corporate, non-profit and government worlds. Also there are many different neuroscience programs so your training (and what you will be qualified to do afterwards) will vary.

Your options include:

• Science writing (for a peer-reviewed journal, general magazine or science magazine). In this category, you can either become a writer, in which case your jobs will probably be assigned to you or a reviewing editor. 
• Public policy (as policy analysts or advisors)
• Consulting
• Industry (pharmaceutical companies and such)
• Program manager (for a neuroscience/biopsych/psych PhD program or other)
• Research director
• Research analyst
• Statistician
• Epidemiology and public health
• Law (patent attorney, for example) 

Sorry if I can’t expand- I’m serious about wanting to be a PI and I’ve thought about science writing (editor) as my alternative. Also, you could work for NIH institutes like NIDA or NIMH and serve as a grant reviewer or grants coordinator. 

NYU has a bi-annual seminar titled What Can You Do With a PhD? I attended last year and it was very helpful in laying out my options. If I were you I’d try to attend one of those seminars while you’re in graduate school.