When I was a manager with a very large science/technology company about 35 years ago, we occasionally brought on board a "college hire"--a graduate of a university science writing program whom we put to work in an entry-level position writing low-key news releases about our employees' promotions, retirements and service anniversaries. One of our college hires from the U. of Wisconsin science writing program worked out quite well. So, we asked him if he could find us another good candidate.

The guy he found for us was about 30 at the time, and had spent his entire adult life to that point at the University. He'd earned a Ph.D in Theoretical Physics, then decided he really didn't want to be a theoretical physicist after all. So he went back for another year and earned a Master's in Science Writing. And he applied with us, asking for $14k/year. We told him that we'd happily hire him, but the position didn't pay $14k--it called for $17k. He said he'd have to think about it.

A couple of weeks later, he called us to say that he'd decided to take a job as a staff writer for the University's science magazine--at $9k/yr.