ps901

Briefly about me: I hold a M.Sc. in Applied Computer Science and Human Computer Interaction and have been working as a junior scientist for HCI and applied AI at a German research institute for about 3 years. However, I do not hold a PhD. I am over 30 years old, and the career prospects are not very promising. Doing a PhD would be the next logical step, but there are hardly any paid positions in my field. Without a PhD, however, my time in academia is severely capped and the opportunities very limited, plus it would take a good 3-5 years again at least. The compensation is relatively poor, especially compared to a position in industry. Therefore, I am now considering looking for an alternative. However, this step is very difficult for me because I can't find any comparable positions in industry where I can adequately use my skills and talents. I mostly find jobs in UI design, which is mainly a design job and less that of a computer scientist. But I also don't want to work as a pure programmer. A job description I could well imagine would be "Interaction Designer", however you can hardly find such jobs of in Germany.

Is there anyone who is or was in a similar situation and who has some advice for me?