This is more of a personal message for Tracy or anyone else debating or beginning a career in the sciences. I personally would like feedback too if anyone has time.
I don't know if this will help, but I'll tell my story anyways. Im 29 years old and just graduated in May 2006 with a B/S in Environmental Biology. I currently live in Maine and am quite familiar with your position in life. When choosing my career path many people I knew urged me to "go where the money is at", nursing, nursing, nursing was all I heard. Well after much debate about what direction I wanted to go in I followed my heart and went into the biological sciences. I always wanted to be a Wildlife Biologist or any Biologist for that matter, I loved the sciences and learning about ecology, chemistry, and the earths environment was so fullfilling to me. Unfortunately while I spent 5 years obtaining an undergraduate degree, which 2 years was spent taking night classes while working full-time, I should have taken more opportunitities to participate in internships and/or summer employment doing research, unfortunately I had a pretty well established life and with that an established file of bills which forced me to spend summers locally, working full-time. I find this a disadvantage for me because I lack experience. I did get the opportunity to spend last summer working for the University of Notre Dame doing field research out in Montana. I found this position here on ecolog. This was huge for me because I was out there and I had my opportunity to get 4 months of hands on field work in ecology. This only reinforced my passion for the sciences. To make a long story short I have been here in Maine for 3 weeks now (shortly after my return home from Montana) looking for employment in a biological sciences related field. At the moment I am limiting my search to Maine and New Hampshire because my boyfriend has a great job here and I love New England and want to be here, so I have decided to settle here with him, which I'm now realizing is quite a sacrifice on my part. I want to work for a state or federal department such as the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife or the Dept. of Environmental Protection, because the internet is the new trend I have accounts with most of the employment related web-sites, such as jobsinme.com and usajobs.com. Maybe I'm working in the wrong direction because I have only found ~4 positions that relate to the biological sciences/ecological sciences in the past 3 weeks, not to mention that while I was in Montana for the summer I also did employment searches for the New England area and found nothing. Is the competition for jobs that great here in New England? Do the State Dept.s' have no funding? Is there not anyone performing research here besides marine biologists? I don't know. I do know now that if one plans to work in research and/or education that PhD is a must and there are many positons across the US as you may see on eco-log. I found 2 positions for biologists with the state of Maine and unfortunately it required 2 years working experience as a biologist on top of at least a Bachelors. I wanted to apply badly, but I felt and I knew was not qualified. I guess I need more guidance myself or I need to go back for my Masters. I myself am not sure what I need to do to find employment in the field that I am passionate about. I can say this, I know it isn't easy and although passionate as you may be in ecology, you have to think about whether or not money is the decision maker in your life. Being highly educated and in a management or of a professor status will make you money, but if your simple like me and just want to get your hands dirty exploring and learning more while getting paid a fair amount for having a B/S then you have to dedicate your life to that and be flexible to where in the world you may need to go to get it. If you love it, do it and you'll never have any regrets about your decision. I don't regret my decision I only wish I would have taken more opportunities as a college student. If your pursuing your Masters your one step ahead of me because with only my Bachelors I'm having to resort to using my 10 Point Veterans Preference (I am a Navy veteran) to compete for a visitor center position with the US Forest Service. I only wish you the very best of luck becuase I know how it feels to make such big life decisions. And I'm sure our peers on ecolog will help guide you. >I'm a newcomer to this list, and have been reading it with interest for the >past few days. I'm hoping that some of you could answer a couple of >questions for me, as I'm struggling with a decision that I need to make >soon. I'm a 39 year old, single woman who is considering making a career >change from IT to ecology (particularly wildlife or marine ecology). My >question is this: how is the job market in these fields, and what could I >expect to earn with a Master's degree in environmental science (with a >concentration in environmental ecology and/or GIS)? I'm currently enrolled >part-time in a software engineering program, and I certainly have an >aptitude for it, but I don't really like it. Frankly, I can't see myself as >a software engineer. The only reason I decided to go that route was for the >money (what I'm earning now at a private university is close to poverty >level by Fairfield County, Connecticut standards). I was recently accepted >to an environmental science program (which is an evening program, and would >allow me to work during the day). My other question is this: Should I take >the advice of some of my peers and "follow my heart", or find something that >would allow me to save some money (I have no savings because of a long >period of unemployment), buy a house (I rent because I live check to check), >etc., etc., etc.? I would love to enjoy getting up for work in the morning, >but I'm also seriously concerned about my financial situation. I estimate >that a Master's degree in ES would take me about 3-4 years to complete, as >I still need to take some prerequisite courses. I don't want to be poor for >the rest of my life! If any of you could provide some honest answers, I'd >be extremely grateful! > >Regards, > >Tracy MacMath >
