I am posting this response to the entire list in case it helps out others. After I completed my MS in environmental biology in 1994, I came home. I had the opportunity to enter a PHD right away, but opted to go home and look for work to help out with a family health issue. When I returned home I applied for positions with the Illinois Department of Conservation and the Illinois Natural History Survey repeatedly with no real luck. I also applied reaptedly to the federal government, but the job prospects there were largely nil. I spent about 4 years looking for positions and got two federal offers with the then Soil Water Conservation Districts as a technician, one landscaping offer, and a research post at the INHS. I managed to wreck my car immediately after acquiring the INHS post and had no money to buy a new one or travel to do that temporary job. I also worked as an urban wildlife biologist (pest catcher) with critter control for about 6 weeks and left. During this time, I got by teaching as a substitute teacher in three different school districts, and teaching as an adjunct at over a dozen colleges and universities. None of this paid all that much. During this time I was trying to study leopard frogs at a small pond and stumbled on to a lot with abnormalities. This made the St. Louis TV and newspapers at the same time that I was applying for a education position at an aquarium I never heard of. In 1997 I was hired as an educational specialist at that aquarium for $20K. After 6 weeks, they moved me to proposal writing and ultimately within a year was director of research and grants. During that job, I was trying to write a research proposal to the USEPA to work on amphibians up and down the Mississippi R basin. I networked a series of universities that were located near the MS R and learned of the new PHD program at Arkansas State. I met Stan Trauth and ended up leaving my job at the aquarium to do my doctorate. I stepped into it knowing the market stunk, that I had tons of deficiencies for the job market, and what it took to get a phd. My eyes were wide open. I entered and took the exact courses I had missed in most federal jobs and state jobs to date. In my case it was Immunology, animal ecology, ecotoxicology, and a few others. I went on to get my PHD adn was fortunate to be hired to a series of academic and nonacademic jobs each with their positives and negatives.
What I have learned from this process and in talking with others is that if you are doing you will do, and if you are thinking about doing you will continue to think about doing. You can't get anywhere thinking about doing. IF I had not been at that pond turning over bark, I would not have found the deformed frogs, they would not have made TV, my future boss at the aquarium would not have seen the story, I would not likely have been hired, I would not have constructed that proposal, I would not have learned of ASU's PHD program, would not have met Stan Trauth. WHo knows if I would ahve ever earned a PHD, or later got hired anywhere? But that is not what happened. Today, I recognize that you have to do with what you got. Everyone is not in a perfect job, everyone does not have perfect opportunities. BUt, if you work hard on your own you can make your opportunities and force the issue so you move forward. This is what employers want, people with initiative to do it anyway. Everything matters except the excuses. So, take your own reigns, who knows you might find yourself at the right place at the right time and everythign will work out. If you are sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and your situation, you will probably be the only one thinking about you and your situation. Academia, government, or start up a private consultancy, you can win your own game. Maybe, this story will give you some ideas. Malcolm McCallum On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 9:26 AM, R K <[email protected]> wrote: > I would like to know if there's anyone else out there who has fought > their way through grad school, and finished with a real sense of > accomplishment, only to discover the utter impossibility of finding a job in > conservation science, the sham of building a career in this field. I would > like to know if there are any others who have gone a year or more since > graduation with no work, no prospects, and no hope left. > > I'm not looking for career advice, especially not from all those who feel > so very proud and superior to have a job where I do not. I've had enough > contempt, scorn, and smug cold amusement to last me a lifetime. If you're > employed, count yourself fortunate and move along. > > I'm not here to start a discussion; I'd just like to know if there's > anyone else living in the same place right now. If you've gone through the > endless rounds of application and rejection, if you poured yourself into > hopes that have gone to barren dust, I'd like to hear from you. Send me a > reply off-list. > -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences University of Missouri at Kansas City Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
