Yes, yes, YES!
I literally worked my way up from cotton-picker, through shoveling shit,
slaughter house, nursery, landscaping--which I decided was bs and started
trying to work out how to restore damaged ecosystems and integrate local
flora into landscaping, making lots of money but finding it unsatisfying. I
sat down and filled out, with an old Remington typewriter and carbon paper,
forty applications to forty forests all over the US. I got one response and
one job--tree surveying and type mapping at GS-4 pay, ($4,440 per year) less
than half of what I was making in landscraping, but much, much more
satisfying--best job I ever had, taking walks in the woods, coring trees,
mapping, photo interpretation, etc. The second year I got promoted to GS-5.
After three years, with the draft on my heels, I joined the Air Force,
worked in electronic interception, then routing atomic bomb strikes, got out
and went back to school, taking 18 units again, and worked more than 40
hours per week for a couple of years until "graduation," which I did not
attend. Then went to the mountains for a year, studying on my own and doing
odd jobs. The into the park business for 11 years, continuing to develop and
test ways of accelerating the development of ecosystems (aka "restoration")
on disturbed sites (road rights-of-way, landfills, and other large-scale
stuff. Tired of the bureaucracy, I quit and opened my own consulting
business, which I did for 21 years. I never had a project failure in all
that time, and I got to learn more and more with each project.
Was this the "hard" way? I suppose so. But satisfying, and even the literal
shit work taught me something. Academia gave me wonderful things (thanks to
a handful of GREAT professors), and it gave me fits.
As Malcolm says, just DO it! Work your way around the world. Take any job
you can get. Make a lot of mistakes, but don't kid yourself that you are
God's gift to the world because you've suffered the slings and arrows of
outrageous academia. To thine own self be true. Read "Valuing the Self," by
Dorothy Lee. Follow your passion, and scrub the egocentrism out of your
heart and mind. Don't hold back; don't fear. Most of all, don't whine.
"'Tis friction's brisk, rough rub that provides the vital spark!" --A. R.
Martin
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "malcolm McCallum" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Careers in Conservation: Crossing the Barren Waste
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.
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1427 / Virus Database: 2441/5375 - Release Date: 11/05/12
