Ecolog:
It's just interesting that the number-one skill required for ecology is
GIS.
Now I know why I was such a failure!
Well, on second thought, I guess I shouldn't place all the blame on the
absence of GIS skills (and the absence of GIS at the time). I "sucked" at
statistics too--but what the hell, statisticians need jobs too, no?
So after I got out of the military, I took Business Administration and a
few
courses of Public Administration, but the latter I had to learn mostly
on-the-job--no college can prepare one for the absurdities of
"administration" and "management" in bureaucracies, government and
private.
I took business law. 'Nuff said.
I was no chemist, molecular biologist, or microbiologist either, so I
hired
them when I needed them. The smidgen of those subjects I knew about was
often enough to get by without them, but I sure do wish that I had had
more
of them, and WAY more geology.
Margaret Mead once said that "the most important thing to know is what
you
don't know."
That concept took off any pressure to be an APC (all-purpose capsule), to
know EVERYTHING, and worse, to BELIEVE it. Ever notice how many people DO
know everything?
But SHOULD your objective be focused entirely upon getting a job and
fighting your way up the pyramid? Well, you'll need a job, of course, but
if
that's all you're focused on, that's all you'll ever have. Academic
training
can be a valuable thing, but it's only a START--even at the Ph.D. level.
(Howls and screams.) You have to get to the point where "everything"
seems
to fall into place, and you come to UNDERSTAND how things work. (See
"Breaking Through," The Ed Ricketts biography by Katherine A. Rodger, and
"The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman. "The Log From
the
Sea of Cortez" by John Steinbeck (and Ricketts) is also a great read, as
is
the entire book, "The Sea of Cortez" by the same author(s).) Read widely.
Experience widely.
Don't waste your life; do what you're passionate about. Have expectations
of
yourself if you want, but don't waste your life having expectations of
others. If you're not passionate, get an MBA and get rich.
WT
"The worst kinda ignerance ain't so much not knowin', a 'tis knowin' so
much
that ain't so? --"Josh Billings"
"They tell us we are wasting time--but we are wasting our LIVES!" --Eric
Hoffer
----- Original Message ----- From: "malcolm McCallum"
<malcolm.mccal...@herpconbio.org>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2013 8:03 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] A Graduate Student's Guide to Neces sary Skills
for
Landing a Job
Clara, I agree.
To be marketable in the workplace you must have skills that are in
demand in the workplace. Its that simple. Too many students graduate
without marketable skills.
Marketability for grad school does not equal marketability for a job
out of the BS.
You want to get a job in ecological field?
Here are the skills I recommend:
1. GIS
2. statistics
3. public administration
4. env/wildlife/fisheries policy & law
5. Any and all instrumentation involving chemistry, molecular biology
and
micro.
Why?
Everything uses GIS today.
Statistics are just plain required.
If you are working in the public sector, PA will prepare you for what
you actually do most of the time...paperwork.
policy and law is mostly what you will be doing paperwork on (permits
and permitting issues!)
instrumentation may pick you up a research tech post.
Also, if you go into the private sector, every one of those areas is
highly marketable.
If you have none of them, you are going to have a rougher time.
Again, this is coming out of a BS.
Ideally, you better have Wildlife + Wildlife Techniques if going into
a wildlife field or Fisheries + fisheries techniques if going into a
fish field. You might check the respective certification programs.
Anything ecotox will help too.
Malcolm
On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 5:31 PM, Clara B. Jones <foucaul...@gmail.com>
wrote:
1. ...assuming that your summary is an accurate reflection of the
*CB*article...
2. ...i am shocked that there is no mention of actual skills...most of
the
traits you mention might be categorized as "intangible"...you need
these
skills to be a car salesman...not to impugn car sales-persons...
3. ...IMO, an applicant has a better edge if s/he brings something
transferrable [marketable!] to the table that no-one else brings to the
table...
4. ...often this "something" is one or more quantitative skill...
5. ...or, skill in a fundamental or "hot" area of research w long-term
potential...
6. ...or, a grant...
7. ...i am somewhat exercised by your post because, IMO, too many
young,
especially, female, applicants don't bring much to the table that
others
don't already know or that cannot be readily duplicated or that is
mostly
generalist-oriented...
8. ...early-career applicants need to bring something "with legs"...as
my
Grandmother Jackson used to say...in other words, bring something to
the
table that can go somewhere [that the department and the
college/university
and the field want to go]...
9. ...clara b. jones
On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Helen Bothwell
<helen.bothw...@nau.edu>wrote:
In a recent publication in Conservation Biology, Blickley et al.
(2012)
analayzed what skills are necessary for graduate students to be
competitive in
the job market. We discuss these in the Early Career Ecologists blog
and
hope
that many of you will find this useful:
http://earlycareerecologists.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/a-graduate-students-
guide-to-necessary-skills-for-landing-a-job/<http://earlycareerecologists.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/a-graduate-students-guide-to-necessary-skills-for-landing-a-job/>
--
Clara B. Jones
Director
Mammals and Phenogroups (MaPs)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cbjones1943
Cell: -828-279-4429
Blog Profile: http://www.blogger.com/profile/09089578792549394529
Brief CV:
http://vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com/2012/10/clara-b-jones-brief-cv.html
"Where no estimate of error of any kind can be made, generalizations
about
populations from sample data are worthless." Ferguson, 1959
--
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" -
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2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction
MAY help restore populations.
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