Hey hey I saw you were studying ecology!
I’d like to go to school for biology (doing my associates in biotech rn!)
Do you have any tips for school in general but specifically grad school? :O
Or any tips for deciding a concentration?
I love your sciencey posts!
I spent a lot of time thinking about how best to answer this question without being very negative. It is a tough time for young career scientists right now (honestly, young career anything).
I did "everything right" based on what I was taught in highschool (a fair number of years ago now). I saved money to avoid student loans, and I went to a good university. I started in a general science program and switched schools to specialize in my third year once I decided I wanted to study ecology and evolutionary biology. I did grad school with a supervisor who did the kind of work I wanted to do. I worked in the field and lab every summer and throughout grad school.
I have been unable to get a job in my original field for almost 3 years now.
This is not meant to discourage you, this is meant to say that there is no path that guarantees a good paying job in a field you love. So, my advice is to start getting experiences in a variety of fields that interests you now. This can be volunteering for garbage pick up with ecology non-profits, this can be taking your profs out for coffee and chatting with them, this can be doing the optional course work and doing it well. I've found that experience and connections outweigh degrees in almost every avenue.
Don't apply if your only goal is to get a degree so you can get a job. Don't apply if you're only going because you're scared of entering the "real world".
Benefits I actually got from grad school
1. Connections. You have to put in the socializing and work for these.
2. Funding to publish papers. Get as many out as your lab will allow. Without a lab it's almost impossible for an early career scientist to publish.
3. Courses! If I could go back and take more courses instead of "thesis time" I would have.
4. All the benefits of being a student. Use the gym, use the career counseling, use the bus pass, use the campus food bank, use the health insurance.
Given that university does not guarantee a job, why would you do it? Because nothing guarantees a job! So specialize in what ever interests you, go to talks way outside of your study area, and don't be afraid to change your major or take time off. Go to all the campus events, talk to profs like they're people, and you never know where you'll end up. I can't tell you that life will always work out for the best, but I can tell you that people who are engaged and passionate about ANYTHING will find their way around capitalist obstacles better than those who only do things because they "should".
Some anecdotes about my experience.
I'm currently working as a contract consultant for the government on bioenergy research. Before I got this job I knew nothing about bioenergy. The only way I got this is because a friend of my supervisor asked if I'd work on a plant project, that I ended up presenting at the forestry center, where a met a science communicator who I almost worked on a project with that fell through and she passed my contact along to the person who hired my for this project.
One of the most valuable courses I ever took was my English requirement. I picked the only one that fit my schedule..."Scandalous Fictions". The level of non-acedemic research skills and reading compression I practiced in that class made me a better writer than any science writing course. And it was so fun and we got to watch movies.
Young future scientists like you have an uphill climb but you're gonna climb a hill, make it one that you're passionate about and enjoy it along the way.
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