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Wish you the best of luck on your career in wildlife. Ahh, to be young and full of enthusiasm. It hasn't even dawned on you that you will be taking a vow of poverty, has it? Have you seen the job offers your engineering classmates are getting? Just yanking your chain bro, good luck.
Kayote
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All you have to give up is a taste for meat, you won't be able to afford it. You better catch fish to supplement your income. LMAO
Good Eating, Kayote
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Keep up the schooling and get that masters! If you ever intend on getting on with any Natural Res. agency as a biologist (the only decent money posistions anyway) a masters is the bare minimum. True, some of the old timers there don't have one, but they make up for it in experience. But everyone I have worked for in the non-game avian dept. has at least a PhD. Just remember, seasonals with a bachelors degree are a dime-a-dozen. Good luck and have a great time on the water!
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[size 2]White interviewing Wayne Gustaveson for an article a while back, he gave some advice for those wanting to pursue a career in fisheries management. For those of you who don't know about Wayne, he's the big cheese fisheries biologist at Lake Powell and a first-rate person.Here's my notes:[/size][font "Times New Roman"][size 2][blue]
For people interested in this type of job, WG advises that if you really want to do it, it’s possible. There’s no career you can have more enjoyment or satisfaction from. You’re not going to get rich doing it. If you want to make a lot of money, you probably need to go somewhere else. If you want to really enjoy what you’re doing, this job is a good one. Federal jobs make more money, but they don’t work with fish as much. They work more with paper. State agencies deal with fish. If you get out into the region then you’re more likely to go out and sample fish. If you work in the office you’re more likely to work with paper. If you’re really serious you really need to get a master’s degree in wildlife management or a management-related field. WG's bachelor’s degree is in political science, and he got a second bachelor’s in wildlife science and a master’s in wildlife science.
It’s not easy to get it. WG got out of the military and decided he wanted to go back to school. Now you have to get accepted, and find a position. If you’re a high-school grad you can become a technician and you can clean ponds for your entire career. But WG doesn’t recommend it. With a bachelor’s degree you can become a biologist but it’s not easy because there’s so much competition and you’ll be competing with people who have a master’s degree. So WG recommends getting a master’s, then you can compete, pay the price with summer jobs, then work in the field to get experience and you have to do it for a few years to get the credentials to be hired on.
[size 2]WG worked one summer out of the northern region while he was working on his masters. Then his second year he worked on a special project at Bear Lake. Then jobs came open he had the choice to go to the SLC office or Lake Powell. And he had done his master’s research on Lake Powell so he came here.[/size]
[size 2]WG brags that he has the best job in Utah—he’s not interested in climbing the corporate ladder or earning more honors or accolades. He hasn’t even considered retirement. His biggest sacrifice has been watching others with master’s degrees earn more money, but at the same time watching them not be as satisfied at what they do.[/size][/blue][/size][/font]
] It looks like we'll be gillnetting at Deer Cr. and Jordanelle next week, so if you see us out there, give a holler. 