Not sure....
- Thread starter Cichlid-Man
- Start date
Then like MJF said, start working in one now. Also research jobs in the "middle man" catagory, such as wholesalers. Go to the Segrest Farms website, they are a wholesaler I'm familar with and have no quarls with their quality. Import/export trades as well would be a good idea to research, especially since many marine fish come from "over" seas<G>.
~~Colesea
~~Colesea
I to have heard a lot about the whole Marine Biologist "epidemic" I guess you could call it.. it seems that every third person you meet wants to be one. And that makes a lot of people for a small amount of jobs. I once worked at a Pet Warehouse, and a guy that I worked with claimed to be a Marine Biologist, he was probably mid 30s with a wife and child and all I could think of was..."Your a MB and you still work here at a pet store?!?"
It is very rare thing to see a person who's work is their passion and they actually make money doing it. Now I am not saying that you should pick a job solely on the amount of money you are going to make, but for me I would at least like to be financely(sp) stable. My passion in life is animal rehab and rescue, a field that I have volunteered in for 4 years now. But now that it is time for me to go to college I know that there is no realy major or degree that I can go into for that type of thing that will give me the money I will need to make a real difference. So what am I going to do? I have picked a career that hopefully will make me a substanal amount of money...and since I am not a material type persone nor do I want the biggest and best thing out there, I will be able to spend my extra money to contribute to my passion in one way or another...
So my advice is...pick a career that will promise you a job and financeal stability and then spend your extra time, money or both and do what you really have a passion for!!
It is very rare thing to see a person who's work is their passion and they actually make money doing it. Now I am not saying that you should pick a job solely on the amount of money you are going to make, but for me I would at least like to be financely(sp) stable. My passion in life is animal rehab and rescue, a field that I have volunteered in for 4 years now. But now that it is time for me to go to college I know that there is no realy major or degree that I can go into for that type of thing that will give me the money I will need to make a real difference. So what am I going to do? I have picked a career that hopefully will make me a substanal amount of money...and since I am not a material type persone nor do I want the biggest and best thing out there, I will be able to spend my extra money to contribute to my passion in one way or another...
So my advice is...pick a career that will promise you a job and financeal stability and then spend your extra time, money or both and do what you really have a passion for!!
Colesea looks to paint the picture as it really is. Unfortuneately, for the first n years almost all science jobs are not good earners. I didn't do ichthyology simply because I couldn't see a stress free career, I did geology instead, and pursue my fishy interests in my spare time. The only field I can see of as interesting would be to work in one of the larger public aquaria researching breeding marine angels or something like that, or working for a aquarium aquaculture company.
Looks like me working in an lfs would bel ike hell - you're selling a lot of fish that are pretty much doomed. You're not going to see, or get any real experience with anything interesting as they'll be in and then out the door. Maybe importing would be better, though harder to get into.
Web designers are not so sellable now, it's pretty easy technically. Good programmers though can still get what they want - go for C, ORACLE and build experience in a science discipline for specialist knowledge.
Looks like me working in an lfs would bel ike hell - you're selling a lot of fish that are pretty much doomed. You're not going to see, or get any real experience with anything interesting as they'll be in and then out the door. Maybe importing would be better, though harder to get into.
Web designers are not so sellable now, it's pretty easy technically. Good programmers though can still get what they want - go for C, ORACLE and build experience in a science discipline for specialist knowledge.
Amazon Tanks; Become a Veternarian Technician. That's what I eventually have ended up returning for school for. I still get to work with animals, still get to make a difference, and can demand enough money from employers so that I can support myself because I fall into the "white collared professional" catagory. The emergency hospital where I interned last year was heavily involved in wildlife rehab, so someone of your experties would have been a great asset to them. Besides, how can you go wrong with a job that lets you show up for work in PJs every day (aka scrubs! love scrubs!)?
Hell, become a Veternarian, then you'll be able to do whatever your passion is once you pay off vet school.
Both paths require sacrifice, but the rewards at the end of it all make it worth it IMO.
There are ways of participating in your passion, just as Wayne said, you simply have to do so circumventively now a days, and it might take you a whole lot longer than you expect, but eventually you'll get there. Both my boyfriend and I graduated as Marine Biology majors. By rights, we could probably call ourselves marine biologist because that's what our degrees say we are, but neither of us work in the field. It's like being Catholic but not going to church, ya know. Both of us returned to school after that first fustrated year of graduation without landing the jobs we want. He actually spent four more years in medical school to become a Veternarian, and I took the two-year route to become a Vet Tech.
There is a large demand right now for Veternarians and Techs that work with exotic wildlife animals, especially in zoos and aquariums. Sure, they don't pay as well as private practice does, but you won't go hungry. And the road towards gaining the skill level enough to stand out and get hired is a struggling one, but finally being hired and working in a zoo would make that all worth it. Stressful, you bet. There are times when we both ask each other, "why the hell torture ourselves?" Then we remember the dreams and goals we wish to accomplish with our lives, and plow on ahead. Granted, neither of us will probably get the chance to be marine biologist in the Steve Irwine sense, but if we work hard enough, we may get employed in a position where we're drawing blood from dolphins and doing dental exams on wolves. Not a bad trade-off IMO.
And if that doesn't happen, at least we're both employed in a field that we find rewarding in and of itself. But right now we're building professional reputations, paying off the wonderful student loans, and are content to remember that while right now really sucks, the future can only get better. We may never be rich (well, he might be able to get rich, I certainly won't be<G>), but a comfortable living that can afford a modest abode, 2.3 kids, and a dog is all we want. Everything else is just icing.
That's the best thing you can really do. Look at the "Help Wanted" adds in your local paper or online. Find out where the demand is, try to anticipate where the demand will be in four years, and do that. That's the only way to really insure that you'll have a job waiting for you after graduation.
Anticipate living in places you wouldn't expect. Anticipate having to move to where the job is that you want. Anticipate having huge bills to pay when you graduate. Anticipate being alone because not everyone shares the same dream, or other people drop out and loose hope. Anticipate discouring times. Anticipate at some point working at what you love to do for free, and anticipate doing the best job you can even though you're not getting paid for it, or even appriecated for it. Anticipate being poor, hungry, tired, frazzled, and on the edge. Anticipate having an opportunity dropped in your lap, and sieze it for all it is worth. Anticipate having to learn the names of people you don't like, and dropping them as if they're your best friend. Anticipate catty politics and egos. Anticipate the rainbow. Anticipate loosing your best friend. Anticipate meeting the person of your dreams at an internship. Anticipate that someday, somehow, by whatever means necessary, you will be exactly where you are meant to be five years from now even though you never anticipated being there.
~~Colesea
Hell, become a Veternarian, then you'll be able to do whatever your passion is once you pay off vet school.
Both paths require sacrifice, but the rewards at the end of it all make it worth it IMO.
There are ways of participating in your passion, just as Wayne said, you simply have to do so circumventively now a days, and it might take you a whole lot longer than you expect, but eventually you'll get there. Both my boyfriend and I graduated as Marine Biology majors. By rights, we could probably call ourselves marine biologist because that's what our degrees say we are, but neither of us work in the field. It's like being Catholic but not going to church, ya know. Both of us returned to school after that first fustrated year of graduation without landing the jobs we want. He actually spent four more years in medical school to become a Veternarian, and I took the two-year route to become a Vet Tech.
There is a large demand right now for Veternarians and Techs that work with exotic wildlife animals, especially in zoos and aquariums. Sure, they don't pay as well as private practice does, but you won't go hungry. And the road towards gaining the skill level enough to stand out and get hired is a struggling one, but finally being hired and working in a zoo would make that all worth it. Stressful, you bet. There are times when we both ask each other, "why the hell torture ourselves?" Then we remember the dreams and goals we wish to accomplish with our lives, and plow on ahead. Granted, neither of us will probably get the chance to be marine biologist in the Steve Irwine sense, but if we work hard enough, we may get employed in a position where we're drawing blood from dolphins and doing dental exams on wolves. Not a bad trade-off IMO.
And if that doesn't happen, at least we're both employed in a field that we find rewarding in and of itself. But right now we're building professional reputations, paying off the wonderful student loans, and are content to remember that while right now really sucks, the future can only get better. We may never be rich (well, he might be able to get rich, I certainly won't be<G>), but a comfortable living that can afford a modest abode, 2.3 kids, and a dog is all we want. Everything else is just icing.
That's the best thing you can really do. Look at the "Help Wanted" adds in your local paper or online. Find out where the demand is, try to anticipate where the demand will be in four years, and do that. That's the only way to really insure that you'll have a job waiting for you after graduation.
Anticipate living in places you wouldn't expect. Anticipate having to move to where the job is that you want. Anticipate having huge bills to pay when you graduate. Anticipate being alone because not everyone shares the same dream, or other people drop out and loose hope. Anticipate discouring times. Anticipate at some point working at what you love to do for free, and anticipate doing the best job you can even though you're not getting paid for it, or even appriecated for it. Anticipate being poor, hungry, tired, frazzled, and on the edge. Anticipate having an opportunity dropped in your lap, and sieze it for all it is worth. Anticipate having to learn the names of people you don't like, and dropping them as if they're your best friend. Anticipate catty politics and egos. Anticipate the rainbow. Anticipate loosing your best friend. Anticipate meeting the person of your dreams at an internship. Anticipate that someday, somehow, by whatever means necessary, you will be exactly where you are meant to be five years from now even though you never anticipated being there.
~~Colesea
Well Colesea once again you have baffled me with your advice, the beuaty of it just astonishes me...
Funny you should bring up becoming a Vet. Ever since I was 5yrs old, every since I can remember I wanted to be a Vet. I even have a little essay I wrote about become one when I was in Kindergarden. Unfortunalty or Fortunaltey I relized that I could never be a Vet (a small animal dogs and cats kind of Vet) and feel comfortable about what my job is. Since I have working in the lowest of low animal shelters, were the dogs and cats there has a time limit of 14 days to be adopted or they face euthanazia (and many of them were not even giving the humane death that we promised them if you know what I mean) and were on a daily basis I was witness to the horridness of the humane race. Dogs would come in unable to stand, barly able to breath but frightend enough to look us dead in the eye. Kittens who were so flea ridden that after a flea dip you would put them on your lap with a white towel to dry them off and when you were done the towel would be black. What I mean by all this is that, when I volunteered at my locale Vets office, I saw the relationship the Vet had with his best costomers. Animal Breeders. This relationship was essential to the Vets succses in his buisness. As a Vet I could not bring myself to enteracting with animal breeders they way I would need to to earn a living.
I know that that reason alone is not enough to throw a lifes dream away on. And I know that there are countless other things I could do as a Vet then start a private practice. But there is just that thing that tells me it is not the job for me.
So what you are saying is, you could technically be called Marine Biologists becasue your degrees tell us you are but you are really something different because you don't work in the feild?? Like lets take for instance, if I wanted to be Catholic but did not feel comfortable going to Church I could still be Catholic but in a rediffined since?
Funny you should bring up becoming a Vet. Ever since I was 5yrs old, every since I can remember I wanted to be a Vet. I even have a little essay I wrote about become one when I was in Kindergarden. Unfortunalty or Fortunaltey I relized that I could never be a Vet (a small animal dogs and cats kind of Vet) and feel comfortable about what my job is. Since I have working in the lowest of low animal shelters, were the dogs and cats there has a time limit of 14 days to be adopted or they face euthanazia (and many of them were not even giving the humane death that we promised them if you know what I mean) and were on a daily basis I was witness to the horridness of the humane race. Dogs would come in unable to stand, barly able to breath but frightend enough to look us dead in the eye. Kittens who were so flea ridden that after a flea dip you would put them on your lap with a white towel to dry them off and when you were done the towel would be black. What I mean by all this is that, when I volunteered at my locale Vets office, I saw the relationship the Vet had with his best costomers. Animal Breeders. This relationship was essential to the Vets succses in his buisness. As a Vet I could not bring myself to enteracting with animal breeders they way I would need to to earn a living.
I know that that reason alone is not enough to throw a lifes dream away on. And I know that there are countless other things I could do as a Vet then start a private practice. But there is just that thing that tells me it is not the job for me.
So what you are saying is, you could technically be called Marine Biologists becasue your degrees tell us you are but you are really something different because you don't work in the feild?? Like lets take for instance, if I wanted to be Catholic but did not feel comfortable going to Church I could still be Catholic but in a rediffined since?