My questions for the class

These are directed at all those posters who want to know if they can get a job in wildlife or attend a graduate program without an undergrad in the field:

- What is it about our field that makes you think that's doable?

- What do you think we do all day at work? Play with bunny rabbits and take pretty pictures of the sunrise?

It's honestly become quite insulting. Ours is a highly technical field that requires a very broad range of knowledge. While this certification is not required, I'd encourage all of you who are interested in this field to review the requirements for Associate Wildlife Biologist set by The Wildlife Society. That should give you an idea of the breadth of our knowledge base. From botany to plant identification to the -ologies to ecology to evolution to statistics to population dynamics to soils to coding and more.

By the time you earn a B.S. in the field, you've done a little bit of all the above. Plus multiple temp jobs and internships. Those can focus on general tech work, like invasive species removal to more focused positions, like bird banding. Specialities abound and grad work is all about learning how to conduct research properly.

I'd never dream of going to a medical sub and asking if my master's in wildlife would be acceptable to get into med school or become an NP or PA. Same thing with engineering, computer science, or any other technical field. It's really insulting for people to waltz in here and start asking if their totally unrelated degree will help them be competitive in grad school or in getting a job in a highly competitive environment.

And then....then there's the people so out of touch with the field that they have no idea what's going on with it. I know at least a dozen people working as entry level biologists for around $18/hour and they all have graduate degrees. It's nuts out here and even with connections, experience, and education, people are getting turned down on a regular basis. That is, here in the U.S. I can't speak for outside our country.

Yet, you'll have some folks saying it's possible to find a job without a relevant degree or experience. Yeah, it's possible to win the lottery...not really likely, but possible.

I've also noticed that people get upset when they hear the truth. We're not being supportive or helpful. Um...okay. I'm not going to lie to anyone just to make them feel better about life. It's a brutal job market and has gotten exponentially worse over the last two years. If that hurts your feelings, it's not my fault. Personally, I busted my rear end to get into this field after retiring from a completely unrelated one after two decades. It took over five years for me to land my job and my graduate degree was the very reason I got it - that's what my bosses told me after hiring me.

I'm serious about my questions. I really want to know what makes people think that wildlife is something they can just hop on over to do, without needing the knowledge first. What is it you think we do?