What was your first job in this field?
Ask A Biologist Monday 4/5/21
Mine was a biological technician position for the BLM in New Mexico during the summer before my junior year of undergrad. We did a whole range of activities including invasive plant removal, native plant plantings, game camera placement, wildlife exclosure building, fixing fences, and trail maintenance.
Answers from the Biologists:
I was a YCC crew leader for the FWS. We poured concrete but I learned a lot about the Service.
I documented new aquatic invasive species for the Michigan DNR.
An interpretive naturalist for a state park.
Reptile conservation in the Atacama desert.
I got my first zoo job in college. I went to the zoo and basically begged for a job!
Fisheries field tech at IRBS, Havana IL, 1 year after undergrad.
Surveying habitat in northern MN for potential elk reintroduction, summer after I finished undergrad.
REU researcher at SIU-Carbondale collecting food web data on amphibians and spiders.
Summer after my freshman year I worked at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
Identifying and preserving native MT prairie fish.
A fellowship through my school in my last year of undergrad that led to grad school!
West Virginia DNR working as a fish diversity tech.
Rio Grande silvery minnow tech for USFWS the summer between high school and uni.
I was a bat technician for a grad student my junior year of undergrad.
Golden-cheeked warbler field tech at Ft. Hood.
Junior year I worked managing the crocs at a crocodile farm.
Mule deer nutrition study in an experimental forest in Oregon.
Natural history museum collection manager for my undergrad university.
Seasonal technician in Alaska studying Emperor geese.
Research tech for otter genetics study my junior year in WY.
Wildlife apprentice in Redwoods State and National Parks studying martens.
Through the SCA I was a fellow for the USFWS working on an NWR for bio planning.
Field tech for NM cooperative fish and wildlife unit summer before my junior year.
Summer after my freshman year, I worked on a YCC crew stationed in the Cibola National Forest.
Data collection in the Channel Islands-free diving!
Spotted owl surveys in CA.
Paid undergrad research looking at Bachman’s sparrow site preference.
Archeologist who dabble in Bio-fire effects monitoring and plant inventory for NPS.
Interpretive ranger for the Fernbank Museum-I managed a 65 acre old growth forest.
USFWS Pathways intern in visitor services.
Ohio River National Wildlife Refuge summer position summer after my sophomore year.
Trail crew member through SCA in Alaska.
Field tech for USGS slingin’ bird carcasses on wind farms.
Research assistant in the Baltic Seabird Project.
Cutting down invasive Russian olive with the Utah Conservation Corps, 2 years after undergrad.
Technician for the WA Dept of Ecology.
Undergrad REU studying critically endangered pupfish in Texas.
Summer internship for a NSF site fidelity study of local marsh fish.
Wildlife rehabilitation intern.
Point counts at Yosemite National Park.
Undergrad researcher for project on use of underpasses.
Summer field tech on urban stream ecology.
Working with leatherback sea turtled in Trinidad.
