What accomplishments are you most proud of this year?
Ask A Biologist Monday 12/19/22
Answers from Biologists:
Getting mental health care to support myself through another field season of lay-offs.
Passing my exam to become a certified malacologist.
Finally getting a job with a healthy work life balance.
Finding the darted elk, hobbling and blindfolding her alone after everyone else had given up.
To have grown so much in my field as someone young. I started from zero and learned a lot in 2 years.
Quitting my job.
I went back to work after being a stay at home mom for over 2 years and overcame imposter syndrome.
Getting a permanent conservation job that I can mold around my skills.
Got a permanent job working with Red-cockaded woodpeckers, a species I’ve loved since I was a kid.
Opening up about being an autistic biologist. Bonus, everyone has been supportive.
Finally landing a permanent wildlife biologist gig.
Getting accepted in a PhD program with a full scholarship.
Getting promoted to head biologist of my department.
Deciding to leave an unhealthy position for my dream job even though it’s scary.
Passed my PhD candidacy exam.
Doing my first poster presentations and getting a lot of good data in my project.
Landing a permanent position right out of undergrad.
Leaving a graduate program that was not serving me.
Negotiated higher pay for a job. I came with statistics from the Dept. of Labor.
Graduating and getting a job with USFWS.
Just surviving a department it feels like leadership is trying to destroy.
Starting grad school while working full time.
First “Wildlife Biologist” job title and worked with many new protected/endangered species.
Some promising results that came out of my work.
Challenging management on the way women and minorities are repeatedly under classified here.
Taking complete control of my business after years of not believing in myself.
Finally graduated with my degree, moved to a new country, and now ready to learn again.
Getting a non-timber project implemented.
Applied to NSERC and Fullbright.
Accepted my first permanent wildlife job.
Getting my first longish term job being a research tech.
Getting a new job in a better department. Cheers to being a field biologist again.
Getting the ball rolling to change up the general Bio I lab curriculum where I teach.
Saying no to some workgroups and projects in order to protect my time.
Writing 2 of 3 chapters of my thesis proposal.
Starting my own nature camp for kids.
Having an old supervisor tell me what I good job I did under him.
Making it through the year.
Not accepting a job offer with insultingly low pay. I know my worth.
Getting my first permanent job after 10+ years of being a seasonal.
Getting hired with enough of a wage to pay off my MS degree and feel financially safe.
Starting my PhD and getting back into the research world.
Setting up my dissertation project from scratch.
Getting my first banding job after applying to so many. Persistence and effort are key.
Quitting the biology field. Wasn’t good for my mental health.
Quitting a telemetry project because I was overly stressed and felt scarred.
Defended my MFin thesis.
Finding a balance between personal life and school/work life.
Made my first poster and got into grad school.
Boundaries. Leaving a job that I can’t perform without losing the boundaries I need to have.
Being given solo projects and exceeding my own expectations of how they’d turn out.
All chapters are published. Goodbye grad school.
Surviving.
Moving across the country to start the grad school project of my dreams (that I funded myself).
Made a big move for a calmer salary job with PTO after hourly jobs for years with heavy fieldwork.
Got a permanent scientist position with WDNR.
Winning my GRF and leading a research project in another country.
Getting results for my thesis and making progress writing it up.
Surviving a rapidly changing PI and lab dynamic.
Got a permanent biologist job for the state.
Attending my first conference as a professional and giving a presentation.
Graduated with my bachelor’s and am getting into grad school after a gap year of bad health.
Getting a big grant and record nest numbers.
