What advice do you have for undergrads in this field?
Ask a Biologist Monday 1/24/22
Answers from Biologists:
Don’t be afraid to work away from where you live for the summer. The more you limit your location, the more you limit opportunities.
Communicate with your professors. Mine helped me get into grad school!
Start with anything and everything all of the time, then later specialize.
Try to get an internship or tech position each summer/ (Also fire pays really well and looks good on resumes.)
Ask professors about opportunities. None of my undergrad research were advertised projects.
Prioritize expanding your experiences rather than maintaining a perfect GPA.
Become active in your student or state TWS chapter to network and learn.
Be willing to move across the country for experience.
Don’t burn bridges if you can help it. This field is super small and everyone knows everyone.
Learn about public affairs, law, human behavior, and skills in working with people.
Be okay with and ready to move. Go explore and see what all is out there.
If you can’t move because of circumstances (debt, family, etc.) it’s okay. It’s harder but not impossible to succeed in this field.
Talk to faculty and graduate TAs about research help. They always love to teach.
Join clubs like TWS and AFS.
Be willing to travel for summer jobs. It’s fun and you get to see new places and species.
Participate in sampling, volunteer work, tag along for field work.
Get experience however you can.
Get some sort of GIS experience.
Find a mentor/good friend you can go to for advice.
Go to office hours/ Professors are your best resource for getting experience.
Network. Ask people about their experiences.
Look into Research Education for Undergraduates internships.
Join Doris Duke Conservation Scholars.
Tech tech tech. And don’t be afraid to branch out.
Get any and all experience you can get your hands on. It’s so important after you graduate.
Be persistent. Email multiple times if you don’t get responses. Keep pushing.
If you have an opportunity for farm/agriculture work, do it. I just got an amazing job because I had that.
Be open to different species, environments, and locations.
If you’re planning on grad school, take a higher level stats class and get experience with R.
Network, network, network. Reach out to anyone and everyone.
Don’t give up!
Interact with professors. Introduce yourself. Volunteer or work in their labs.
Make sure you have the correct course work to qualify for federal jobs (opm.gov).
Be open to any experience. It helps you to identify and narrow down your interests.
Try to diversify your knowledge base as much as possible.
Take advantage of on campus resources-library, free journal access, clubs, etc.
Start gaining experience as soon as possible in undergrad.
Be careful going back to the same internship/position for multiple seasons. Branch out.
Diversify. You may end up far from your start and learning an ecosystem as a whole is a disappearing skill.
Don’t go into debt for experience.
It’s okay to turn down a job you’ve accepted if a better opportunity arises.
Make sure you fulfill the course requirements for that OPM job title.
Struggling is okay to an extent and can teach you valuable lessons in the long run.
Build good relationships with professors and grad students in your department.
Ask older biologists what courses they took and which are actually valuable. ID and analysis with certifications!
If you aren’t immediately starting a MS program, apply your BS/BA to consulting.
Take botany classes.
Network! I am more able to help students who reach out to me.
Keep an open mind on how you’ll be successful in the field.
Find someone doing what you want to be doing on LinkedIn and see how they got there.
Talk to professors about getting involved in their lab.
Go to conferences and introduce yourself to everyone.
Be flexible and willing to leave your comfort zone safely.
