I’m currently a high school student, and for the longest time, I’ve known that I’ve wanted to work in a field in biology. Animals have been something that interested me from a very young age, and are something that I know I would enjoy working with for a living. I know that there’s a long process to getting a job like this, but I’m struggling to figure out exactly what I need to do to pursue this dream. iNaturalist is a place full of people with an interest in nature, including people with careers similar to the one I want to work towards. Would anyone share any advice for young adults who are interested in biology jobs? Are there any specific classes other than science that I should be especially focused on? Thank you so much for anyone who reads this!
We have a ton of advice, as almost half of the Forum users have formal training or experience in biology-related jobs.
One thing that I think about a lot, especially when I see young folks like yourself on the forum, is that we are in a “Brave New World” of data digitization. By being an active iNatter in your teens, you are developing a skillset that didn’t exist when many of us were young: digital biodiversity surveying, on a global scale.
That is really cool. You will have career options that we can’t dream of at the moment!
In addition to seeking advice here, meet with an academic counselor at your school to discuss your career plans. You can also discuss this with biology teachers at your school. Having advice from multiple sources is likely to provide you with good options to consider.
Do whatever makes you excited. For me that was a sport, lots of science and math, and volunteering at a museum. In addition to a lot of nature exploration in my free time.
Don’t fall into the trap that you need to be doing XYZ as fast as possible to make it. Take your time to really figure out what exactly you love.
Other than biology and other science coursework, you could take courses in statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), if available. Both can be a big plus in a variety of field biology careers. And find someone in your area, perhaps at a local university, who is doing research or conservation work that interests you and volunteer some time assisting them. If there are local clubs that focus on your interests, join them. Good luck.
All the stuff people have recommended had been good but if there’s a local museum or wildlife refuge or something along those lines try to volunteer there. Pay attention in your chemistry classes as well
Does that mean you are already volunteering somewhere?
If you want to do field work as you suggest, I recommend you take ecology subjects as well as zoology which may be your primary interest. Someone above suggested you include GIS subjects and I also think that is good advice. If you interested in being a wildlife ranger or conservation officer, a bit of experience in legal matters and investigation training might also stand you in good stead.
I would also recommend taking statistics courses and also courses especially for the R programming language. Being able to do nice scatter-plots, box-plots, etc. with it already will be a huge advantage.
As someone who absolutely loathes having to do complicated computer stuff, I never really took these courses seriously and then panicked when I suddenly needed R for a paper which was due that day… So yeah…
Learn everything you can, every way you can. Read all the books (and request more from your library, if that’s possible). Watch documentaries, everything from formal ones meant for general audiences to Youtube videos on some niche aspect. Take classes, not just in school, but from whatever other groups and institutions offer them. Join nature clubs and go to their lectures and field trips.
Depending on what kind of job you may want (and I don’t expect you to know that already), you may need to get at least a master’s degree beyond your bachelor’s. Many new graduates I’ve known have taken serial temporary fieldwork jobs for several years after graduation (even with a master’s); assure your parents or anyone else worried about you that this is the usual course of events, unfortunately.
Be employable. By this I mean such basics as being pleasant to work with, showing up on time, being organized, being able to write and speak coherently, getting tasks done in a timely fashion, etc. You’d be surprised at how many people have trouble doing all that (and I’m not talking about people with disabilities here, just to be clear).
Be a little pushy asking people how to get where you want to go - you’re already doing that, yay! Keep doing that. Some of the people you ask may not be very helpful, but that’s just them, not you.
ETA: And hooray for wanting to be a biologist! This world needs more biologists - it is wonderful you want to be one!
Lots of good advice here. Something else to include: once you reach the age to get a driving license, learn to drive and get a license. For a lot of field jobs, that’s a basic criterion for employment.
I didn’t even think about how important that could be!
Back in the day, knowing how to drive a vehicle with a stick shift was also useful as many field vehicles were not automatic transmission. But that’s not the case anymore.
If you want to pursue field biology, volunteering or working as a technician for a field biologist will teach you a lot about the various skills you might need to develop.
Or SAS. Some institutions use that more than R.
Surprised nobody mentioned GIS. Any research or decision making with a geographical element to it is applicable to GIS.
Are these programming languages that would be taught in a Statistics or AP Stats course or is this something I would have to learn outside of school?
I work in environmental consulting and my experience has been that the connections and experience I gained from birding, using iNaturalist, and being involved in local naturalist clubs are just as if not more valuable than academics.
You need the undergrad degree to get into the field, as well as the writing skills and work ethic that comes with finishing a degree, but personally most of the practical knowledge I have that I use for work didn’t come from school. My peers who only had a vague interest in nature and took biology and then tried to get into the field without much field experience have more trouble with making connections and being competitive, and that’s in Canada where there seem to be a fair amount more environmental jobs than in the US. Field experience is super valuable. A common criticism is that entry-level jobs want you to have 2-3 years of previous field experience, and not everyone can afford tons of time for volunteering or doing unpaid internships. If you’re getting experience from doing it for fun that’s a huge bonus. In my field particularly bird vocalizations and plant ID seem like the big skills that are hard to attain and really valuable, because they take so much effort and practice to gain useful experience. But that will vary depending on where you’re looking to go.
The birding community especially is very well-connected in most areas (the community is better in some places and worse in others) and birders tend to have relationships with people in park systems, environmental organizations, government environmental agencies etc. But iNat is similar in that if you observe a wide range of taxa, maybe help identify a common but underrated species in your area, and engage in earnest curiousity in the comments of observations, you’ll end up bumping into a lot of the great naturalists in your region. People recognizing your name is really helpful for trying to get places.
Also I agree R and GIS seem to be pretty valuable. How to use Excel spreadsheets as well (sometimes I forget not everyone is experienced with them and then I meet someone who’s never used a spreadsheet…). I was taught R in a stats course in my undergrad but the professor didn’t teach it very well and I relied heavily on my experience from high school computer science, plus googling how to do various commands, while everyone else in my class struggled. I feel like now AI chatbots can probably solve most issues much easier than the resources we had available at the time.
I mentioned GIS above. It’s definitely useful skill with many applications.
Do extracurricular activities. Volunteer. When I was 14 I started volunteering at a wildlife clinic and interacting with a lot of wildlife professionals. Talking to people already in the field is a GREAT way to become familiar with jobs that have to do with nature, and often you can find out the best college for natural sciences in your area from people who went there.
If you have 4-H where you live, join a club. 4-H isn’t just livestock, and there are a lot of neat opportunities for youth who are interested in the outdoors. Here’s a link to Wild Spartans, a monthly Zoom meeting that introduces youth to: “life working with fisheries and wildlife […] Meet researchers, learn about their field work, and the education and career path they’ve followed to get there.” Even if you don’t live in Michigan, I believe you can still join. I think you can join even if you aren’t in 4-H.
To summarize, do a lot of extracurricular activities related to biology. This is a great way to get a feel for the different jobs in the field, and there are a lot of cool experiences and amazing people you can meet this way too!
I love being out in the bush getting bitten, cut and bruised, dehydrated, freezing, etc etc.
But I’ve worked with 2nd year uni students who love the idea of biology / nature / cute fluffy animals / save the earth etc, but after their first field trip, have turned to accountancy. Lucky they found out then, and not after four more years.
A lot of biology these days is in the office.
QGIS has been invaluable to me.
QGIS is free, and for most purposes, as good or better than ArcGIS.
You can learn QGIS in a week - it has great tutorials, then a great online help community. Remember the 80 / 20 rule. You can do 90% of what you want with 10% of the knowledge, and the other 90% as you need it.
With QGIS I can analyse data. I can display things. I always make GeoReferenced maps of where I am going and what I want to do, and use them in Avenza in the field.
Find whatever base GIS data is available to you - watercourses, roads, contours, veg types, soil types, geology, etc etc. A lot of governments make that stuff available.
Also find and use whatever databases are available to you - maybe your state government, maybe universities, maybe register yourself with various agencies for access, passwords etc.
Eg, in Australia I use Atlas of Living Australia and NatureMaps a lot, then process & overlay on GIS.
Data processing is going to be essential. Learn R for stats, python for general processing, as well as spreadsheets, SQL, etc etc. AI, ChatGPT etc might/might not become more usable, but check in with it every now & then.
Stats - I wish I had more stats, a definite limit for me. One day…
When I was younger, it was a truism that if you want to do biology, don’t do it in high school, do physics & chemistry instead. Dunno if that’s still true, but both are useful.
Coursera, Kahn Academy, or other subject101 re-packagers have lots of good stuff. I notice many academics and professionals know everything about one subject, but nothing about anything else. I think a broad but shallow base is extremely useful. Politics, psychology, astronomy, oceanography, complexity, linguistics, basic computing, etc etc - none will be your core subjects, but all will be useful.
And as others have said, get as much and as wide a variety of hands on experience as possible. Digging holes in the desert, catching birds in forests, peering into a microscope in some dingy back room, talking to the public about nature. Clubs, volunteering. And don’t be a compliant passenger - ask lots of questions, chase opportunities. That will help your CV, but it will also help you find & hone your interests. Most famous experts seem to have started out with x, then found y more interesting.
Car licence, manual gears, (vs automatic), 4WD certificate, truck licence, back-hoe & excavator licence, fork lift licence, gun licence, pilot licence, aqualung certificates. Know how to prepare menus for 20 people, cook on a camp fire, repair broken vehicles, use a GPS, remote first aid. Own a pick & shovel. Own a 4WD that you can sleep in, eat out of, carry gear in. All these are not often advertised in job applications, but are extremely useful (and generally great fun) and can sway an applicant choice.
Are these programming languages that would be taught in a Statistics or AP Stats course or is this something I would have to learn outside of school?
Depends on the institution. I’ve seen PhD candidates having to use R with no background learning.
Find an area that nobody else is an expert in. There are tons of unknown or wrongly known organisms. But only if someone is interested in funding you.
Be prepared to go overseas, where the social / financial / political environment might be more advantagious.
Your https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/polarbearnaturalist/summary is actually pretty impressive. Good luck.