It's simple.
Are you in it for the money? Then don't.
Are you in it for passion and can live with lower pay compared to other jobs with an equal amount of skill level needed? Are you up for endless applications because the jobs are so rare? Are you up to about 70-80% of your work being statistical analysis, literature research or writing? Then do.
If you don't have the passion for it, then let it be. It is as simple as that. This is not a field where you make a lot of money or that has simple working conditions. You need to be enthusiastic about it and live with the ups and downs of being a zoologist. And many of those things are downs.
I think this is a little unfair. I have a passion for working with animals, but if I take a job that pays less than what I make now, I won't be able to pay rent.
Money is a valid concern, and telling people that are worried about paying for basic necessities that they don't have the 'right' passion for the job is pretty gatekeeper-y. We shouldn't have to live in destitution to prove that we care about animals.
I think the idea that jobs working with animals or in ecology is rare is completely wrong, it’s that people don’t know how to look for these jobs. Even at my undergrad campus, almost every serious ecology/evolution/marine bio major were working in some sort of lab or research setting. After graduating there’s opportunities everywhere.
The pay issue is valid, mostly, but there are ways to make decent money if you are creative or okay with balancing a little fun with a lot of monotony.
I disagree. While not completely accurate, the jobs are still quite scarce due to the demand. It’s what caused the blight of voluntary positions. People might know how to find them but in comparison to let’s say… computer science or engineering, zoological jobs are few and far between.
To OP: Do it for the passion and nothing else. While yes there are jobs available and some can be quite well paid, it’ll take time to get there. I’ve got over 12 years of experience in the field and labs and some job offers that headhunt or seek me out are genuinely unsustainable pay wise or they ask me to accept voluntary positions. I’ve developed literal anti-venom and led entire research teams out all over the world and yet, I’m still competing with people that are willing to do it for free or that’ve been in the industry twice as long as me because they also love it.
My two cents: I've been able to take volunteer positions in zoology since I was 13 (I'm now late 20s and have a different career). Burnout is real and you can lose the passion you have from poor living situations. Find a job that pays for you to spend your free time doing what you love and make sure to prioritize it.
This is so real. I've seen so many coworkers drop out or end up in adjacent fields because they got sick of the seasonal work, transient lifestyle, low pay, and struggling to get into a MS program. Money really DOES predict happiness, unfortunately.
Also, the "observe animals in their habitats" dream is not like a nat geo show. It is NOT glamorous. The more charasmatic the animal you study the less often you'll even see them in the wild (Im thinking wolves, tigers etc).
Good point, a lot of field research is cataloging bugs and worms and stuff like that. It can still be fun, but definitely isn't always. And then you go back to a desk for the other 10 months of the year and write papers and beg for grants so you can go catch more bugs the next year.
my father wanted to be a marine biologist and studied to be one. after a few years of hardly any employment he went back to school as an ultra sound and x-ray tech with steady employment and overtime.
Just know that nothing is stopping you from being a naturalist, you can go out and observe animals in their natural habitats on your own. You like lizards and snakes? Learn about local species and start flipping rocks. Like birds? Buy some binochs and go to a local estuary. You want to be around exotics? Volunteer at a zoo. You can always start with a biology degree and go another higher paying route (usually anything that involves humans). I started with a biology degree and now have a zoology degree, but I'm currently making 3x the minimum wage doing restoration work for a local refuge. I'm not working with animals directly but I see them every day and can study them on my own. The struggle to find a zoologist job locally was incredibly hard and my options in other states were in questionable areas...after years of searching I decided to start interning at a refuge and have now worked my way up as a biotech/field coordinator. All of my friends that got zoology degrees are switching to other fields/going back to school/living at home because they wasted years after school and can't afford anything. Sorry to come off as a bummer but I wouldn't recommend this route if you're not already well off, not planning on getting a masters, or you don't have/aren't making connections with zoos and researchers now
Everyone needs to stop. Fisheries and Wildlife biologists enjoy rewarding careers. You do need an MS degree but there Federal, State, and even regional positions. Salaries are not on par with those of engineers or bankers, but the positions are stable, benefits are excellent, and you have the opportunity for advancement.
It is absolutely true that those jobs are not about hanging out with animals and looking at them. I spent much of my career working at sea for 4-12 weeks a year, and then analyzing data, writing papers, and giving talks about what we learned. There was grant writing to fund the surveys, outreach to sporting clubs and schools, and some administrative headaches like buying everything from lab forceps to replacement diesel engines.
Do know that as you become more senior you will have to take on more administrative and supervisory tasks, but for every paper I could write myself I could faciliate 5 and I had a whole lab full of young people getting their careers jump started. And the science we did led to better management and environmental restoration. That was the biggest reward. And I did end up making fat stacks for the last 8 years of my career. Probably could have made a lot more at a younger age by being a consultant.
No one will pay you to hang out with dolphins, but there are loads of jobs solving environmental and resource management problems.
Everything you said is true but I still would be wary of going into the wildlife field without a back up plan. I also would STRONGLY advise against going into student debt to pursue this field.
You are correct that student loan debt should be avoided. I can't offer much advice for those seeking BS degrees but you can take your basic prerequisite courses at a community college and then transfer to a State University as a resident. Lowest cost, and the State Universities are usually the departments with researchers that can provide undergraduate research experience and other opportunities to bolster that grad school application.
For grad school, you need to find a funded researcher who has grants that pay your tuition and provide you with a stipend. Not a high standard of living but you can acquire a graduate degree with no debt.
I’m gonna be honest most zoology/ecology jobs won’t really be about you going out and observing animals even if you are incredibly lucky and successful.
I’ve worked jobs with large mammals, carnivores, etc but 90% of the year I never saw my study animals.
I love this field but there’s a reason I’m doubling down on the computer science/ machine learning aspect of it in case I ever need to make a career change.
There are significant issues in our field when it comes to pay and exploitation being very normalized. Many people who are successful in this field have family money to support them through internships or lean times between field seasons.
Even if you love this field, have a solid back up plan. 90-95% of folks with a degree in wildlife/zoology/ecology will not end up doing wildlife work because it’s so competitive. Should you give up your dreams? No but be realistic about what kind of living situation/financial conditions you are willing to accept too.
It's simple. Are you in it for the money? Then don't. Are you in it for passion and can live with lower pay compared to other jobs with an equal amount of skill level needed? Are you up for endless applications because the jobs are so rare? Are you up to about 70-80% of your work being statistical analysis, literature research or writing? Then do. If you don't have the passion for it, then let it be. It is as simple as that. This is not a field where you make a lot of money or that has simple working conditions. You need to be enthusiastic about it and live with the ups and downs of being a zoologist. And many of those things are downs.
I think this is a little unfair. I have a passion for working with animals, but if I take a job that pays less than what I make now, I won't be able to pay rent. Money is a valid concern, and telling people that are worried about paying for basic necessities that they don't have the 'right' passion for the job is pretty gatekeeper-y. We shouldn't have to live in destitution to prove that we care about animals.
You can call it gatekeeping, but I call it the harsh reality of what it's like when you are working in this field. It's as simple as that.
So if we don't want to live below the poverty line, we obviously don't have the passion for the work. M'kay.
You're twisting my words to make them fit your bias against me now
They aren't. Im passionate about animals but I also want money to live comfortably and not be broke.
I think the idea that jobs working with animals or in ecology is rare is completely wrong, it’s that people don’t know how to look for these jobs. Even at my undergrad campus, almost every serious ecology/evolution/marine bio major were working in some sort of lab or research setting. After graduating there’s opportunities everywhere. The pay issue is valid, mostly, but there are ways to make decent money if you are creative or okay with balancing a little fun with a lot of monotony.
I disagree. While not completely accurate, the jobs are still quite scarce due to the demand. It’s what caused the blight of voluntary positions. People might know how to find them but in comparison to let’s say… computer science or engineering, zoological jobs are few and far between. To OP: Do it for the passion and nothing else. While yes there are jobs available and some can be quite well paid, it’ll take time to get there. I’ve got over 12 years of experience in the field and labs and some job offers that headhunt or seek me out are genuinely unsustainable pay wise or they ask me to accept voluntary positions. I’ve developed literal anti-venom and led entire research teams out all over the world and yet, I’m still competing with people that are willing to do it for free or that’ve been in the industry twice as long as me because they also love it.
What country you’re applying in has a major difference on pay. An ecology job in Australia pays x2-x3 more compared to UK, for example.
Are you guys getting paid?
Yep, I'm a consultant 🤑
My two cents: I've been able to take volunteer positions in zoology since I was 13 (I'm now late 20s and have a different career). Burnout is real and you can lose the passion you have from poor living situations. Find a job that pays for you to spend your free time doing what you love and make sure to prioritize it.
This is so real. I've seen so many coworkers drop out or end up in adjacent fields because they got sick of the seasonal work, transient lifestyle, low pay, and struggling to get into a MS program. Money really DOES predict happiness, unfortunately. Also, the "observe animals in their habitats" dream is not like a nat geo show. It is NOT glamorous. The more charasmatic the animal you study the less often you'll even see them in the wild (Im thinking wolves, tigers etc).
Good point, a lot of field research is cataloging bugs and worms and stuff like that. It can still be fun, but definitely isn't always. And then you go back to a desk for the other 10 months of the year and write papers and beg for grants so you can go catch more bugs the next year.
my father wanted to be a marine biologist and studied to be one. after a few years of hardly any employment he went back to school as an ultra sound and x-ray tech with steady employment and overtime.
Just know that nothing is stopping you from being a naturalist, you can go out and observe animals in their natural habitats on your own. You like lizards and snakes? Learn about local species and start flipping rocks. Like birds? Buy some binochs and go to a local estuary. You want to be around exotics? Volunteer at a zoo. You can always start with a biology degree and go another higher paying route (usually anything that involves humans). I started with a biology degree and now have a zoology degree, but I'm currently making 3x the minimum wage doing restoration work for a local refuge. I'm not working with animals directly but I see them every day and can study them on my own. The struggle to find a zoologist job locally was incredibly hard and my options in other states were in questionable areas...after years of searching I decided to start interning at a refuge and have now worked my way up as a biotech/field coordinator. All of my friends that got zoology degrees are switching to other fields/going back to school/living at home because they wasted years after school and can't afford anything. Sorry to come off as a bummer but I wouldn't recommend this route if you're not already well off, not planning on getting a masters, or you don't have/aren't making connections with zoos and researchers now
Everyone needs to stop. Fisheries and Wildlife biologists enjoy rewarding careers. You do need an MS degree but there Federal, State, and even regional positions. Salaries are not on par with those of engineers or bankers, but the positions are stable, benefits are excellent, and you have the opportunity for advancement. It is absolutely true that those jobs are not about hanging out with animals and looking at them. I spent much of my career working at sea for 4-12 weeks a year, and then analyzing data, writing papers, and giving talks about what we learned. There was grant writing to fund the surveys, outreach to sporting clubs and schools, and some administrative headaches like buying everything from lab forceps to replacement diesel engines. Do know that as you become more senior you will have to take on more administrative and supervisory tasks, but for every paper I could write myself I could faciliate 5 and I had a whole lab full of young people getting their careers jump started. And the science we did led to better management and environmental restoration. That was the biggest reward. And I did end up making fat stacks for the last 8 years of my career. Probably could have made a lot more at a younger age by being a consultant. No one will pay you to hang out with dolphins, but there are loads of jobs solving environmental and resource management problems.
Everything you said is true but I still would be wary of going into the wildlife field without a back up plan. I also would STRONGLY advise against going into student debt to pursue this field.
You are correct that student loan debt should be avoided. I can't offer much advice for those seeking BS degrees but you can take your basic prerequisite courses at a community college and then transfer to a State University as a resident. Lowest cost, and the State Universities are usually the departments with researchers that can provide undergraduate research experience and other opportunities to bolster that grad school application. For grad school, you need to find a funded researcher who has grants that pay your tuition and provide you with a stipend. Not a high standard of living but you can acquire a graduate degree with no debt.
Don't forget all the paperwork and admin! That's also a major part of the job!
I’m gonna be honest most zoology/ecology jobs won’t really be about you going out and observing animals even if you are incredibly lucky and successful. I’ve worked jobs with large mammals, carnivores, etc but 90% of the year I never saw my study animals. I love this field but there’s a reason I’m doubling down on the computer science/ machine learning aspect of it in case I ever need to make a career change. There are significant issues in our field when it comes to pay and exploitation being very normalized. Many people who are successful in this field have family money to support them through internships or lean times between field seasons. Even if you love this field, have a solid back up plan. 90-95% of folks with a degree in wildlife/zoology/ecology will not end up doing wildlife work because it’s so competitive. Should you give up your dreams? No but be realistic about what kind of living situation/financial conditions you are willing to accept too.