On 2024-10-30 15:25, Thomas Caudill wrote:
Dear Ecolog members,
I am looking for career and/or academic advice. I am a career
plantsman: at times variously I have been a professional gardener,
horticulturist, farmer, nurseryman, ecological restoration landscaping
project manager, among other things. Currently I'm the head gardener of
a massive skyscraper in midtown manhattan. In all the jobs I have
done, I consider myself an applied ecologist. I have a BA in Urban
Sustainability which was light on science and lacking completely in
research. I have some research background from my first career as an
analyst in the US Navy. I'm a first generation college student from
Appalachia who grew up with an undying devotion to place, the natural
world, and its wild inhabitants.
Over the last couple of years my future career, academic and life goals
have become apparent to me as my skills and lifelong interests have led
me in one direction: managing and restoring land for wildlife habitat
and all the ecosystem benefits that arise through this process. I
started my search process looking at Rangeland Management and Ecology
programs and later expanded it to straight Ecology programs at many US
universities. I have reached out to many potential advisors and my lack
of research experience and a related degree have been bigger obstacles
than I expected. The advice I have gotten has primarily been to seek
out field or research technician jobs and I'm finding the same
obstacles. I am at an impasse and I have run out of ideas to make this
transition, I've even considered getting a second Bachelor's degree in
biology to be at least competitive for a program.
Does anyone have any advice, potential resources, networking or
mentorship opportunities to help me on this path? I have many and
varied interests that I can talk about if anyone needs more specifics.
Thank you for any help,
Thomas Caudill
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Thomas -
I applaud the perspective that you have derived from your experience. I
hope that there is someone at an academic institution that can mentor
you through your career transition, and who can look beyond the
educational gap in your CV to see everything you have learned from your
hands-on experience and self-education.
Sheila Ward
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