I'm surprised no one has posted a link to this 2017 article from MongaBay yet (and apologies if someone already has and I missed it):
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/08/a-rich-persons-profession-young-conservationists-struggle-to-make-it/ If I have any advice it is: a) do NOT go into debt to find your dream job in conservation. There's just not much money in this field. Better to volunteer and work your way up locally than to start your career $50,000 in the red. b) try to become a known quantity and get any experience you can. Yes, this may mean volunteering, which is problematic. But organizations hire known quantities. Most technical training isn't rocket science, at least at the entry level (I'm not talking about highly specialized study design and data analysis). It's more important to become known as a good worker and team player, who can learn new skills as needed. c) For many conservation careers (primarily in the US), a Master's degree has now become the necessary entry point, similar to what an undergrad degree was 25 years ago. And this is unfortunate, because a MS doesn't necessarily give greater pre-professional training. So that implies that the job market is pretty saturated. Most MS programs train in research specialities - which is somewhat of a problem if you don't want to be a professional researcher (see below). And see my first point above: don't go into debt. d) PhD's are for future researchers. If you don't want to be a researcher, don't get a PhD. Otherwise, you may overspecialize yourself right out of a job. The tenured job market is tight, and being a part-time lecturer or "at will" faculty is often a trap that will crush you. I too am deeply concerned about professional prospects in conservation. Even as an undergrad, I wondered "If this line of work is so important, why can't I get a paying job doing it?" We really need a better "pipeline" for getting new professionals started in this field. Compared to the pre-med pipeline, we have instead what I call the "Dandelion Model": we train up thousands of eager young pre-professionals, and then scatter them randomly across the landscape, and those few that find fertile prospects survive and flourish, but most don't and often wither and die (professionally). I guess it's because there's just no money in conservation, especially as compared to human health. An ugly truth, but truth nonetheless. my 2 cents - John Perrine, PhD Associate Professor / Curator of Mammals and Birds Biological Sciences Department California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, California USA
