My Future As A Biologists? Please Experienced People Help

Kill_a_watt

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hello im new to this fourm and ill tell u about my self im 14 years old and im in a stage where im wondering what to do with my future. Well i have a talent with drawing and im good with graphics :rolleyes: i always wanted to be a Architechure but i Also Looooooooove Fish well i want to know if there are any people on this fourm which are Fish biologists? or any sort to do with animals and if they enjoy there job or is it good? good pay? please anyone tell me i dont know what to be and my brother thats in university said i have to have an open mind and that i could be doing somthing i dont enjoy. -_-

From Martin.~
 
hey martin

are u in the uk?

do you have a careers advisor at school?

if not there should be somewhere in your locality that helps with areers advice.

they'd be able to tell you what qualifications you will need and what the jobs your interested in will involve.

the best thing you can do its to do really well in your exams in all subjects (easier said than done i know) then your options are completely open.

i passed all my exams but not high enough passes to go onto college at 16 so i went to work instead.now 10 years later i really am regretting not trying harder.

i know that theres a lot of pressure on peeps of your age to do really well at school so i hope i dont sound like i'm naging at you lol, thats not my intention.

anyway, check out the careers advice in your area, that should give you the correct and current information to work with

hope thats helpful

ales xx
 
ales gave some good advice. If you really want something badly enough, make sure you do everything possible to get it - and don't let anyone tell you anything else ! :thumbs:

ales, (if you don't mind me saying so) you're still very young in terms of what you can still achieve if you chose to do some part time studies (yes I know - sometimes easier said than done), but I'm a very firm believer that (almost) anything is possible if you're passionate, full of drive and ambition and really want it badly enough.

I'll never forget back in the days when I still played the violin, my teacher's one "new" pupil was an 86 year old gentleman ! It's never too late (and there's always room to learn something new) ;)
 
thanks~ im just worried u know.. its soo confusing you always try to look at the outcome and i keep on thinking how hard its going to be or what if i fail ill be a homless person uggh

does anyone know what subjects i would have to study at school? maybe biology? :) ill show u my options that i could choose Horticulture, Chemistry, Physics, biology and Agriculture&Horticultre would i need to learn anything eles?
 
If your goal is to become a scientist, then you should endeavour to take as many science and math classes you can. Most importantly, those classes will get you to start thinking like scientist, which in the broadest possible terms is problem solving. It doesn't matter if the problem you are solving is an algebraic equation, a physics problem, or learning about the cell functions, all of them practice problem solving techniques, and as with almost anything, practice makes perfect.

The other great thing is that by taking as many different classes as you can, you might find other interesting career ideas. Or start combing them. One extremely popular area of research today is in bio-technology, so all the engineers and physicists who also have knowledge about biology are on the cutting edge. Right now, you should probably just try to survey as many possible different choices as you can.
 
ales gave some good advice. If you really want something badly enough, make sure you do everything possible to get it - and don't let anyone tell you anything else ! :thumbs:

ales, (if you don't mind me saying so) you're still very young in terms of what you can still achieve if you chose to do some part time studies (yes I know - sometimes easier said than done), but I'm a very firm believer that (almost) anything is possible if you're passionate, full of drive and ambition and really want it badly enough.

I'll never forget back in the days when I still played the violin, my teacher's one "new" pupil was an 86 year old gentleman ! It's never too late (and there's always room to learn something new) ;)

Let me just add my voice here: as a university teacher, I find nearly all my best students are the mature ones, and often ones who have done fairly low-powered jobs in between, ex-housewives for instance. Reason? They now know how badly they want to learn. Not all 19-year-olds do.

But if you do have a real dream as a teenager, that is one of the best assets you can have. I feel a lot of our younger university students (though not all) are underperforming, because there isn't really anything they want badly enough.

So the best advice is that of the Disney films (oh dear!)- go for your dreams! It is also one of the best ways to impress an interviewer when the day comes. Nobody wants to take on yet another bored youngster who is drifting into university because they can't think of anything interesting to do outside. I mean- would you want to spend your days in the company of people like that?

Science isn't my field, but the advice given on here sounds good- maths and as many science subjects as you can manage. A talent for graphs seems like a clear asset.
 
Hello Kill_a_watt --

There's been some good advice given here, but I'm going to offer a little from my own experience. I did a degree in zoology, then a PhD at the Natural History Museum in London, and since that time I've done a variety of biological research, museum, teaching, and writing jobs. My field is ammonites, which are cephalopods, not fish, but my experiences are not unlike those of people in the fish-field.

On the one hand, studying science is fun. It is wonderful to be able to spend time doing something you enjoy, and following your curiosity to a better understanding of the natural world.

However, you also need to be realistic. So rather that tell you all the wonderful things about working in science (like the pride in getting published, and the amazing people you'll meet, and the great places you'll visit) I'm going to describe the down-side.

Not all branches of science are equally well funded. There is lots of money in genetics, biochemistry, and biotech disciplines, but there is very little in things like ecology (studing communities) and taxonomy (discovering and naming new species). Money tends to go where there is practical benefits, so animals useful for biochemistry or agricultural purposes and intensively studied while those that are merely interesting are largely ignored. Jobs only exist where there is money, and universities tend to have lecturers and labs focused on fields of biology where the money goes. In other words, if you want to test new drugs or diets on tilapia that is easy enough, but studying the behaviour of shell-dwelling dwarf cichlids from Tanganyika will be much more difficult.

Scientific jobs are short-term contracts and often poorly paid through your 20s and 30s. After your BSc and PhD, you will be expected to do at least one post-doc, and most likely two. That's about 12 years on 3-year contracts. Forget about living in one city, buying a house, or driving a nice car. Not going to happen. There are exceptions, but most young scientists I know have moved many times in their careers and even in their 30s are still in cheap apartments.

Science is very competitive. There are far more science graduates that there are jobs. In other words, it's a buyer's market. You, the graduate, are the seller. You will be up against dozens of equally qualified applicants for PhD posts and post-doc posts.

Science is grant-driven. Universities and museums no longer have money for research or research students. Your PhD or post-doc will be funded by a professor or researcher who gets a large grant. Eventually, you will be expected to become more-or-less self-funded, that is, you will have to apply for grants or you won't have a job. Grant applications are horribly time consuming and rewards are effectively random. I have known young scientists who have failed to get grants and suddenly found themselves having to move back with their parents.

Science isn't a 9 to 5 job. The scientists who succeed largely do so by working late and working weekends. Forget about having a busy social life, and because you have to move to another city every three years, maintaining a long-term relationship with a girl/boyfriend can be very difficult.

This all sounds gloomy. I guess it is. If you spend time with any scientists in their 30s they will often sound very depressed about the whole thing. Science may be fun, but being a scientist is incredibly hard work. All museums and universities are having their funding cut, which means all staff are expect to do research that brings in money. There just isn't scope for "blue skies" research anymore. (Blue skies is research with no goal, that is done just for curiosity. Nowadays, the focus is on work that solves problems.) Anyway, I would encourage you to visit a museum or perhaps a fish biology lab and talk with the people there. Write to them first, and I certainly remember visiting the Natural History Museum at about age 16 for my first visit.

I'm not saying don't be a scientist, but I do think you need to research things now, while you can, before committing yourself to something that might not work out the way you'd like.

Cheers,

Neale
 
Hello Kill_a_watt --

There's been some good advice given here, but I'm going to offer a little from my own experience. I did a degree in zoology, then a PhD at the Natural History Museum in London, and since that time I've done a variety of biological research, museum, teaching, and writing jobs. My field is ammonites, which are cephalopods, not fish, but my experiences are not unlike those of people in the fish-field.

On the one hand, studying science is fun. It is wonderful to be able to spend time doing something you enjoy, and following your curiosity to a better understanding of the natural world.

However, you also need to be realistic. So rather that tell you all the wonderful things about working in science (like the pride in getting published, and the amazing people you'll meet, and the great places you'll visit) I'm going to describe the down-side.

Not all branches of science are equally well funded. There is lots of money in genetics, biochemistry, and biotech disciplines, but there is very little in things like ecology (studing communities) and taxonomy (discovering and naming new species). Money tends to go where there is practical benefits, so animals useful for biochemistry or agricultural purposes and intensively studied while those that are merely interesting are largely ignored. Jobs only exist where there is money, and universities tend to have lecturers and labs focused on fields of biology where the money goes. In other words, if you want to test new drugs or diets on tilapia that is easy enough, but studying the behaviour of shell-dwelling dwarf cichlids from Tanganyika will be much more difficult.

Scientific jobs are short-term contracts and often poorly paid through your 20s and 30s. After your BSc and PhD, you will be expected to do at least one post-doc, and most likely two. That's about 12 years on 3-year contracts. Forget about living in one city, buying a house, or driving a nice car. Not going to happen. There are exceptions, but most young scientists I know have moved many times in their careers and even in their 30s are still in cheap apartments.

Science is very competitive. There are far more science graduates that there are jobs. In other words, it's a buyer's market. You, the graduate, are the seller. You will be up against dozens of equally qualified applicants for PhD posts and post-doc posts.

Science is grant-driven. Universities and museums no longer have money for research or research students. Your PhD or post-doc will be funded by a professor or researcher who gets a large grant. Eventually, you will be expected to become more-or-less self-funded, that is, you will have to apply for grants or you won't have a job. Grant applications are horribly time consuming and rewards are effectively random. I have known young scientists who have failed to get grants and suddenly found themselves having to move back with their parents.

Science isn't a 9 to 5 job. The scientists who succeed largely do so by working late and working weekends. Forget about having a busy social life, and because you have to move to another city every three years, maintaining a long-term relationship with a girl/boyfriend can be very difficult.

This all sounds gloomy. I guess it is. If you spend time with any scientists in their 30s they will often sound very depressed about the whole thing. Science may be fun, but being a scientist is incredibly hard work. All museums and universities are having their funding cut, which means all staff are expect to do research that brings in money. There just isn't scope for "blue skies" research anymore. (Blue skies is research with no goal, that is done just for curiosity. Nowadays, the focus is on work that solves problems.) Anyway, I would encourage you to visit a museum or perhaps a fish biology lab and talk with the people there. Write to them first, and I certainly remember visiting the Natural History Museum at about age 16 for my first visit.

I'm not saying don't be a scientist, but I do think you need to research things now, while you can, before committing yourself to something that might not work out the way you'd like.

Cheers,

Neale

Thats a fantastic synopsis of the scientific life and the post-doc life in particular, im in the middle of a second post-doc and can relate to nearly all of what you have said :/ .
Just to add my twopences worth I would say keep your options open ie do some science subjects but you should definetly do the archeticture class.
 
hello im new to this fourm and ill tell u about my self im 14 years old and im in a stage where im wondering what to do with my future. Well i have a talent with drawing and im good with graphics :rolleyes: i always wanted to be a Architechure but i Also Looooooooove Fish well i want to know if there are any people on this fourm which are Fish biologists? or any sort to do with animals and if they enjoy there job or is it good? good pay? please anyone tell me i dont know what to be and my brother thats in university said i have to have an open mind and that i could be doing somthing i dont enjoy. -_-

From Martin.~
I am sorry that I can't help you personally, but that is what I want to become TOO. I have wanted to become a fish biologist for about 4 years now. I am 16 and plan to go to a Natural Resources camp this summer. I wish you good luck :D
 
Hiya Martin, You're in luck with the amount of knowledgeable people here, and I know rather a lot about what is required for these two areas, I'm a Bsc Biology and Geology student at Manchester University and my little brother is also at Manchester studying Architecture :)

I take it you're having to decide your options for next year at school? and that you'll be starting the two years at GCSE level next september?

The first thing you want to do is if your school offers a triple science option (I.E: you do all three sciences seperately instead of two lots of general science) Then you must choose that ;)

In both situations it is better to maintain a science and mathematics background aswell as keeping some IT knowledge in there.

The subjects you take for your GCSE's wont end up being that important, but they will determine what you can do at A-level. At A-Level you will need to take Biology, Chemistry and Maths with something else as your As level in order to do well in Biology and for the Architecture option you would be better with Physics and Maths and then probably IT or chemistry :)

The best advice anyone can give you is to do subjects that you enjoy, if you dont, no matter how needed they might be for your chosen goal you wont do as well as you should ;)
 
Forgot to add that in my experience people i have known who wanted to work with fish ie marine biologists and the like, I would say about half have ended up doing something completely unrelated.
Most still involved in the field are working on not fish themselves but small inverts usually cos these little critters are much more important from a ecological and economical viewpoint and they are also routinely used as 'biomarkers' of water purity etc (having said that most seem to enjoy working with something so fundamental to the food chain and seem not to miss fish!!!). A tiny proprotion go on to manage fish farms (salmon and trout) ie the cash crop fish.
Oh forgot to mention the people who classify fish/inverts on the basis of there DNA (again this is normally salmon and trout in the case of fish because of the economic benefits) they tend to be stuck in the lab doing mundane routine low level molecular biology to identify diffrences in the DNA (they usually don't even get out to collect the samples, much cheaper to get samples of DNA send over from the country of origin than to send someone from the lab to collect samples themselves).
Of course thats only the 'fish' people i have known and some people do manage to get there dreams jobs, a couple of the zoologists i knew are over in canada studying bears and wolves in the wild :drool: .
At this point i'll add that im a molecular biologist, one of the crazy types who plays around with the DNA :alien: of 'gods creations' and so maybe not as well placed to comment as some others on this thread ie the zoologists etc.
 
ales, (if you don't mind me saying so) you're still very young in terms of what you can still achieve if you chose to do some part time studies (yes I know - sometimes easier said than done), but I'm a very firm believer that (almost) anything is possible if you're passionate, full of drive and ambition and really want it badly enough.

thans bloozoo

forgot to add on that i'm actually at college now :nod:

i have a pharmaceutical and admin background so i decided to put the two together and am taking a course in Medical Administration, which means i will be able to go into gp surgeries or hospital as a receptionist / administrator when i finish.

its just a 6 month, part-time course, but its filling in the gaps in my knowledge well and i'm loving it.

i hated school (not the learning, but the politics and i was bullied all the way through high school) but i'm bright enough and have decided to get some qualifications and experience under my belt which will stand me in good stead for years to come.

also forgot to add that even if you do decide to take a certain career path and after a few years decide its not for you its never too late to retrain or brush up on gaps in knowledge / experience if you want to go into another field.


some great advice on here chaps, arent we lovely :lol:

ales xx
 
Hi there,

Knowing what you want to do is a hard thing for anyone at any age. At 14 I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. At 18 I wanted to be a language teacher, so started an Italian degree. At 19 I wanted to be an economist, so changed by degree to economics. At 22 I graduated. At 25 I now work in a university. I have a good degree, and that opens quite a few doors for me, but I don't use it in my current job. I love seeing the students faces, and seeing their enthusiasm. I wake up, and get to work early every single day as I love it so much.

My advice to you is pretty similar to everyone here; keep our options and your mind open, and never turn down the opportunity to learn. As you grow as a person, and that is not just age, you will find out what makes you smile, and inevitably be drawn down that path. Do what you enjoy now at school, and try your hardest, and good luck with everything, Don't put too much pressure on yourself yet, as the world will do that for you later!!!!

Enjoy your fish
 
My advice is to follow your heart, but don't shy away from things you find tough.

I had aspirations of Marine Biology at 14, Chemical Engineering at 17, then decided life in a lab wasn't for me.

Luckily enough I found a Business Studies with Combined Sciences degree! I now love the buzz of closing a deal and making the money, the same as I did setting fire to Magnesium.

Just work hard at all you do (ESPECIALLY the subjects you don't like), and above all, I would actually recommend you get as wide an education as possible at your age rather than specialising too early.

Do history, geography, IT, the three sciences, a language, the lot. Do not let even one subject choice go to waste picking something you think is soft. Challenge yourself (I took 5 a-levels although cut that to 4 after 6 months). It will serve you very very well when you come to crunch time later in your education I promise you that.

By the way, don't worry about failing and being homeless- if you've got a brain in your head and you keep your chin up, I've found things have always got a way of working out for the best.
 
I am thinking about being a zoologist too (probably not fish though), but i keep my options open to anything. I get straight A's also!!!

I'm volunteering for our local zoo also!
 

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