Thinking About A Career Change But Unsure On The Specifics

[Zikofski]

Right -- Apologise if this is in the wrong section
 
strait to the point i currently work in IT or did, and i want to change my career to working with animals ideally aquatic animals in an aquarium dont mind LFS as a starting point but end of the day big aquariums or even other more open water jobs?
 
so What the Hell do i need to do to join such a career, for me IT was easy get an it related qualification and get a job
 
now i'm heading over to Australia for a year to experience life out there but due to certain recent events i cant stay there but hey i can put that year to good use, my key things i love so far and want to do is scuba diving I LOVE scuba diving, photography and obviously animals and aquatic life even plants. now been doing a few research light at the moment, scuba diving is easy, photography i can do a college course for that but as looking on this website link here it states this
 
"If you are looking to become an aquarist, most aquaria require you to have a degree in a relevant subject area and some prior knowledge of maintaining aquatic animals in captivity. It is normally considered preferable to have at least started scuba diving training, and to be able to demonstrate previous experience of interacting with the public. "
 
degree -- HMMM, first thing pops into my mind marine biologist, haha no idea why, never been to uni so i would love to give it ago but what jobs are there and what degrees are worth a look at, obviously i don't want people to make the decision for me but i feel like a small gold fish diving into a pool of piranhas  i do feel this is a good direction to take, and out of the blue is there anyone on here that has experience taken this track in life? i have yet to meet anyone who works at a zoo or a large aquarium best ive seen is LFS haha
 
whilst im in aussi i am going to get a few Q's in scuba diving want to look at the great barrier reef if i can thats always been on top of my list to do in life and i may also look at working at an LFS or even an aquarium even if its volunteering its a start
 
anyone got any tips, hints or advice they could give me? anything would be good a bit random request for a fish forum but hey

 

[ncguppy830]

well im getting a degree in ichthyology which im told stems in to many jobs within the fish area. i also know that pet stores and state departments like a guy that knows his fish.im sorry if this didnt help just my 2 cents

 

[Zikofski]

no no, this helped i only know about Marine Biology when it comes to degrees but at least i have one other thing to look into personally i prefer fresh water, seems marine is the only degree available from what i have looked at

 

[ncguppy830]

yea well that what ichthyology is and while it was hard to find a colledge that had it i did and i dont regret it

 

[Zikofski]

wow nice, little bit more googline and apparently you need to do marine biology or zoology in order to do this degree, this degree and uni thing confused me haha

 

[silenthawk2x3]

Environmental biology is a good starting block. It's what I am going into at the moment.

 

[mike455555]

im about to do wildlife concivation and animal behaviour at uni im not sure what jobs it will open but im hoping something with animals or ecology 

 

[Zikofski]

nice, ive looked at what the marine biology course goes into and they actually go into plants and fresh water animals which makes me a little happier over here in the uk that seems to be the only one listed but it comes in different variants

nice one mike, animal behavior is that specific to like marine or land? or generic?

i think animal phycology was listed some where that will help

 

[SamB]

I think you need a major in biology really with a concentration on marine life.. At least in the us!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

You will LOVE the Great Barrier Reef, I didn't want to leave when I was there!
Depending on where you are in Aussie, there may be some local public aquariums that you could volunteer/get a job at. If you're gold coast way, you could have a look at Sea World, they have an amazing SW tank there (not sure if you will want to do SW but its a start ). I'm not sure what qualifications you need there though. 

 

[Sophie]

I'm looking at doing a course on Ornamental fish at Sparsholt college next year.
www.sparsholt.ac.uk/5432

 

[Shelster]

I was going to suggest zoology

 

[MBOU]

I always have to wonder at Marine Biology courses in the UK, seems such a pointless country to study it in!! Its just one of those many degrees that people study with many hopes and dreams and then when they finally complete it after being promised the world... they find they are going to have to then spend a lot more time studying something more specific or leave the country to get a job.
 
I have had several friends give up on the Marine Biology degree halfway through, not because they couldn't do it but because it became more and more apparent that there wasn't going to be a job at the end of it... that and it is supposedly really boring, very math orientated and very difficult as well.
 
That said, am currently working with someone who is doing his Marine Biology degree at Bangor University (supposedly one of the best places to study it) and as part of his degree, he is going out to study at a University in America for a year. This wouldn't have to be the case if we had much worth studying he has great knowledge on organisms like whelks and barnacles etc but seriously.. not much knowledge that comes in helpful when it comes to running a tank or keeping anything marine lol.
 
Also work with a colleague who did the Sparsholt course mentioned above. He has incredible knowledge on a lot of fish but the course sounded like a right doss course, wouldn't surprise me either because it is likely very much like the Animal Management course I did at Berkshire College of Agriculture, wasted two years of my life doing my Nat. Dip that they 100% guarantee you is relevant and will get you into a Uni blah blah blah.. total rubbish as you get hardly any UCAS points for doing the course and have to get full Distinction all the way through to scrape enough entry level points to get into a uni. Wouldn't personally advise anyone do a diploma if you are capable of doing A levels or Uni.
 
Kind of depressing maybe but everyone I know who has a degree in Marine Biology always end up working in their LFS, seem an utter waste to me, to get ridiculously huge loans to end up working for minimum wage in retail that you could have achieved without studying and the loans. Mainly because poor students with Marine Biology degrees then cant afford to relocate to countries where Marine Biology is a relevant career path! Australia, America, Indonesia and such places would al have jobs if you fancied moving elsewhere... but that's assuming you want to leave the country..
 
If not... I would seriously ask yourself what job you hope to achieve in the UK and consider just how many people complete their Marine Biology degree in this country and want a job... job competition is fierce. Especially places like Sea Life Centres... they have lists of graduates as long as their arm wanting jobs!
 
Another colleague gave up waiting years for a job like that to come up and moved out to Finland and is working in a Sea Life Centre out there and to be fair... looks amazing!
 
But still... there is a lot to consider...

 

[Sophie]

MBOU makes a fantastic point.
 
About the course being a doss though, I'm looking more at the business side of things and eventually running my own LFS - a girl can dream!

 

[MBOU]

When I say doss, if anything like my Nat. Dip, I did it when I was 16... I started the two year course with 150 odd people, only 3 of us were 16, the rest were between 18 and 25, few had managed to achieve a levels if they had even finished school.... ended up doing Nat' Dip purely because it seemed an easy option. Most were what I would refer to as 'bunny brushers' as it was about all they were capable of couldn't do much more around the high heels, make up and fake nails!!
 
I mean... of my class of 20 odd, to achieve pass in the Livestock Handling you pretty much just had to show up (which many didn't achieve), then to achieve Merit... you had to round up the motley collection of goats and sheep into a pen (this pretty much involved carrying the two arthritic goats to the pen as they could hardly walk whilst the others all followed you hoping for food... and to achieve Distinction, all you had to do was put a head collar on an incredibly tame and old goat that couldn't move away from you had it wanted to and to lift up one of its feet... 
 
I can count the number of people who got Distinction on one hand.... bit scary really but pretty much summed up my course! Cant actually think of anything I learned there!
 
That said... made some great lifelong friends and went on to work with several of them in various LFS lol.
 
Sparsholt sounds a much better choice for studying from what I hear but was too far for me to go.
 
That said. I would honestly advise you to do a business degree of some sort and get a part time job in your LFS, then if you are smart, make contacts, talk to company reps, make friends, get numbers, learn what does and doesn't sell (pretty much everything said on forums is irrelevant when it comes to a business!), learn from the inside learn about many more different types of fish, even get to know customers!! And all the while. talk to other people who have set up their own business and specifically LFS type shops and see how they did it, see if they would be willing to share a business plan with you etc.
 
That's what I would honestly do, that said, to have a LFS, you do need an animal related course under your belt as well... but doesn't have to be a huge course, I know a few pet shop owners caught out by this change in law who went to study two days a week on a specific pet management course specifically to get/keep a pet shop license.