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Oof, discovered this thread way too late but I'll throw this out there anyway. Been working as a wildlife tech for the past three years. Currently doing beach patrols for sea turtles and shorebirds. Pay isn't amazing and the work is inconsistent but I still wouldn't rather be doing anything else. If anybody stumbles on this thread a month from now feel free to ask me any questions. In the meantime here's a Kemp's ridley sea turtle that came up to nest a couple weeks ago.
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Jul 1, 2018 01:51
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Poorly! I accepted a job with APHIS right before the shutdown started, but didn't receive an official offer letter beforehand so I'm kinda in limbo at the moment. What's also frustrating is that since I'm not hired yet and my start date keeps getting pushed back I keep losing out on paychecks that I won't be getting back pay for.
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Jan 16, 2019 13:12
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I did two seasons with the Forest Service and I had a great time but they were both seasonal. Can't speak to more long term career stuff cause I've only done this a couple years, but for me it's involved a lot of moving around between agencies and locations each year.
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Feb 5, 2019 17:38
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Icon Of Sin posted:So I just found out about this forum from the announcements. I work for NPS as a bio science tech, keeping an eye on shorebirds and sea turtles Hell yeah! I did the same thing a couple years ago. It's a sweet job. [quote="Skutter" post="506580820"] Is there a way for a[n older] noob to get in on this as a career potentially? I went back to school (again) and got an AS in "Environmental Science Technology" and then found approximately 0 jobs that my degree would relate to, even with all of the job and internship experience I had. I even joined the local networking group for environmental jobs (which was just a big circlejerk that new people were clearly not welcome in) and got zilch. Is there a backwards way to ge tin, like with volunteering or something? I'm in central FL, if that helps for any suggestions or advice. [/quote\] Cavaet that all of the following is from someone who worked in wildlife exclusively. I have a bit of a charmed life since I was able to jump straight into a federal job from college and then a term job after a couple years of seasonal work where for others I think that can be a lot harder. I'll say a couple things: 1. Is an AS an associates? From what I've seen a Bachelor's is the baseline to really get started. I transferred to a wildlife program at another university after getting my associates degree, 2. I've known a BUNCH of people who got into this late. Honestly it feels like almost half of the people I've worked with so far jumped into this in their late 20s or 30s. Despite the annoyance of seasonal work and the various jobs none of these people seemed to regret their decision. 3. You'd definitely want to do some volunteering to get field experience but I'd avoid traveling to do it if at all possible. I did mine while I got my bachelor's by helping out on graduate projects.
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Jul 17, 2020 23:52
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Our first nest is due to hatch any day now!