So You Want to Be A Marine Biologist

daviddlewis writes: "Some humorous thoughts from a marine biologist on why you should/shouldn't be one. The "shoulds" apply to all geek professions."

Comments

How about living in exotic locations?

[thogard]

You know places like Fiji, Floridia Keys, Tahiti, Red Sea...
I'm still looking for a nice tech job where I can dive ever other day and will pay for toys.

Most of the Marine Biologist I've meet seem to have fun like Paddy who gives daily lectures to scuba divers at Reef Teach. If your going diving off the Great Barrier Reef, you should see his show first.

If anyone cares, I've got a list of places I've been diving here. BTW, I learned to dive in Missouri...

Other marine science/tech careers

[hey!]

So you love the ocean. There's other ways to make a career as an ocean geek with better job prospects than marine biology. For example ocean engineering, or environmental consulting.

Exactly how much on the short end of the job prospect lever are marine biologists? My wife has a MS in physical oceanography and beat out over 250 marine biologists for her current position, including many Phds(they already had plenty of marine biologists). Not to denigrate her abilties (physical oceanography is extremely difficult), but it probably wasn't coincidental she was the only physical oceanographer, and the outfit had plenty of marine bioligists and ecologists but nobody with physical oceanography knowledge.

I also happen to know a number of marine biologists, but they ALL got their current positions through nontraditional (e.g. not tenure track academic). Some came to their jobs from moving between government regulation/research and private industry in mariculture (ocean farming); some moved between working at educational institutions like museums or environmental NGOs and environmental consulting companies. One even got to do research by landing a job as dive master for a university and moving up by being useful.