I'm taking a year off before going for my Ph.D. and I wouldn't mind working a day job in my field, only thing is I'm not sure what I can do with B.S. degrees in botany and zoology. I don't care if it is only for a year, I just really need some cash (assuming it pays better than waiting tables during the day) and the experience will be good too. I will go back and talk to CALS career services when I get back, but I am still traveling South America for another month and any suggestions in the meantime would be appreciated. Specifically I am into plant and animal ecology and conservation, but for now I will take what I can get in a related field. Suggest away.

8/26/2006 8:40:07 PM

call a zoo

8/26/2006 9:35:42 PM

you mean you want something short-term (ie. 1yr) in that discipline? out of curiosity why the Ph. D.?

8/26/2006 10:12:34 PM

My fiancee graduated from NC State in 2005 with a BS in Botany and is working on her PhD in Molecular Plant Sciences. There are a TON of options if you go this route ... if you don't mind the research aspect of the field. For now, practical experience in a greenhouse (technically not botany, but you'll need it when you start experiments) or possibly a technician in a lab of some sort will help you quite a bit once you enroll in your PhD program.

8/26/2006 10:13:43 PM

I'm doing the research tech thing this year myself. Of course, I have a biomedical engineering degree... but I've decided that's not what I want to do with the rest of my life. I'm trying to improve my chances of getting a good graduate position in a zoology/conservation biology/ecology program come next fall.

8/27/2006 9:29:52 AM

You could look at Novartis to see if they have any tempary like positions, because they just moved into Holly Springs. Try a google search to see when they are going to be here.

8/27/2006 11:59:22 AM

I'm also going the research tech route, at Duke. I would check out university job postings in the area, and Craigslist, surprisingly that's where my job was posted, I've seen a few tech positions posted.

Also, definitely when you get back, hit up your old advisers and/or the bulletin boards in the various depts., I know there were always 1-2 year tech positions advertised when I was at State, and I see them at work fairly frequently.

If anything else, I had some success hearing back from recruiting firms like Kelly Scientific, they were mostly filling industry positions though and I wanted to stay in academic research.

Have you considered looking at the NC State vet school? I've heard of people getting vet tech type jobs, that seems more in your field than something like cell biology, pharmaceuticals, etc. like my experience.

8/28/2006 12:11:27 AM

ryan....i kinda wish i had gone the botany route. i dont know if i ever told you about the job i had for a lil while, but it was doing wetland delineations and it was absolutely awesome. i worked for a while with a friend's dad who was a private contractor who did the work and needed the help for the extra work load he was getting. i loved the job, but it seems all the people i interviewed with wanted someone with more of a botany/soils/wildlife degree. 99% of that stuff was knowing the plants you were around, and it was easy for me to pick up when i worked the job, but hard for me to play off when interviewing with others. i feel like the zoology degree has kinda limited me to jobs i later figured out were too competitive, didnt pay enough, or not interesting at all.

check out some of the stuff on the jobs page at the society of wetlands scientists...im sure you like working outdoors, and as long as you're willing to do a lot of field work it's fun as hell (not to mention you get a chance to do a lil herping on the side as you work).

link:http://www.sws.org/jobs/

[Edited on August 30, 2006 at 3:35 AM. Reason : .]

8/30/2006 3:34:43 AM

Quote :

"Specifically I am into plant and animal ecology and conservation"

If you are into that stuff, then you can contact the many conservation societies and do the actual field work or work in advocacy and public relations.

8/30/2006 3:38:35 AM

i can't see your username and not think of dr. warren

damn

9/1/2006 9:49:29 PM

Thanks for the input and keep it coming! To clarify, I already know that I am going into a Ph.D. program and have been accepted and have funding waiting. However, I want to take a year off from school so I can recharge my batteries, save some money, apply to a few larger fellowships, and write-up and submit two articles to journals for which I'm the lead author. Like I said I don't really care if it's in the conservation field or not (which would be ideal), just something with a halfway-decent salary will do just fine.

9/6/2006 12:25:40 PM

sales

9/6/2006 7:43:57 PM

bttt

I'm still having kind of a hard time finding an entry level position around here in the arena of life sciences. Anyone know any environmental consulting firms in the area (I've already googled). If you have any suggestions please let me know.

10/30/2006 2:26:00 PM

I don't think you should go for a PhD if you struggled through CH201

10/30/2006 2:42:05 PM

^
Because all coursework directly relates to your job experience and/or academic research. A lot of it specifically depends on what you are doing, but for life sciences, Chem2 and Organic are useless. Biochem is another matter. Anyways, please contribute something useful to the thread.

Ryan, what regions/areas are you limiting yourself to?

10/30/2006 3:19:40 PM

I'm not really limiting myself to anything, which is why I can't understand why it's so hard to get a job. I'm open to anything within the arena of science; biotech, pharmaceutical, research, public sector, private sector, universities. And it's not like I'm an idiot, I have a zoology and botany degree with a 3.5 GPA and only need to take BCH 451 to get my third degree in biology. It's not the resumes or cover letters, I've been to CALS career services. Shit I even have traveled and done research in Costa Rica, South Africa, and Brazil but I still can't seem to come up with anything, not even an interview. If I were to get hired in a lab setting it would have to be entry level since all my research has been field based, and I simply cannot find an entry-level lab job in the triangle. I'm on monster, hotjobs, careerbuilder, and registered with Kelly Scientific and Manpower Professional. I just don't get it. Is a B.S. life science degree that worthless or is it just a hard time to find something right now???

11/1/2006 2:13:33 PM

Quote :

"entry-level lab job in the triangle"

Have you just been looking in Raleigh? Expand your search to Greensboro, there are a ton of companies there as well. Another option I've been people go for it to become lab technicians at the college or university they want to attend before entering into a PhD program.

11/1/2006 3:38:52 PM

Finding jobs in the fall is always harder than in the spring (less grads, less jobs, plus I would assume profs and researchers want techs to start in the quieter summer season). Have you looked into industrial microbiology and QC type jobs? More related to industry type stuff.


Don't feel nervous about it taking awhile to find a job. It took me 5 months to find my job and I turned down 2 mediocre job offers in that time period. It was really stressful, but since your grades/experience are way better than mine, something good surely will pop up soon.

Did you look at NIEHS? They always need techs. Same with RTI.

[Edited on November 1, 2006 at 7:03 PM. Reason : dang, forgot about that ]

11/1/2006 7:01:41 PM

try hr.duke.edu or hr.unc.edu.
Duke and Carolina hire a lot of research techs.

11/2/2006 12:35:22 PM

^ I'm gonna go with you should probably terminate yourself before going to UNC. Just sayin...

11/2/2006 1:01:26 PM

^^applied to multiple positions at both, nothin doing there

11/2/2006 3:45:39 PM

^^ What are you talking about in regard to UNC? They have an excellent med school, and I assume highly respected clinically related research as well. Their grad school in biochemistry is one of the best in the nation, which I take to be an indication of the strength of their research programs.

Just saying.

11/5/2006 12:14:04 AM

If I hear of any more openings here at the various schools' marine labs (I'm at UNC's) I'll let you know... but I haven't heard anything and I know our lab is full.

11/7/2006 12:53:34 PM