How do you even get a job in marine biology (uk)?
Posted by The_YellowBacon@reddit | marinebiology | View on Reddit | 7 comments
I’ve just graduated with a honours bachelors degree in marine biology and I’m completely defeated after a month of job searching. I’ve been scouring the internet for anything which I might even be applicable for, applying for every aquarium, sending speculative letters to the ones not hiring. Searching for marine biology, ecology and biology based jobs on indeed and the government websites. What do I do?
broopycat@reddit
I've been trying for two years 🙃 I'm going back for a masters
neon-kitten@reddit
The aquarium where I worked absolutely would not hire anyone above an intern level without a masters, at least for husbandry. Good call, sad to say.
MichaEvon@reddit
Ok, so it’s been a month. That probably feels like ages but it’s not.
There’s a lot you can do. First, talk to your lecturers. They’re still there and will help, well they should, if they don’t, do report back. They’ll know what sorts of work and volunteering options are available locally if you need to stay in one place.
Work, anything is fine, shows work ethic and there are skills in all jobs that apply back to working in science.
More training. I don’t know what degree grade you got, but there’s always more to learn. If your data analysis skills are not absolutely fantastic already then there are online courses. Quantitative skills are top of the plus points list. ID skills, e.g. birds for wind farm work, or a Marine Mammal Observer course.
On training, maybe it’s the last thing that you want to hear, but you’re competing with masters students for all entry level jobs these days. There’s a lot of choice so if you go down that route, take your time and choose the right one for you.
Other fun things to do, a lot of my students do DM internships overseas. It’s cheap, it’s diving, and it gets you to a pro leave qualification. Certainly beats hanging around and nothing to stop you from applying for jobs from somewhere sunny.
Don’t give up, it’s a competitive field, but there’s lots of work in government, consultants etc. it’s an amazing field to work in.
Pingogringoo@reddit
Cry. Just like the rest of us. Sincerely, Marine Biology Masters Graduate
marinebiology-ModTeam@reddit
Your post was removed as it violated rule #8: Responses to identification requests or questions must be an honest attempt at answering. This includes blatant misidentifications and overly-general/unhelpful identifications or answers.
Silansi@reddit
Honestly? No idea, I ended up in freshwater biology and even that was almost impossible to get into, part of the reason I got the job was because of my experience volunteering with a local autistic charity on top of the degree and work experience, and interviewing with the heads of department. The barrier for new graduates is a sheer cliff, I was searching for over a year before I landed a job.
The best advice I can give is talk to your careers and employability department for help with CVs, interview practice and places to find jobs. They'll support you for (generally) 5 years after graduation and you'll need all the advantages you can get over the competition, plus interviews is where a lot of people fall down having recently sat on the other side of the interview panel.
workshop_prompts@reddit
Have you tried looking for environmental assessment, NGOs, aquaculture, charities? Some of those will hire bachelor’s marine biology students. You may end up doing marketing work for conservation based charities/NGOs.
Otherwise…prepare to either work outside the field, or buckle down for being in school forever for master’s + phd. Almost all of the “cool” marine biology work is reserved for PhDs.