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Help?! Zoo job opportunities and ideas for a confused grad student

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by mairi, 1 Jan 2014.

  1. mairi

    mairi New Member

    Joined:
    1 Jan 2014
    Posts:
    2
    Location:
    Lund, Sweden
    Hi all,

    Just wondering if anybody had any words of wisdom for me. (Apart from the usual "fit your CV to the job advert" type advice.) Really I'm wondering if you could give me a job title to search for or an internship to look at or a company that does what I'm talking about or just some general help for those of us starting out our careers and don't have an end goal in sight. Just some ideas would be really useful!

    So here goes, my wish list;
    I would like a job in which I get science out of academia and journal type publications and into the real world/ public realm. I would like to travel (anywhere and everywhere) but to have a base to call home and I'd like home to be in Europe. I really want to work as part of a close-knit but varied team where there are different areas of interest and expertise. My main focus in my soon-to-be-finished masters degree is conservation (with ecology a close second) and I'd like that to carry over into my working life but I'm not sure exactly how. I'd like to do hands on work (definitely) as well as engage others and get the necessary knowledge out to the groups that need it as I believe there is a huge disconnect between the people who have the knowledge and those who would use it if they could/knew where to get it etc. I enjoy making posters and presentations and thinking of how to engage people's interest but I don't necessarily want to work with the public all day, every day. So far things like science communication/education and director of conservation at zoos and museums have come up in searches but those are "career goals", not entry level things that I, with my bachelor and masters degrees and limited experience, might be able to apply for within the next few months.

    Maybe I'm dreaming, but if that's the case then maybe I'll eventually change the system and create a job for myself but until then I think I might need some guidance ...

    If you can think of anything that might be of interest to someone like me, if you have advice to give or any ideas I would be very grateful to hear any and all of them! Thanks in advance!