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After the BS: How to Get Ready for Your Fisheries Career Beyond Earning a Degree

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By: Heather Cox

Maybe you grew up dreaming of becoming a marine biologist, or maybe you discovered a passion for the inhabitants of rivers and streams during undergrad, but no matter how you got started, you pushed through years of schooling to earn that precious piece of paper (or papers) declaring you a fisheries biologist. However, as classes are completed and degrees are awarded, figuring out how to actually begin your career after graduation can be quite daunting. While many universities do an amazing job of preparing us for a career in fisheries, based on conversations with early-career biologists and our own experiences, it seems like few truly  educate students on what comes next and how to get started. If you’re struggling to figure out if there are some skills you should be working on, aren’t sure how to put together a curriculum vitae (CV), or are wondering where to find your first internship or paying job, we’ve put together the following tips to help.

Areas of Focus

The term “fisheries” in and of itself may seem like a simple topic, but in reality, the field consists of many different roles and areas of focus. Not all available jobs are going to include field work, and many require skills other than fish identification (more on that later). There may be an “ideal” area that you want to get started in, but it’s important to keep an open mind when first starting out and there may be some listed below that you haven’t thought about yet. And yes, many of these likely look like a class that you’ve taken, but you may not have realized you could have a whole career based around the topic.

  • Life History
  • Ecology
  • Social Sciences
  • Stock Assessment
  • Outreach/Education
  • Protected Resources
  • Database Management
  • Fisheries Management and Policy
  • Engineering
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Technology (Mobile Applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Electronic Reporting, Electronic Monitoring)
  • Genomics
  • Trophic
  • Telemetry/Movement
  • Aquaculture/Husbandry
  • Administrative

Understanding Position Descriptions

No matter which career path you’re interested in (academia, federal, state, non-governmental organization (NGO), etc.), it is important to talk about a few things the positions they advertise have in common regarding how they are described. 

Position Classifications

In general, you are going to see different levels of job classifications, based on how long-term and “necessary” the job is. 

FTE – Full Time Employment vs OPS – Other Personal Services

  • An FTE or Career Service (CS) position is one that offers full benefits to employees, and is usually based on secured funding. This means that you will be able to accrue vacation and sick time, in addition to receiving health insurance and retirement benefits, These positions generally require more experience, and in turn offer more job security.
  • OPS positions, on the other hand, are usually part of projects, so funding is not guaranteed long-term. As a result, positions typically do not offer benefits like vacation time accrual, health insurance, or assist with retirement savings. If they are offered, they are at a different level than those provided to FTE employees. This isn’t to say they aren’t good positions, just have important caveats to keep in mind.

Permanent vs Term or Limited Duration

  • Permanent positions generally support mission-critical activities, so are funded year after year, and usually these roles are filled with FTE employees.
  • Term (or Limited Duration) positions may only have funding for a set number of months or years, so the position is only guaranteed for a period of time. Employees may be FTE or OPS, and may offer preference to these employees when a position is ending, but a relevant role is available within the agency/institution.

Career Path Examples

Position Levels

Institutions have a hierarchy of positions levels they use when describing jobs, some of which are intuitive, and some of which are not if you aren’t familiar with their terminology. There are also usually grades (e.g., I, II, III) or qualifiers (e.g., “Senior”) in the position titles that can help you understand which ones you may be qualified for. Some positions as they relate to general career-stages are:

  • Entry-Level – recent graduates and/or less than two years of experience
    • Technician, Biological Sciences Aide, Biologist I/II, Research Associate I/II/III
  • Mid-Level – recent grad school graduates and/or more than two years of experience
    • Biologist III/IV, Senior Research Associate I/II/III
  • Senior Level – doctorate degree required and/or more than 5 years of experience
    • Research Fishery Biologist, Senior Fishery Biologist, Assistant Scientist, Scientist
  • Management Level – several years of experience managing personnel and projects
    • Supervisory Biologist, Biological Administrator

Locating Internships and Short-Term Positions

Whether you’re still in school or just starting out, internships and short-term positions are great ways to not only get your foot in the door, but also to learn new skills and to get comfortable working in a professional setting. This list is by no means extensive, but hopefully gives you an idea of places to look. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to internships – avoid pay-to-work “opportunities” in most cases. There are several out there that regularly advertise on job boards or on social media, but when you have to pay them for the experience, it just isn’t going to give your CV the boost you are hoping for.

  1. Internships – may or may not be paid positions
    • Federal
    • Universities – in addition to your own university, be sure to check others in the area for public lists
    • Miscellaneous
      • FL Sea Grant Facebook – while Sea Grant is a NOAA network of universities, some of the state programs offer weekly listings of both jobs and internship opportunities
    • One thing to keep in mind when it comes to internships – avoid pay-to-work “opportunities” in most cases. There are several out there that regularly advertise on job boards or on social media, but when you have to pay them for the experience, it just isn’t going to give your CV the boost you are hoping for.
  2. Fisheries Observing – some programs have 6-month or 1-year contracts
  3. Technician Work

Finding Jobs

We’ve already written an article about finding jobs in fisheries, so aren’t going to go into too much detail here. However, here are few things worth pointing out again:

  • Federal jobs may be listed on different sites, but the only place to apply (and the most accurate place to search) is USAJobs.
  • State jobs can be a little harder to track down at times, so become familiar with the agencies in your state and where their official job site is located. Also, your state may have multiple agencies that have fisheries-related jobs, so be sure to look around a little. Potential agency names may include: “Fish and Wildlife”, “Natural Resources”, “Department of Agriculture”, and “Environmental Protection”. 
  • Job Boards – some are certainly better than others, but in general, field-specific professional groups (like Women of Fisheries!) and university lists are going to be better places to start than a generic job seeker site. 
  • Social Media – odd as it may seem, social media is a great place to learn about opportunities, including jobs, internships and grad school lab openings.
  • Mailing Lists – many of these sites offer the ability to join an email list, whether it is search-term specific or general, be sure to sign up so that you don’t miss out on something great!

Key Skills

While you’ve been in school, you’ve likely already built up some important skills, such as working in Microsoft Office Suite or Google Drive. However, if you are looking for something new to learn, start here:

  • Statistics – R, SAS, or SPSS
  • GIS – Esri products and open-source GIS
  • Database Management – Access, SQL, or Oracle
  • Grant Writing
  • Scientific Writing
  • Note Taking/Record Keeping
  • Communication
  • Task Management

Building Skills

An important thing to keep in mind is that if you don’t use a skill, you will lose it. Ways to use, and therefore improve, your skills is to practice them.

  1. Social Media
    • Following some people or professional groups allows you to see tips, question/answer sessions and general conversations related to different skills. It may seem like a foreign language at first, but the more you read and see it implemented in different situations, the easier it will be to understand.
    • Go broad! By diversifying your skills and interests beyond marine science, you will be more competitive for a position. Many people will have taken similar classes as you, but not everyone is a whiz at Excel or relational databases. 
  2. Volunteering
    • Even if it is outside of fisheries, you can build up your skills as a volunteer. For example, while I’ve personally never done a fisheries fundraiser, I’ve led major events for a veteran’s organization. These were successful due to my organizational skills learned during my career, and I was able to gain some experience in a new area.
  3. Mentoring
    • As a mentee you can ask questions on things you may be struggling with, and as a mentor, it can solidify your own understanding when you teach others.

Identifying Additional Skills

If you still feel like you may be missing a skill that isn’t listed here, there are other ways to determine where to focus. An easy way is to look at job announcements to see what skills they are looking for. Don’t just look at jobs you are fairly qualified for, though – look at your “dream” job or the one you hope to have in 10 years to see what you need to work towards over the next few years. You can also search for the CVs of people you look up to, although these can be hard to find at times. Also, just ask established professionals! Many of us are more than willing to share lessons learned and to give advice to those entering the field so that you can be successful, too.

CVs and Resumes

While most resumes are supposed to be limited to one or two pages, a curriculum vitae (CV) is a complete record of your academic and professional history. Sometimes you will be asked to trim them down to only a few pages, such as for a grant proposal, but the format still differs slightly from a standard resume. It can also be really hard to find examples of a CV online, especially one for someone early in their career. To help you put yours together, here is an example of how a recent graduate had designed their resume, and how it was re-worked in order to format it more like a CV. 

Their original resume:

Their new CV:

Now, here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • This is just an example, and may not appeal to everyone, so don’t worry about matching everything exactly. 
  • Avoid fancy formatting like the trendy resume examples found with a Google search. You can add one or two features, like the teal text and usage of different font styles here, but not everyone is going to like a bold format, so err on the side of caution.
  • Keep track of everything – as your career builds, you will start to lose track of everything you have accomplished, so build a habit to immediately add things to it as soon as they happen.
  • One thing formatted differently in this example compared to how a more experienced person may order their materials is having the education section at the top. As your career progresses, you will likely end up moving it down, but when first starting out, it is acceptable to leave it at the top. 
  • Also, if you are using uncommon acronyms, spell them out when able – either in your CV or in a cover letter if it isn’t directly related

A Note on Cover Letters

Another common request when applying to internships or positions is a cover letter, but unfortunately, unless stated as required, a lot of applicants skip them. Don’t be one of those people! A cover letter is your chance to shine by showing reviewers a piece of your personality, as well as to relate your skills and experience directly towards the position you are interested in. A major thing to remember is that you shouldn’t just repeat what is listed on your CV, then they are just reading the exact same thing twice.

Hopefully this post helps you get a clearer picture of how to get your career off to a great start! If you have any additional tips or still have unanswered questions, we would love to hear from you!