Dear Ecolog members, I am looking for career and/or academic advice. I am a career plantsman: at times variously I have been a professional gardener, horticulturist, farmer, nurseryman, ecological restoration landscaping project manager, among other things. Currently I'm the head gardener of a massive skyscraper in midtown manhattan. In all the jobs I have done, I consider myself an applied ecologist. I have a BA in Urban Sustainability which was light on science and lacking completely in research. I have some research background from my first career as an analyst in the US Navy. I'm a first generation college student from Appalachia who grew up with an undying devotion to place, the natural world, and its wild inhabitants.
Over the last couple of years my future career, academic and life goals have become apparent to me as my skills and lifelong interests have led me in one direction: managing and restoring land for wildlife habitat and all the ecosystem benefits that arise through this process. I started my search process looking at Rangeland Management and Ecology programs and later expanded it to straight Ecology programs at many US universities. I have reached out to many potential advisors and my lack of research experience and a related degree have been bigger obstacles than I expected. The advice I have gotten has primarily been to seek out field or research technician jobs and I'm finding the same obstacles. I am at an impasse and I have run out of ideas to make this transition, I've even considered getting a second Bachelor's degree in biology to be at least competitive for a program. Does anyone have any advice, potential resources, networking or mentorship opportunities to help me on this path? I have many and varied interests that I can talk about if anyone needs more specifics. Thank you for any help, Thomas Caudill To unsubscribe from this list please go to https://community.esa.org/confirm/?u=RhPWqPxFwODKvbkiT32nkIqRrsiSgulp
