Thanks for posting about this, especially from the perspective of someone trying to start out in tropical conservation.
I started out some years ago, before so many NGOs had caught onto the fact that they could get recent graduates to work for free, or even to pay a "fee" to work instead of being paid as usual. At that time, jobs in tropical conservation were simply incredibly difficult to get. In my case, I listened to those who told me that my chances would be improved with an advanced degree; and so I poured many years and a great deal of borrowed money into first a Master's and then a Ph.D. I jumped through every hoop, published where I could, obeyed my advisor and my committee in every particular, all in the hope that one day, my long years of effort and sacrifice would be rewarded with the meaningful career in conservation I had always dreamed of. At the end of it all, jobs in tropical conservation were still incredibly difficult to get, and I was no closer to understanding exactly how to find a paying position at all, much less a meaningful career in anything. Like the inscrutable obelisks of old, my advisor and committee remained weathered and mute, with nothing but silent judgement to offer, and no one else in the field has ever offered anything more. To any young students considering this path, I would say only this: please don't, because there's nothing here. Grinding work, soul-deep commitment and the deferment of all else in life simply aren't enough, and most likely they never were. Pursing this dream, noble though it seems, leads only to the ruin of hopes and the waste of too many years. - J. A.
