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Paleontology: Is this a good career?
TheDinosaurMan
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So I was wondering if this is a good career for me to move to?
A little background: I'm 25, got married last december. I've got 2 college degrees from Sheridan college in Ontario, one for Computer Programming and another for Systems Anaylst. I got into the computer field for two reasons, one was because back when I was 17-18 the IT industry was booming and secondly that my dad is a business anaylst.
I've been working for 2 years at this financial firm, where I'm supposed to be a business process analyst but I'm actually nothing but a programmer with a title of not being a programmer since its something to do with the Managing Director wanting programmers or somesuch under his command and not IT's. And frankly, I don't see my life as sitting in a cubical till I'm retired.
I've always loved Dinosaurs and both my parents and my wife are encouraging me to go on and do it. My wife is doing psychology in university so I was wondering if paleontology will actually put food on the table. I've got other choices to do as well (cooking since I love it as well) but I really want to do paleontology.
Also would anyone kindly point to me where the best degrees and phds can be gotten from (both the US and Canada since none of us have a problem moving there.)
Thanks
A little background: I'm 25, got married last december. I've got 2 college degrees from Sheridan college in Ontario, one for Computer Programming and another for Systems Anaylst. I got into the computer field for two reasons, one was because back when I was 17-18 the IT industry was booming and secondly that my dad is a business anaylst.
I've been working for 2 years at this financial firm, where I'm supposed to be a business process analyst but I'm actually nothing but a programmer with a title of not being a programmer since its something to do with the Managing Director wanting programmers or somesuch under his command and not IT's. And frankly, I don't see my life as sitting in a cubical till I'm retired.
I've always loved Dinosaurs and both my parents and my wife are encouraging me to go on and do it. My wife is doing psychology in university so I was wondering if paleontology will actually put food on the table. I've got other choices to do as well (cooking since I love it as well) but I really want to do paleontology.
Also would anyone kindly point to me where the best degrees and phds can be gotten from (both the US and Canada since none of us have a problem moving there.)
Thanks
TheDinosaurMan on
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A lot of funding is require to accomplish this, perhaps you could come up with a budget for a specific project and get granted or not. In regard to your original question, if what you are looking for is to get a fat paycheck, and put good food on your table, maybe this is not the best choice.
Copy and paste from the usual source:
A historical science
Paleontology is one of the "historical sciences", along with archaeology, geology, biology, astronomy, cosmogony, philology and history itself. This means that it aims to describe phenomena of the past and reconstruct their causes. Hence it has three main elements: description of the phenomena; developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change; and applying those theories to specific facts.
When trying to explain past phenomena, paleontologists and other historical scientists often construct a set of hypotheses about the causes and then look for a "smoking gun", a piece of evidence which indicates that one of the hypotheses is a better explanation than the others. Sometimes the "smoking gun" is discovered by a fortunate accident during other research, for example the discovery by Luis Alvarez and Walter Alvarez of an iridium-rich layer at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary made asteroid impact and volcanism the most favored explanations for the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event.
you have to accept the fact that even if you do this, your job probably will be boring. if you still want to do it after accepting this, then go for it.
Basically, prepare to have a fun adventurous time, and not make money. You will probably take a pay cut from whatever you make now, if the pay for palentology is at all similar. Start dating someone who has a law degree or somthing.
As for museums. It is nigh impossible to get a museum job. There are bunches of people who fight over them because they don't want to travel anymore and want a stable in one place job.
Good news though. Expect funding to increase under the new US government, because it was basically abolished under the last one as a spending priority.
For schools. I hear south dakota has a good palentology program and probably places like colorodo, nevada. Dunno about canada. Probably not a whole lot of it going on there, due to shitty preservation conditions. Expect to move somewhere warmer.
but they're listening to every word I say
What would be a pay cut from $36,000 CAD? Because thats what I make right now
And I'm married, dating is a no no.
Hmm, a bit shocking but I understand. I'll still be interested in dragging the misses all over the world hunting for dinosaurs. It would be awesome at least from my view.
Thanks for the info, I'll look into it!
Thanks for all the information guys and girls! I'd like to hear more!
Don't you mean... extinct? [/goldblum]
As others have said, if you decide to go this route, you'll have to go back to school and you'd definitely want to go to a school well known for paleontology. I doubt you'll be earning a great salary and it looks like job openings are pretty competitive. Also, you'll either have to relocate or be willing to spend large amounts of time in some of the more desolate areas of the planet.
http://www.priweb.org/ed/lol/careers.html
http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~mrowe/dinosaur/FAQs.php
Suggestion: This is going to involve a pretty damn big lifestyle change. If you really love dinosaurs and aren't willing to go through it, you can be a volunteer paleontologist in your spare time. I was a dino-nut as a kid and I remember reading a number of books that said volunteers were hugely important in the field and that a number of important discoveries had even been made by volunteers.
Most of your time will be spent:
A. Peddling for Grant Money
B. Outside at a dig site
C. In a Lab
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Also,
D. Reviewing theme parks, with sometimes deadly consequences.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
luckily the dig site and the lab are both fun.
The money begging not so much.
but they're listening to every word I say
For paleontology you'll most likely need a PHD to get anywhere, and where you'll be getting is either a museum or a university. Doing field work sounds cool (and is) but most of your time will be spent in a lab or in a classroom. If you think you'll like teaching or sitting in a lab identifying tiny bone fragments then go for it.
I'm not trying to scare you off or discourage you if this is what you really want to do, but it's probably different than you think it will be. It certainly was for me.