Whether you\u2019re finishing an undergraduate degree or a Ph.D., this can often be a dreaded question.\u00a0 The decision of what comes next can be a daunting one.\u00a0 Having recently completed a Ph.D., this question and decision process is fresh in my mind.<\/p>\n
Graduate school brought me to Alberta, Canada from the U.S., and I began my graduate school career studying wolves in an agricultural landscape for my M.Sc. degree.\u00a0 The area, community, and complexity of ecological questions made me decide to pursue my Ph.D. in the same landscape, this time studying grizzly bear population ecology and large carnivore-agricultural conflicts.\u00a0 Working in an agricultural community can be challenging.\u00a0 Much of my work occurs on private lands, meaning that I need the permission and support of numerous landowners to be successful.\u00a0 Building trust takes time.\u00a0 Change takes time.\u00a0 Working with the rural community has simultaneously been the most challenging and most rewarding part of my research career to-date.\u00a0 At the end of my Ph.D. and subsequent post-doc, I had been in the area long enough to build trust and witness change.\u00a0 It was exciting.\u00a0 I felt that my work and contributions in the area weren\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n
In trying to answer the question of \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d as my post-doc wound down, I was of course scanning all the usual websites looking for jobs, and reaching out to contacts and networks that I had built along the way.\u00a0 During graduate school, much of the career advice and training I had received was targeted toward an academic path.\u00a0 I knew, however, that I needed a break from the world of academia.\u00a0 Other opportunities and job postings didn\u2019t seem quite right for me, either. The decision of what to do next is made more challenging when it\u2019s not just you.\u00a0 Did I really want to ask my husband to quit his job and move to a new place for a job that I felt indifferent about?<\/p>\n
While I was finishing my Ph.D., I got my first contract.\u00a0 Nothing big \u2013 just a few hours a week helping to coordinate a new grizzly bear monitoring program that was beginning in the bear management area to the north of where I had recently completed my work.\u00a0 After I finished my Ph.D., the contract increased in hours and soon I was working on the analysis of the new data that had been collected.\u00a0 Around the same time, some grant money became available at a local non-profit I had worked with during my Ph.D. and that group contracted me to evaluate the efficacy of carnivore-agriculture conflict mitigation projects. Soon, I had pieced together enough contract work to keep me comfortably employed for a year.\u00a0 It was time to establish myself as an independent scientist, and I filed the paperwork to launch my own research and consulting business.<\/p>\n
This is all still new to me and I\u2019m figuring it out as I go. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure this is the exact right fit for me long term, but for right now, it\u2019s great.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing work that I believe in, asking research questions that interest me, fostering strong relationships between the science community and the rural community, and living where I want to live.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say there are no challenges.\u00a0 I have no guaranteed income and am in constant pursuit of the next grant, the next contract, the next collaboration.\u00a0 It can be isolating; I don\u2019t have an organization standing behind me.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s a common feeling to struggle with figuring out the best career fit.\u00a0 For some, the answer to \u201cwhat to do next\u201d is an easy one; they know what they want and work to pursue that.\u00a0 Others, like myself, struggle with figuring out where and how they can most successfully affect change and make a meaningful contribution to the field of ecology.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a topic I have been thinking about a lot lately, and, in a round about way, it was that question that ultimately resulted in me writing this blog post.\u00a0 I have the honor of being part of the 2017 Wilburforce Fellows in Conservation Science, a truly inspiring group of people.\u00a0 As I read through their bios prior to meeting all of them, I couldn\u2019t help but feel intimidated.\u00a0 Who was I to be chosen to be part of this group?!\u00a0 When we met for a leadership retreat in Tucson, Arizona earlier this year, I was only a few months out of finishing my post-doc and was just beginning to piece together work for the next year; I felt overwhelmed by the accomplishments of the people around me.\u00a0 As our week of training together progressed, other fellows reached out to me and expressed sincere interest in what I was doing and wondered how I was making my career as an independent scientist happen.\u00a0 Their support helped me feel more confident in my voice as a scientist and re-energized my work.\u00a0 Ultimately, over breakfast one morning, one fellow asked if I would consider writing a piece for the ESA early career blog on my experiences, suggesting that others might be interested the career path I was following.<\/p>\n
As I pursue my own career path, I have had to step outside my comfort zone and reach out to my networks asking for advice, input, opportunities, and suggestions.\u00a0 I expressed interest to and solicited ideas and feedback from pretty much anyone who would listen. \u00a0\u00a0What I found, was that there is a wealth of resources within my networks once I began to ask.\u00a0 The collaborations and connections that I built over my graduate career, along with a heavy dose of persistence, are ultimately what have helped me to succeed where I am at today.\u00a0 I have also learned that the answer to \u201cwhat are you going to do when you\u2019re done\u201d doesn\u2019t have to be a single answer; careers are fluid.\u00a0 There are a myriad of options out there for a career in ecology.\u00a0 For me, working independently has been a great fit thus far, but I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s a permanent one.\u00a0 I am still pursuing any avenue that seems interesting because what \u201cfits\u201d in one stage of a career trajectory may not fit in another.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrea Morehouse owns Winisk Research and Consulting where she works as an independent scientist on issues related to large carnivores.\u00a0 She holds a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Alberta.\u00a0 Andrea serves on the board of directors for the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association, and is a 2017 Willburforce Fellow in Conservation Science.\u00a0 She can be reached at amorehouse@winiskresearch.com<\/a> .<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether you\u2019re finishing an undergraduate degree or a Ph.D., this can often be a dreaded question.\u00a0 The decision of what comes next can be a daunting one.\u00a0 Having recently completed a Ph.D., this question and decision process is fresh in my mind. Graduate school brought me to Alberta, Canada from the U.S., and I began my graduate school career studying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-early-career"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/earlycareer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}