[Coral-List] Online Coral Job Sources (Kristof Ketch)

Mike Sadka M.Sadka at nhm.ac.uk
Tue Oct 5 06:32:07 EDT 2010


Hi

This site often has intern opportunities for divers and similar in
varioius parts of the world: environmentjob.co.uk


Probably not paid, but possibly useful experience...

Cheerio, Mike

_____________________________________________

Mike Sadka
Deputy Technical Manager and Science Data Architect
Interactive Media Team
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
London SW7 5BD

Phone: 020 7942 5462


-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Kris
Sent: 03 October 2010 06:08
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Online Coral Job Sources (Kristof Ketch)

Sherry, other recent or soon to be graduates, and current
undergraduates,

Yes it is fairly difficult to find employment in the marine sciences
field these days but from what I've heard from everybody throughout all
of college is that it can be a difficult area to get into no matter what
year it is or how the economy is doing. However, if you are determined
enough, you will be able to pull it off. It's pretty rare that people
are able to find and get into their dream job right away, but if you
know what you're goal is, you'll find a way to work your way up to it. I
just graduated last December and after 9 grueling months of searching
for and applying for jobs everyday after finishing work at a pet store
where I hardly made enough money to pay my student loan bills (even
while living with my parents where I had no living expenses), I finally
got into the type of job I first set out to get when leaving college.
While I was successful, as a disclaimer, I make no promises that the
advice and resources I am about to share is the best that there is or
wil  l guarantee anybody else their own success, but hopefully, it will
help out many of you. If you're just looking for the resources, I'm
listing them at the bottom of the message.

My advice:

*Don't put all your eggs in one basket. You may think it's the perfect
job for you and that you'll probably get it, but there's still a good
chance you won't get it. So don't stop searching and applying for jobs
just because of one potential job since sometimes job availability is
seasonal. Keep at it until you've actually been offered a position;
otherwise, you could miss out.

*Don't just assume that your resume and cover letter format and wording
is perfect. Your application is their first impression of you, so if it
isn't best you can do, then you may not get a chance at an interview.
The people reviewing applicants want a lot of detail but keep it
concise, but they all seem to differ in what is enough detail and
whether or not it's concise enough. It is difficult to please them all
with one general resume, so you should try to edit your resume to tailor
it specifically to the job you are currently applying to. I also
recommend to get advice from others about your resume such as your
college's career center, professional career centers, former professors,
and you can even ask places that don't hire you if they have any
suggestions for improving your application. The worst they could do is
say no.

*When preparing for an interview. Know the company or agency hiring you.
If you're not interested enough to do some research on them, then you
probably shouldn't have applied to them to begin with. Also know
yourself really well because sometimes they will really gut you during
the interview. Be prepared to tell them all the reasons why you would be
a valuable employee for them ranging from task skills from previous
experiences to interpersonal skills. When they're interviewing you,
they're not just looking for answers, they're looking at how you react
to questions and how you respond to their questions, so be quick,
confident, and choose your words wisely. I'm sure there are websites
that give some generic interview Q's, it'd be wise to seriously practice
interviews. Many people can't do that with somebody they know, so going
to career centers for mock interviews would be a smart thing to do,
especially if you're preparing for an interview for a job you really
want because y  ou probably only have one shot at it. Also, second
interviews often don't have new questions, but they may re-ask a few
questions. They're often for getting a feel for you. They've already
asked most of the questions they wanted answers for. Now they'll show
you around the place and watch how you respond to things like if you
recognize the equipment, and for the most part they're trying to figure
out what it'd be like working with you. It's often very relaxed, but
don't relax too much because they are still critiquing every word you
say.

If you're still in college:

*It seems to me that most jobs are less interested in what your GPA was
and are more interested in the experiences and especially the skills you
have. Thus get all the experience you can while in college through
working in labs, doing research, study abroad, internships, volunteer,
etc., but I don't recommend blowing off your classes. Experience helps
you decide whether or not you like doing something and will help you
narrow your focus, and for employer's it shows your commitment to the
field. It's better to try getting experience while in college, because
out of college, you will probably have a really hard time getting a
paying position without previous experience and non-paying positions are
hard to do when you've got living expenses and student loan payments to
make. I fully recommend to any undergrad to apply for Research
Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs
<http://www.nsf..gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm>. It is funded by the
National Science Foundation (NSF)  and is a great way to earn some good
money over the summer while gaining excellent research experience;
however, NSF will only allow you to participate in an REU program once
so that they are able to assist a broader range of students.

*Networking. My friend in college once told me, "It's not the grades you
make but the people you know that will get you somewhere in life." I
refused to admit it to him, but he is right. Make plenty of friends
everywhere you go, because someday they could be the difference in
finding or getting into a good job. I don't just mean students, make
friends with your professors and TAs as well because they are great
resources for information and networking. They may help you find a lab
you may want to work in during college and they may help you find a job
after college, but if nothing else, they can be an excellent reference.
However, they can only be a good reference if they know and remember
you, so visit them outside of class and keep in touch.

Before I start listing off websites, I guess I should say that during my
job hunt, I was mostly looking for marine or freshwater fisheries
lab/field tech types of positions. The job I originally set out to get
and recently got (I start training Oct 12th so technically I don't
really have it until after I pass training) is that of a marine
fisheries observer. Thus the websites I'm listing ranges from positions
in the marine field in general to positions in the fisheries field in
general. Most of the websites I am listing have their own listings of
links to information and job postings, so you're still going to have to
do a lot of browsing on you're own because I'm not listing every single
link to a job posting list.
Resources:

Careers  in  Oceanography, Marine  Science &  Marine  Biology
<http://www.peterbrueggeman.com/ocean/career.html>

Marine Conservation Biology Institute
<http://www.mcbi.org/resources/res_career.htm>
Although I really don't recommend applying for jobs through USAJobs.gov
because I wasted 5 months only applying through them (another
interpretation of don't put all your eggs in one basket), the link in
this website called "NOAA Job Opportunities" has a really good link to
NOAA vacancies. For the life of me, I still can't figure out why I
hardly ever found any of NOAA's vacancies while I was originally
searching USAJobs.gov for 5 months, but oh well. From my experience, if
you don't already work for the government or you haven't had the
specific job you are applying for before, then you've got a snowball's
chance in hell at getting considered for the job because of the initial
questionnaire screening. If you are going to try applying for government
positions, you might want to try applying within individual states
before applying to federal positions. I never searched state government
positions, but that was because I gave up on searching government
positions after my fruitl  ess efforts in using USAJobs.

American Fisheries Society: job board
<http://www.fisheries.org/afs/jobpage.php>

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
<http://coralreef.noaa.gov/getinvolved/employmentopp/welcome.html>

Sea Grant in the Mid-Atlantic Region: employment opportunities
<http://www.mid-atlantic.seagrant.org/Jobs/jobs.html>

Conservation job announcements Hawaii / Pacific Region
<http://www.hear.org/announcements/jobs.htm>

Coral Cay Conservation
<http://www.coralcay.org/content/blogcategory/0/466/5/0/>
I don't think postings are made all too frequently on this site.

Consortium for Ocean Leadership
<http://www.oceanleadership.org/about-ocean-leadership/ocean-of-opportun
ities/>
I think this website mostly had job postings for more senior positions
but they may have some entry level listings too.

Association of Zoos & Aquariums
<http://www.aza.org/joblistings/>

NOAA Fisheries: National Observer Program
<http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st4/nop/observer_providers.html>
List of observer providers.

The WorldFish Center
<http://www.worldfishcenter.org/wfcms/HQ/article.aspx?ID=221>
An international, non-profit, non-governmental organization.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
<http://www.serc.si.edu/pro_training/index.aspx>
Internships and Fellowships

GVI
<http://www.gviusa.com/>
Volunteer abroad opportunities. Seems awesome if you can afford it.


Best of luck to everybody,
Kristof Ketch
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