Summary+and+Response+Paper

The career I would plan on pursuing is marine biology, I was not able to get in contact with anyone in the profession myself but I have learned it is a very broad and intensive career choice through my research. I did send out emails to some professors at the university I will be attending next year, University of Hawaii, because I thought that would be the highest chance of them replying; but they were not able to reply apparently. So, in my research on marine biology, I stumbled upon an interview with Professor Jeffery Levinton if Stony Brook University in New York. This interview was exceedingly thorough and covered all the main points an aspiring marine biologist would want to know. There was also an article written by the researchers in the Love Lab at the University of California in Santa Barbara which was pretty helpful as well. It mainly overviewed what one should do to prepare for college and also what they should do once they were in college. They gave many helpful tips ranging from what subjects one should be focused on to what to expect the first few years of undergraduate school. I also found a database of different marine biologist interviews at the Sea Grant Marine Careers website. This website helped me to see exactly how many career choices there are to choose from in marine biology. There are government jobs, teaching jobs, technical jobs, research, and even other jobs such as a bay keeper. These interviews in the database went over whether or not the career opportunities were increasing or decreasing, which showed exactly how competitive certain areas are. Throughout all this research, I am glad that I now know exactly what I will be getting myself into, a career that seems to span further than I ever expected. Marine biology is a career that I have been interested in for the longest time, and having to research the career has increased my liking and wants to be a part of the marine biology community. I was not able to get any interviews from people of my choice but I was able to find other interviews and articles about being and becoming a marine biologist. The interviews I found were very helpful. The first interview I found was with Prof. Levington at Stony Brook University. The interview asked questions such as what would be the best way to become a marine biologist, of which he replied with this, “…good strategy… to be a biology major in a college that has marine biologists doing research”(Levington, Jeffery). This was also what all the other interviews and articles I read had stated about the matter. This was very helpful to me, as I have been torn between whether or not I should major in marine biology or just biology for undergraduate schooling. I now agree with them to major in biology. Not only is it what all these people recommend, it also gives me a chance to find something that I might like even more than marine biology. Levinton also said that it would be best to get a Ph.D. due to the competitiveness of the career and that it takes an average of 6 years of graduate school to get a Ph.D. This is something that I am not particularly looking forward to, but I am more than willing to do it after all that I have read about marine biology. I would get to travel all over the world to places such as Jamaica, Sweden, South Africa, Australia, Asia and France. This is something that I am looking forward to, along with all the people I will be able to meet from all over. I also found an article from the University of California in Santa Barbara at the Love Lab. It gave a lot of simple advice such as to read as much as possible because “…much of your time not only reading what other persons have written, but reading what you have just written to make sure it makes sense” (Love Lab). I agree with this advice, it would be incredibly hard to have to try and sit through other people’s papers if you can’t even sit through reading a good book. This is something I never would have thought of and I am grateful I found that out. This webpage also had several good tips about life during college, mainly the first two years. They warned that the first two years are full of prerequisite courses that, “…some of us have had the sneaking suspicion that the first several years of college has been designed to weed out those who are not truly dedicated to biology” (Love Labs). This is another bit of information I am glad I read about, because now I know what to expect my first few years and I can work that much harder to keep my grades up. The Love Lab had a several tips like the above mentioned that I am glad I came across. During my research, I also came across the Sea Grant website. There was a whole database of interviews of people in different areas of marine biology. There were people with all sorts of jobs, from tourism to government. I was able to see what their salaries were and what the competition was for each area. Certain areas seemed to have limitless room, Michael Lombardi, a diver from the University of New Hampshire had to say, “with 97% of the ocean unexplored there are lifetimes of opportunity out there” (Lombardi, Michael). Diving and exploring the ocean sounds very exciting and for that to be an option that is actually open is looks very good for my future. It is also exciting to see that every single person in the database answered the question, “Are your career opportunities increasing or decreasing?” with the same answer, increasing. I’m not too worried about finding a job now, even though it will still be a challenge to find a decent job due to the amount of people I will be competing against who will also have Ph.D.s.    After looking at what all these people had to say about marine biology, I am eager to pursue this career. It will be an adventure in itself, with all the traveling and people I will be able to meet. Also, the fact that I don’t really know what I will end up doing in the marine biology world makes it all that more of a desire to want to be in it. Works Cited: Marine Biology Web. //Marine Biology Questionnaire.// 29 Jan 2009. **<** http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/mycareer.html >. Love Lab UCSB. //Marine Biology- The Revenge.// 29 Jan 2009. . Sea Grant Marine Careers. //Marine Biology Profiles.// 29 Jan 2009. .