Category: Career Advice

How to be a Good Technician

1/14/2017

My first field project wasn't as a technician, but I quickly learned what sets certain crew members apart from others. Here, Arba does his part to model field equipment (and keep everyone laughing).

For many field biologists, the start of a new year means that it’s time to get serious about summer field season preparation. There are supplies to order, permits to submit, and, almost certainly, technicians to hire. In fact, I have probably seen close to 50 advertisements for summer technician jobs cross my email this week. Tis’ the season.

If you are currently an undergraduate student, have recently graduated, or might be thinking about making a career change, these seasonal technician jobs are exactly what you should be looking for. They generally only span the summer, so they won’t interfere with classes. And, if you hate the work, you won’t be forced to do it longer than three months. In short, it’s a low-risk way for you to test the waters on a possible career path and gain experience that will move you up in the applicant pool for future jobs, all while getting paid.

But, don’t let the temporary status of the job fool you. Many (most?) biologists got their first “break” in the field by excelling as a technician. While your contract might end in August, there are often opportunities for excellent technicians to continue working part-time after the semester starts, get invited to join other crews, or potentially even have their name on resulting publications. And, great technicians get great recommendation letters for awards, scholarships, jobs, and graduate school. I even know several people who were directly offered graduate positions after working as a technician for their advisor.

So, what do I mean when I say “great” technician? It varies from job to job, and person to person, but I’ve tried to come up with a list of the top 10 things you can to impress your boss as a technician.

1. Be on time. And, by ‘on time’, I really mean at least 10 minutes early. This is especially true if you are doing field work, which requires a lot of packing, hauling, and planning. Supervisors try to prepare all of that in advance, but only rarely does everything go as planned. So, make a habit of showing up early and offering to help. Ten minutes of unpaid time before the start of the day can go a long way. And, it goes without saying, don’t make a habit of being late.

2. Ask questions. If you’re uncertain about what you should be doing, ask. If you want to make sure a number is right, ask. I would much rather answer the same question 50 times and know you are collecting the data correctly than months later find out it was all done wrong (and trust me, someone always finds out eventually). Likewise, if you want to know more about the research project or why the data are being collected, ask. No question is stupid. Personally, I think one of the most impressive things a volunteer or technician can do is ask questions about why I am doing my research. It tells me they are engaged in the science behind the effort, which generally means they are more invested in collecting good data and are interested in the project beyond just the paycheck.

3. Read my mind. Seriously. I know I just harped on asking questions, but eventually you should be able to think one step ahead of your supervisor and do things without being asked. If you go to five sites and the first thing you’re told to do at every site is to fill a bucket with water, then by the sixth site you should hop out of the car and immediately go get water. Take initiative, be proactive, and step-in where you’re needed. The best field crews are those where everyone knows what the goal is for the day and can fluidly, without much direction, work together to achieve those goals. It takes some time to settle into the routine, but, once you do, the work goes a lot faster and the day is much more relaxed and enjoyable.

Savannah despised telemetry tracking. But, she volunteered to do a section of stream every day to give us both a break from the monotony. And, she was just as stressed as I was all summer whenever things went wrong.

4. Keep your head in the game. Technician work is often not the most fun or exciting work. It’s data entry, repetitive habitat measurements, video analysis, etc.- we’ve all been there, we can all sympathize with how endless the days feel. To make the work bearable, you’ll need to find something to keep yourself mentally engaged with the project. Maybe you can listen to music, talk with other crew members, volunteer for other projects, or just enjoy the fact you’re working outside. Do whatever it takes. People that can stick with the very monotonous jobs are often the people that I rank highest on my list because I know they are interested in the job beyond just the fun stuff.

5. Don’t be disrespectful. While true for all jobs, this tip is geared specifically towards technicians who will be working with a graduate student. The age gap may be small, and in some instances you, as the technician, may actually have more experience than the graduate student. But, don’t suggest you are more knowledgeable about a topic, try to dictate a schedule, or redesign their field study (this may seem ridiculous, but I’ve heard this happen on many occasions, particularly with Master’s students and their technicians). You can, and should, offer a suggestion about a better method or a way to save time. But, at the end of the day, this person is your boss and there’s probably a very good reason behind their study design and methods. Relatedly, if you’re working with a new graduate student, expect some degree of chaos. Leading a field crew and collecting data on your own is hard and stressful. They won’t always have a clear vision of what’s going on, but you can help them tremendously if you try to keep the project organized.

6. Be flexible. Sorry in advance. I probably don’t know what your hours are going to be, but it very likely will include night and weekends, and almost certainly over 40 hours a week. Sometimes you won’t get paid for all of those hours. I’ll cancel work within minutes notice because of rain, and sometimes ask you to live in sub-par housing. This entire profession is about being flexible and adaptable, and the more you are willing to roll with the punches the more you’ll impress your supervisor and be given more opportunities.

Talk about flexible. Last year my technicians were hired with the promise of doing laboratory genetics work. Needless to say they never touched a lab. Here, Nate tries to unlock the door after locking his keeps in the car just outside of cell phone service (we ended up breaking the window) and Laurel huddles under a bucket in a rainstorm. A shame they don't actually like fish, because I would rehire them in a heartbeat.

Though never formally my technician, Danielle has worked with me on several projects. She is one of the most driven people I've met, and last time we were in the field I had her try some new skills. Here, she learns drawing blood on fish takes a lot of practice.

7. Hustle. Field work is all about packing 20 hours of work into a 10 hour day. That means there’s not much time for breaks (my crews are notorious for shocking with one hand and eating with the other), small talk, or correcting mistakes. Move purposefully between tasks. Be efficient. Be mindful. Stay focused. At the same time, make sure you aren’t sacrificing the quality of your work by trying to rush through it.

8. Volunteer to do the dirty work. Carry the heavy stuff, run back to the truck, stay late to prepare for tomorrow. Your supervisor can, and should, do some of this. But, it makes them infinitely happier if there is someone willing to carry the load.

9. Be willing to try new things. Yes, the average day will be too busy for your supervisor to show you a new skill. But, if your supervisor can tell you are committed and invested (because you have exceeded expectations in the areas above), they will find time. The whole point of a technician job is to gain experience, and you won’t do that by sitting on the sidelines. And, don’t worry about being good at everything when you first try it. Everyone starts somewhere, and the best place to learn is when someone is there to help teach you. By the time you start graduate school or take a full-time biologist job, your boss will assume you have certain skills that you can learn as a technician.

10. Have fun. There’s a chance you won’t fall in love with the work you do as a technician (but, you might!). And, you may be signing up for three months of bug bites, sunburns, sweat, and exhaustion. You need to find something to keep the days entertaining and fun. Luckily, you’ll probably be joining a crew of people who have done summer field work long enough that they’ve gone just a little bit crazy. Follow their lead, prepare to learn and work hard, and just have fun. In a few years you’ll look back with fond memories and great stories.

I tried to limit my list to things anyone, regardless of background and experience, can do to be a good technician. If you want bonus points, I would suggest you up your knowledge of species identification for the system you work on, know your way around a toolbox, be comfortable working in remote locations, and try to get a job as early in your undergraduate career as possible. Starting early means you have more opportunities to gain experience, and more chances for me to re-hire you on my crew.

If you think I’ve missed something, leave a comment below!

Can't forget Dan! After several years of a technician work, he's got more background training than many graduate students.

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So, You Want To Be A Fish Biologist?

10/9/2016

1 Comment

My first fish. Notice I'm not touching it. I was solidly in my 'fish are gross' phase at this point in life.

I was recently told that my blog is reaching several young scientists ranging anywhere from middle school students all the way to undergraduate. Welcome aboard! This post is for you and meant to both warn you about the life of a fisheries ecologist but also get you excited by how cool my job is.

The inspiration for this post was a trending hashtag on Twitter last week. When I saw #WhenIWas12IThought I took a moment to think back to my middle school self. I was a B student, hated science, and thought for sure I would become a medical doctor. While I looked forward to lazy Sundays fishing with my grandfather, I thought fish were gross and certainly not something you would (or should) ever devote a career to studying.

And here I am today, devoting my entire life to studying fish.

What changed? Honestly, a series of random events. I wanted to take an Advanced Placement class senior year of high school and Environmental Science seemed like the easiest option. I didn’t realize it until later, but that was the first class I took that I actually enjoyed. As a freshman in college I was randomly placed into another environmental studies class that focused on streams. Having now spent nearly 20 years in school, I can faithfully say that class was the hardest I will ever take and made me question weekly if I was smart enough for college. At the same time, I loved everything about it including long days in the cold rain collecting data and even longer nights in the library trying to write research papers for a professor with exceedingly high expectations. I then needed a summer job, and that same professor was willing to pay me to research trout behavior. I call this my “Monopoly moment.” From there I passed go, collected $200 (not really that far from the truth...fish research pays very little), and have been running laps around the game board ever sense (and even managed to stay out of jail).

My first research job required monitoring fish behavior for 12 hours a day on stream-side platforms. We were trying to see how feeding fish (feeders are under that blue bag in the stream) affected fish movement. Here I am, 10 years later, still studying fish movement.

The moral of my story is that career paths don’t need to be straight and paved. That’s probably not new advice. And, there are a lot of articles giving more great pointers about how to get a job in the field after you graduate college- volunteer at various organizations, do undergraduate research, and network with professionals in the field, etc. While I could reiterate all of those points, they won’t help you decide whether fisheries science is actually a good fit for you. For that, I have a few points of advice:

Give fisheries a second (or third, fourth, etc.) try. There are aspects of fisheries science that I am completely disinterested in, and had I found those first I may have given up on the field. As a fish biologist you can study anything from tiny creeks to oceans, cells to sharks, and Antarctic to Amazonian species. You can spend a lot of time outside or in the lab collecting data, or you can choose to spend more time analyzing datasets from other biologists. You can work closely with other scientists, or choose to do more public outreach and education. You can focus on human health, population genetics, or recreational fishing. Fisheries science is incredibly diverse, so there is a fit for nearly every interest. But, it might take some time to find it, so don’t give up on the career path early.
The topics of study may be limitless, but the field itself is very small. This means that competition for jobs is fierce. The good thing is that excellence in the field isn’t determined entirely by good grades. Those are important. Let me say it again… you need to demonstrate that you are intelligent and can think critically about fish ecology. But, also important is your ability to write well, communicate effectively, repair a transmission, haul heavy objects, start a fire, change a flat tire, and build odd things. Those don’t all sound like elegant skillsets you would imagine from a professional, but that’s the reality of the field. You may be sent to collect data in remote field sites without cell phone service, and your supervisor needs to know you can get yourself out of trouble if needed. Likewise, really important field equipment breaks all the time and you have to fix it or you won’t get your data. The most intelligent ecologist isn’t always the best fit for the job.
That last point makes it sound like this career is a real-life National Geographic documentary. Yes, my office very often doesn’t have a roof- I’ve worked in gorgeous environments from the Rocky Mountains to Panamanian rainforests. But, for every hour outside I probably spend 3-4 at the computer (that doesn’t count winter where I’m almost exclusively inside). Don’t get into this career under the assumption you will get to be outside every day.
Likewise, field ecology isn’t a 9-5 job. This is particularly true during graduate school, which you will almost certainly want to at least consider attending as most jobs in fisheries require a Master’s degree. When the critter you study is doing important things (spawning, migrating, etc.), your life will revolve around their schedule. Sometimes there are big grants or contract deadlines that land on your desk at the last minute. There will be weeks you work upwards of 60-80 hours and have no choice. Fortunately, by the time you hit that point in your career, most of your friends are also ecologists and understand why you keep cancelling plans with them.

Even when you are outside in a Panamanian rainforest listening to howler monkeys, field work can still be extremely boring and require staring at a computer screen.

If you hate math, public speaking, and writing, fisheries and wildlife probably isn’t a good fit for you. The data that we collect usually ends up in really complex models that are necessary to understand how the world works and make critical management decisions. I’m not saying you need to be an expert in calculus, but to understand these models you need to be willing to dissect equations and study statistics. Likewise, communication is key. This is a highly collaborative field that needs to play nice with other lab groups. We are also unique in that a lot of funding comes from tax dollars and we are studying an aspect of the environment that a lot of people have very strong opinions about. As a result, we are often asked to talk to the public and serve as authorities on our research topics. Further, if you decide to go into research full time, your professional worth is in large part measured by the number of publications you produce. Communication skills are really hard to develop and require years of practice and a lot of really harsh feedback from your peers. My advice, both for developing these skills and growing as a scientist, is to find someone that is better than you and spend as much time around them as possible. Ask them to mentor you, and develop thick skin early. You won’t get better by eating sugar coating.

Another way to develop communication skills is by presenting an oral or poster presentation at a conference. You can usually get conferences paid for by your advisor, so these are actually like free vacations. Here I am standing at my poster at the American Fisheries Society meeting in Portland Oregon.

Be ready to move. There are a limited number of jobs and graduate school positions in fisheries, and there’s a good chance you won’t find an opening in your desired state, let alone your favorite city. Plus, a lot of really great jobs are seasonal, meaning you’ll only be hired for a few months before you will be back on the job market. When you are looking for graduate school, you will want to find an advisor whose research interests match yours, and that could very easily take you out of the country or time zone. This can be a little heartbreaking for people that want to stay close to family and friends. But, with every move you learn a whole new ecosystem, network with a new group of colleagues, experience a different area of the country, and grow as a scientist. Extra points for anyone that moves to a new country for their work; those people are a whole different breed of awesome.

All of that may make you wonder why anyone picks and keeps this profession. Truth is a lot of people do quit once they realize they won’t become the next Steve Irwin (this was nearly a deal breaker for me). In all seriousness, this field really isn’t for everyone. But, if you love the outdoors and the animal you study, the long hours slip by quickly. And, I do get to work outside, often exploring environments that few humans will ever get the privilege to see and using some really cool equipment (I catch fish by pumping electricity into the water..how cool is that?). Most importantly, I work with some of the most charismatic, hardworking people I know. There are few fisheries ecologists that don't have fond memories of working past the point of exhaustion and then staying up late chatting around a campfire. It's these stories that make me realize that most of us look at fisheries as more than just a career. When you decide to join the fisheries brotherhood, you make a commitment to wear flannel, own ugly fish shirts, ridicule your friends a little too much, party hard, and show up early the next morning ready to get the job done. Today, I couldn't imagine not being part of the fisheries family.

So, bottom line, the old adage has a lot of truth- if you pick a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.

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A brook trout Blog

How to be a Good Technician

So, You Want To Be A Fish Biologist?

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A brook trout Blog

﻿How to be a Good Technician

So, You Want To Be A Fish Biologist?

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How to be a Good Technician

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