A rich person’s profession? Young conservationists struggle to make it

[UngulateNerd92]

This is probably one of if not the saddest articles I have ever read. It describes how young people with degrees in conservation are struggling to make it in their jobs doing just conservation work alone.

The opening statement;

"Nika Levikov swore she would never work as a waitress again. But, today — with a master’s degree in conservation science from Imperial College London — she’s taking orders, delivering drinks, and cleaning tables to support herself."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.m...ung-conservationists-struggle-to-make-it/amp/

 

[Jurek7]

I hope young people looking for a career will read this article and take it seriously!

Conservation is a hobby not a profession. From this article, I agree especially with two killer points: super-long volunteering required to get any initial experience, and short-time contracts forcing one to have a job to live in between.

To young people interested in conservation, I suggest getting a regular job and be open to casual volunteering. A colleague of mine is a skilled accountant and makes budget of a conservation organization - for free or a fraction of the money he normally charges.

 

[Arizona Docent]

I skim read the article and it is, as my friend @UngulateNerd92 says, "one of the saddest." It is also a wake up call and sometimes young people need to hear that. The stark reality is most of us will not make a living pursuing our passion, whether it be ecology, music, or in my case photography. After earning financially useless degrees and then working for low pay at a photo lab for two decades, I finally got a government job. Now I can pay the bills and travel to take photos and not worry about living paycheck to paycheck. For those young people interested in a career in conservation, my strong advice from decades of life experience is to focus on a career that will allow you to fund your passion as a hobby.

There is also a case to be made that having conservation minded folks in "regular jobs" could do just as much good for conservation because we can influence "real people" on making changes to help the planet. If climate change is a real threat (which most of us believe it is), no one in the regular workforce is going to sell their muscle car and buy a hybrid because some conservationist wrote an article in a scientific journal about how climate change affects the species in their study. But if that same conservationist works in an office and their coworkers say "Hey I see you bought a new car, what made you get a Prius?" then the door is open to persuade them to do likewise and show how their behavior can impact the world.