So you want to be a squid biologist or marine biologist! That's awesome!
I often get asked for career advice, and here's the thing: any time anyone gives you career advice, please remember that oftentimes, they tell you what worked for THEM! There are so many paths a person could take to become a marine biologist, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend the one I took! It worked out, but is it the best? Probably not. Would it work for you? Maybe? Hard to say!
That being said, here's my path:
I went to public high school in a Philadelphia suburb, then went to Boston University for college to study marine science with a minor in Biology. After college I had neither a partner nor a dog, so I figured it would be a good time to move far far away. For a semester, I worked for a study abroad program for a semester in Dresden, Germany, translating German to English and visa versa for American students. Then I moved to Berlin, Germany and worked for a lab at the Max Delbrück center for molecular medicine. I worked on diabetes research using obese mice for a year, then started graduate school. I got my Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut studying the relationship between Hawaiian Bobtail Squid and their glowing bacterial partner, Vibrio fischeri. Now I run the science communication non-profit Skype a Scientist! I still do squid biology on the side, but It's not my primary job.
Here's some advice, that I think is good. It might work for you, it might not! If you read it and think "wow I do not want to do that", that is ok! We're all unique and that uniqueness makes our field stronger.
1) Read as much as you can about things you like, starting as soon as you can.
2) Ask people questions when you have one. People generally love talking about their work- don't be shy!
3) Get involved in what you love as early as you can. If you're landlocked but you know you want to do animal research, get a summer job working with animals. Working at a pet store, dog walking, whatever. Getting good at working with animals early is great.
4) This one is specific to marine biology. Learn plumbing. This is not a piece of advice you'll get a lot but WOW there's a lot of plumbing involved in marine biology, especially when you keep animals in the lab. Pay attention when your mechanic/parents/whoever are using tools. Having practical handy skills is SO useful and make sure when you're trying to get hired that the PI (person running the lab, the professor), KNOWS how useful and handy you are. That is seriously so valuable! Boating skills are also useful but not many people have boats just lying around. Who has a boat? Not me! Maybe you do. If you do, you better learn how to drive it. That's a useful skill right there!
I often get asked for career advice, and here's the thing: any time anyone gives you career advice, please remember that oftentimes, they tell you what worked for THEM! There are so many paths a person could take to become a marine biologist, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend the one I took! It worked out, but is it the best? Probably not. Would it work for you? Maybe? Hard to say!
That being said, here's my path:
I went to public high school in a Philadelphia suburb, then went to Boston University for college to study marine science with a minor in Biology. After college I had neither a partner nor a dog, so I figured it would be a good time to move far far away. For a semester, I worked for a study abroad program for a semester in Dresden, Germany, translating German to English and visa versa for American students. Then I moved to Berlin, Germany and worked for a lab at the Max Delbrück center for molecular medicine. I worked on diabetes research using obese mice for a year, then started graduate school. I got my Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut studying the relationship between Hawaiian Bobtail Squid and their glowing bacterial partner, Vibrio fischeri. Now I run the science communication non-profit Skype a Scientist! I still do squid biology on the side, but It's not my primary job.
Here's some advice, that I think is good. It might work for you, it might not! If you read it and think "wow I do not want to do that", that is ok! We're all unique and that uniqueness makes our field stronger.
1) Read as much as you can about things you like, starting as soon as you can.
2) Ask people questions when you have one. People generally love talking about their work- don't be shy!
3) Get involved in what you love as early as you can. If you're landlocked but you know you want to do animal research, get a summer job working with animals. Working at a pet store, dog walking, whatever. Getting good at working with animals early is great.
4) This one is specific to marine biology. Learn plumbing. This is not a piece of advice you'll get a lot but WOW there's a lot of plumbing involved in marine biology, especially when you keep animals in the lab. Pay attention when your mechanic/parents/whoever are using tools. Having practical handy skills is SO useful and make sure when you're trying to get hired that the PI (person running the lab, the professor), KNOWS how useful and handy you are. That is seriously so valuable! Boating skills are also useful but not many people have boats just lying around. Who has a boat? Not me! Maybe you do. If you do, you better learn how to drive it. That's a useful skill right there!