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Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!
jstncoffman
Nothing happens overnight in this hobby
Hello and welcome
BighohoReef
A reefer in need is a friend indeed!
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Welcome to Reef2Reef! Let's see the tank! Looking forward to see where your reefing adventure takes you!
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Welcome to the team
alimac122
Well-Known Member
Okay, so hello! Welcome to this wonderful form officially.
Backstory: when I was 7 years old I went to the beach for the first time (from AR) and I fell in love. Since the age of 7 I never stopped learning about the ocean, and did as much as I could in the early years to prepare myself to do my dream job. When I was a senior in HS I got accepted to Miami. But, no scholarship and the 50k/yr tuition was not gonna fly for my family. So I had to change gears and instead of getting a BS in marine bio, I stayed in state and got a BS in environmental science. I did 4 years of ecology research in streams in Arkansas. Mostly macroinvertebrate studies. I loved my research.
About 6 months after graduation and not getting much bite in the job opportunity world, I finally did it. I was offered a part time chemist position at an aquarium. I worked that part time job for 6 months and bartended the other part time before I was offered a full time position at the aquarium as a marine biologist. For the first two years I LOVED what I did. Still to this day, it was the absolute most gratifying job I have ever done to date. I miss is all the time (that's partly why i'm here and have my own tank at home). However, the second two years were awful. Its a dark world out there, and once upper management gets a bad taste in their mouth, they can be out for blood. -- I have to note that I personally had some mess ups but upper management at this specific place is absolutely awful. Since I have left turnover has been non stop and favoritism is at an all time peak.
This job is not easy by any means. Labor intensive, long hours, heart breaks when your favorite animals have to be put down, and overall just a very mentally and physically demanding job. I loved every bit of it, but looking forward and imagining my future and what I want out of life, I was not able to see myself doing this job forever. Not with the income I was receiving and the life I wanted for my future family.
I made a promise to myself that I would look for a replacement job for 1 year before "giving up" and going back to school. Well, many first round interviews, some second and third, but non job offers later-- a year passed. I quit. It was the scariest thing I had ever done in my life.
Now, I am one year away from getting my masters in environmental engineering. I get paid to do research, with a tuition waiver, and I have a pretty solid guarantee at a 6 figure income when I graduate, wherever I want to go.
My goal is to combine the experience and degrees and to land a coastal restoration job. Work on improving coastal city development with also protecting the estuaries and marshes to reduce the negative impacts of flooding in the coastal communities.
So, not a success story in the sense of I live the life of a marine biologist. But-- my story is still being written and the path that life has taken me, I am very proud of. I have made some insanely bold moves in my life (moving to a different state for a part time job & quitting my full time job to go back to school). So far, things have paid off. I've never seen a salary of over 35k/yr. But after "struggling" for 6 years, I KNOW things are about to pay off. Some people make the big bucks right out of the gates, some dont ever see the big bucks. But my vision and my dream I know it will happen soon.
My advice to you, is to always keep your doors open. Keep an open mind to this thing called life. Make bold moves, and don't forget to enjoy the ride.
Backstory: when I was 7 years old I went to the beach for the first time (from AR) and I fell in love. Since the age of 7 I never stopped learning about the ocean, and did as much as I could in the early years to prepare myself to do my dream job. When I was a senior in HS I got accepted to Miami. But, no scholarship and the 50k/yr tuition was not gonna fly for my family. So I had to change gears and instead of getting a BS in marine bio, I stayed in state and got a BS in environmental science. I did 4 years of ecology research in streams in Arkansas. Mostly macroinvertebrate studies. I loved my research.
About 6 months after graduation and not getting much bite in the job opportunity world, I finally did it. I was offered a part time chemist position at an aquarium. I worked that part time job for 6 months and bartended the other part time before I was offered a full time position at the aquarium as a marine biologist. For the first two years I LOVED what I did. Still to this day, it was the absolute most gratifying job I have ever done to date. I miss is all the time (that's partly why i'm here and have my own tank at home). However, the second two years were awful. Its a dark world out there, and once upper management gets a bad taste in their mouth, they can be out for blood. -- I have to note that I personally had some mess ups but upper management at this specific place is absolutely awful. Since I have left turnover has been non stop and favoritism is at an all time peak.
This job is not easy by any means. Labor intensive, long hours, heart breaks when your favorite animals have to be put down, and overall just a very mentally and physically demanding job. I loved every bit of it, but looking forward and imagining my future and what I want out of life, I was not able to see myself doing this job forever. Not with the income I was receiving and the life I wanted for my future family.
I made a promise to myself that I would look for a replacement job for 1 year before "giving up" and going back to school. Well, many first round interviews, some second and third, but non job offers later-- a year passed. I quit. It was the scariest thing I had ever done in my life.
Now, I am one year away from getting my masters in environmental engineering. I get paid to do research, with a tuition waiver, and I have a pretty solid guarantee at a 6 figure income when I graduate, wherever I want to go.
My goal is to combine the experience and degrees and to land a coastal restoration job. Work on improving coastal city development with also protecting the estuaries and marshes to reduce the negative impacts of flooding in the coastal communities.
So, not a success story in the sense of I live the life of a marine biologist. But-- my story is still being written and the path that life has taken me, I am very proud of. I have made some insanely bold moves in my life (moving to a different state for a part time job & quitting my full time job to go back to school). So far, things have paid off. I've never seen a salary of over 35k/yr. But after "struggling" for 6 years, I KNOW things are about to pay off. Some people make the big bucks right out of the gates, some dont ever see the big bucks. But my vision and my dream I know it will happen soon.
My advice to you, is to always keep your doors open. Keep an open mind to this thing called life. Make bold moves, and don't forget to enjoy the ride.
fishguy242
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well stated!!!Okay, so hello! Welcome to this wonderful form officially.
Backstory: when I was 7 years old I went to the beach for the first time (from AR) and I fell in love. Since the age of 7 I never stopped learning about the ocean, and did as much as I could in the early years to prepare myself to do my dream job. When I was a senior in HS I got accepted to Miami. But, no scholarship and the 50k/yr tuition was not gonna fly for my family. So I had to change gears and instead of getting a crap in marine bio, I stayed in state and got a crap in environmental science. I did 4 years of ecology research in streams in Arkansas. Mostly macroinvertebrate studies. I loved my research.
About 6 months after graduation and not getting much bite in the job opportunity world, I finally did it. I was offered a part time chemist position at an aquarium. I worked that part time job for 6 months and bartended the other part time before I was offered a full time position at the aquarium as a marine biologist. For the first two years I LOVED what I did. Still to this day, it was the absolute most gratifying job I have ever done to date. I miss is all the time (that's partly why i'm here and have my own tank at home). However, the second two years were awful. Its a dark world out there, and once upper management gets a bad taste in their mouth, they can be out for blood. -- I have to note that I personally had some mess ups but upper management at this specific place is absolutely awful. Since I have left turnover has been non stop and favoritism is at an all time peak.
This job is not easy by any means. Labor intensive, long hours, heart breaks when your favorite animals have to be put down, and overall just a very mentally and physically demanding job. I loved every bit of it, but looking forward and imagining my future and what I want out of life, I was not able to see myself doing this job forever. Not with the income I was receiving and the life I wanted for my future family.
I made a promise to myself that I would look for a replacement job for 1 year before "giving up" and going back to school. Well, many first round interviews, some second and third, but non job offers later-- a year passed. I quit. It was the scariest thing I had ever done in my life.
Now, I am one year away from getting my masters in environmental engineering. I get paid to do research, with a tuition waiver, and I have a pretty solid guarantee at a 6 figure income when I graduate, wherever I want to go.
My goal is to combine the experience and degrees and to land a coastal restoration job. Work on improving coastal city development with also protecting the estuaries and marshes to reduce the negative impacts of flooding in the coastal communities.
So, not a success story in the sense of I live the life of a marine biologist. But-- my story is still being written and the path that life has taken me, I am very proud of. I have made some insanely bold moves in my life (moving to a different state for a part time job & quitting my full time job to go back to school). So far, things have paid off. I've never seen a salary of over 35k/yr. But after "struggling" for 6 years, I KNOW things are about to pay off. Some people make the big bucks right out of the gates, some dont ever see the big bucks. But my vision and my dream I know it will happen soon.
My advice to you, is to always keep your doors open. Keep an open mind to this thing called life. Make bold moves, and don't forget to enjoy the ride.
Welcome to Reef2Reef! Not a marine Biologist, just a regular one but I have experience in public aquariums with saltwater/Quarantine. Happy to talk any time.
