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It pays to get paid: Factors influencing wildlife‐related employment success

Supporting Files


Details

  • Journal Title:
    Wildlife Society Bulletin
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
  • Description:
    Individuals who are interested in wildlife-related careers take unpaid positions to gain experience and remain competitive in the job market. However, unpaid positions may not provide the same training, skills acquisition, or long-term success as paid positions. We surveyed 796 graduates of wildlife-related bachelor's degree programs from accredited U.S. universities to assess how experiences and skills gained in paid and unpaid positions affected long-term employment or educational success. We found that respondents with more paid employment experience were more likely to obtain full-time employment in a wildlife-related field than those who had worked more unpaid positions. Further, respondents reported gaining more skills associated with long-term success from paid positions than unpaid positions. Our results highlight the importance of both paid work and experiences that provide valuable skills training for success in wildlife-related fields. We urge wildlife-related employers to offer more paid positions in lieu of unpaid opportunities. We further suggest that job-seeking, early-career scientists carefully consider the skills they will gain from particular jobs, and critically scrutinize the potential for long-term benefits before accepting an unpaid position.
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Wildlife Society Bulletin, 46(1)
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    2328-5540 ; 2328-5540
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    Wiley
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Rights Information:
    Other
  • Compliance:
    Submitted
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha256:77efc0173237f4813acadf720b2103a872b6e611e3f837ecc94e4d91bda4da70
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 671.52 KB ]
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