What a challenge! How can biology instructors provide accurate guidance on preparing for a career in biology when it is the most diverse and rapidly changing of all the scientific fields?
Training in biology prepares an individual for a very large number of occupations. Consider the following, which represent less than 10% of the identified occupational categories related to life science: agronomy, biophysics, developmental biology, environmental law, forensic entomology, forestry, genetic counseling, immunology, medical practice, molecular biology, neurobiology, secondary school teaching, systematics, veterinary medicine. Some of these deal exclusively with molecules and cells, others concern entire ecosystems; some involve daily interaction with dozens or hundreds of people, others can be done in complete isolation; some are narrowly specific, others require knowledge far beyond science.
A student expressing general interest in "biology" is at the threshold of a bewildering array of career options. That student must be given a broad enough training, beginning at the secondary school level, to recognize this diversity and to begin matching interests, skills, and personality with the requirements of the various occupations. At the college level, a student should take a spectrum of biologically oriented courses and add courses in other sciences and mathematics. Encourage the student to take advantage of internships or undergraduate research programs, to provide a realistic view of possible careers.
Flexibility appears to be a key trait for anyone entering the job market in the future. While the educational requirements for most fields of biology and medicine tend toward specialization, the actual jobs developing for the 21st century place a premium on adapting to change, moving into new settings, and combining diverse areas. For instance, a typical research project in the pharmaceutical industry lasts only a few years, after which a scientist might be asked to tackle an entirely different project. Or consider the biotechnology industry, where many research scientists find themselves moving into management positions and working with such topics as patent law and marketing.
Figure 1 Students interested in
biology careers should be encouraged to take a variety of science and math
courses.
Look for the Connections
In analyzing current job offerings, one is immediately struck by the number of positions that ask for expertise in two or more areas. Look at these occupations, gleaned from the "Positions Open" section of a recent issue of Science, the weekly journal that serves as a good source of information on jobs in biology: evolutionary ecology, genetic toxicology, environmental microbiology, molecular systematics, bioinformatics. Successful applicants will have had cross-disciplinary training and will be working on projects that were not feasible (or imagined) 30 years ago. A good start toward being ready for such jobs is to take the variety of courses typically available in a college biology major. Even the budding biochemist going through a chemistry major should try to fit in several diverse biology courses.
Some exciting careers involve combining biology with nonscience skills. Put together biology and English to become a technical writer or even a science fiction novelist. Combine biology and art to go into medical and scientific illustration. Link biology and history to become a historian of science or medicine. Work in both biology and religion/philosophy as a medical ethicist or bioethicist. Combine biology and psychology as a neuroscientist. Join biology and political science to carry out science policy studies or work as a patent lawyer in biotechnology. Try mixing biology with business to get into hospital administration and biotechnology administration. Some of these may involve obtaining double majors in college, a path increasingly taken.
Admirably, some students want a career that improves the lot of humanity. A number of fields in biology can provide this opportunity. Direct impact for good can be made in any area of medicine. The Peace Corps and a number of private foundations offer many opportunities to take skills in agriculture to developing nations. Pharmacologists working on the development of new antibiotics and vaccines can see the impact of their efforts, as can molecular geneticists working in areas such as gene therapy. Epidemiologists must be prepared to rush into isolated areas where disease has broken out. And there are the workers in conservation, ecology, and biosystematics who study the endangered rain forests and coral reefs.
