Different Careers in Biology

Careers in Biology Training in biology provides biology majors with a wide variety of potential career options. The choice of potential careers is wide, even within a specific area of biology. Further, biologists often fulfill a large number of roles even within one career track. The choice of potential employers is wide, and includes federal and government agencies, as well as agriculture and pharmaceuticals, and other private and public industries. In addition, the amount of education required depends largely upon a specific career choice.

Choosing a career in biology is about matching a wide number of factors, including personal ethics, salary, and personal interests. Within biology itself, there is a wide diversity of potential careers that exists even within fields that are seemingly small. Winter and Belikoff note, "The classification of biologists as botanists, zoologists, or microbiologists gives little hint of the wide variety of biological disciplines that exist. For example, a microbiologist whose primary interests involve bacteriology may perform very different duties from those carried out by a microbiologist working in virology" (4).

The American Institute of Biological Sciences notes that biology careers tend to fall into four main areas of specialization. These are: 1) research, 2) health care, 3) the great outdoors, and 4) education. Within the research area, most jobs are as research biologists. These researchers learn how living systems work, and can include research scientists at a university or private institution like a pharmaceutical company. Further, many research assistants such as laboratory technicians are needed in the research field. Health care is a field sometimes overlooked by biology majors.

Doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and other medical personnel play an important role in the health of individuals. Some health care professionals work in administration and public education as well as epidemiology (Snyder). Horticulturists, zookeepers, and wildlife biologists work in the great outdoors. Private companies as well as federal and state governments and the not-for-profit conservation sector are common employers (Snyder). Education is also a rewarding field for biology majors. While many educators work within primary and secondary schools and colleges, museums, zoos and nature centers also employ educators (Snyder).

Biologists often fulfill a large number of roles within a research and teaching career. Winter and Belikoff note, "During a lifetime career, a bioscientist may engage in teaching, research, administration, service work, or industrialized production" (8). The choice of employers within the field of biology is diverse. Note Winter and Belinkoff, "Your employer may be an educational institution, government installation, private research foundation, zoo, botanical garden, aquarium, arboretum, natural history museum, or an astonishingly wide variety of industrial or business concerns" (6).

Choosing a final career is a difficult and often seemingly final choice. One way to ease fears about choosing the wrong career may to be to try to find out as much as possible about that career before choosing a final specialty. This can include job shadowing and taking part in mentorship programs. Winter and Belikoff suggest that "test driving" a career in biology may be a useful exercise before launching a final career. There are a number of factors that can influence career choices for biology majors.

For example, Biologists often face a number of ethical concerns that may drive their career choices (Winter and Belikoff). In addition, salary is an important consideration when choosing a specific job within the field of biology (Winter and Belikoff). The amount of training required varies greatly with the job. For example, research scientists at major universities often need a PhD, in addition to years of postdoctoral research experience, while doctors will require a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree.

Biology teachers often get a teaching certificate as well as a biology degree, while science journalists have a degree in journalism. Medical assistants and veterinary technicians only need a two-year college degree (Snyder). An important trend within the current workplace is the appearance of careers that marry several skills within biology, or even combine biology and non-science skills. For example, many new jobs in biology ask for cross-disciplinary training, so taking a variety of courses is a useful strategy.

Many careers that involve the combination of science and non-science skills can be very rewarding. Technical writing pays well and combines English and science skills. Medical and scientific illustration.