Wildlife Management Degree

[bearslayer2829]

Fixing to be getting out if the Army on June 15th heading back to Tennessee and am thinking about going to school for a Bachelor's in Wildlife Management since I can't get any job offers. Figured I'd go to school and work my way to becoming a Game Warden. Any suggestions on schools or anything? From what I've looked up only 3 schools offer this program on Campus; Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, University of Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial in Harrogate.

 

[lowbudgetjunk]

My advice is to find a way to work in the field as you get your degree. Money is nice and experience will be priceless when applying. Which school? I don't know. I went to Auburn, but the theory always applies.

 

[wannabe]

idk were youd be wanting to do it, but my uncle has a degree in woldlife management and all kinds of other "wildlife" stuff, and one of my customers is a wildlife guy, talk to them both about it before and the customer guy is always telling me how many people in that industry there laying off and my uncle has never been able to get a job.. not trying to rain on your parade just saying. id hate for you to spend that much $ and not be able to find a job.

 

[bearslayer2829]

My advice is to find a way to work in the field as you get your degree. Money is nice and experience will be priceless when applying. Which school? I don't know. I went to Auburn, but the theory always applies.

The School that i'm looking at which is Lincoln Memorial helps you with getting experience while going to school.

idk were youd be wanting to do it, but my uncle has a degree in woldlife management and all kinds of other "wildlife" stuff, and one of my customers is a wildlife guy, talk to them both about it before and the customer guy is always telling me how many people in that industry there laying off and my uncle has never been able to get a job.. not trying to rain on your parade just saying. id hate for you to spend that much $ and not be able to find a job.

Is this in Tennessee or where? See I would get all my school paid for and approximately $1,200 to go to school per month so I wouldn't be out of pocket.

 

[wannabe]

alabama.

 

[bearslayer2829]

I'll have 7 years active duty and 3 years as a Military Police in the National Guard as well.

 

[ranger11]

idk were youd be wanting to do it, but my uncle has a degree in woldlife management and all kinds of other "wildlife" stuff, and one of my customers is a wildlife guy, talk to them both about it before and the customer guy is always telling me how many people in that industry there laying off and my uncle has never been able to get a job.. not trying to rain on your parade just saying. id hate for you to spend that much $ and not be able to find a job.

Same in Ga..

But with you police exp. you have a leg up on the guys I know. And from my research law enforcement is what is needed to be the man in green.. However there are jobs that are with game and fish but not enforcement side.

 

[cheroking]

Also not to rain on ur parade but wildlife jobs are very hard to come by. I am a forestry grad from au and we go to school with the wildlifers. over half of the graduates come out of school with a job unrelated to wildlife especially in this economy. My advice is to chose another field and make enough money to have a good hunting lease.

 

[bearslayer2829]

Not raining on my parade, I ask this so I don't end up wasting my time with 4 years of college that is either going to help or not.

 

[TBItoy]

I know a bunch of people with wildlife degrees (I went to TTU). Getting an actual wildlife/fish & game job is very difficult unless you want to move out west. Your military exp will help,

 

[The Luke]

Re: Re: Wildlife Management Degree

Knew a guy that graduated with that degree from Tennessee tech. He got a job right out of school at $10hr. Company closed a yr later. He spent almost two years trying to find a job. Finally settled on one in Florida making $11.50/hr with no benefits.

 

[Jcampbell54]

It's a hard career to get into. I'm a plant and soil science major, and my ultimate goal is to be a warden. Most of the time they will accept a degree in a similar field. As in ag. Plus with pursuing a degree with a wider spectrum such as I am. There is a more abundance of jobs. Agriculture jobs are not going any where.


Sent from the mans IPhone.

 

[Mongo44]

I worked for US Fish and Wildlife for 4 years. The office I was located was in the same town as TTU, which is regarded as a top notch wildlife school. Many of my wildlife friends ended up working dead end tech jobs for $8 - 10 an hour and are typically seasonal. We had students come in daily and ask about work/internships and we put em down as volunteers and worked em to death for free. Volunteer to help other students and volunteer with the local and fed agencies to get the facetime with managers and the practical experience. Also take classes in GIS/mapping as its a core component to most positions these days.

That being said, your military experience will get you a federal job. It was not uncommon to see applicants with a basic degree and military experience get jobs over PhD grads with work experience. Its just how it was. Your mil police experience could land you a federal wildlife enforcement officer job - those are sweet gigs. One of my buddies has this job and he lives in Key West and all he does is drive a boat, dive and shoot guns...

If you're not set on being a warden but just interested in the wildlife field, get a degree that covers both wildlife and aquatics. Often times the feds will advertise a basic biologist job with 3 diff listings - Wildlife bio, aquatic bio and wildlife/aquatic management bio. With a degree that covers both you can apply under all 3 positions instead of just 1. Its a trick that most people dont know and dont realize until after they graduate...

PM me and I will give you the rundown from both the public and private side of environmental/biological work.

 

[nathanl_01]

I had a friend graduate TTU last December with a Wildlife Management Degree and he still hasn't found a job.

 

[bearslayer2829]

Yeah doubt i'll end up going, to much negative outcome for me to risk spending 4 years in school for and not being able to get a job.

 

[InDaShop]

Yeah doubt i'll end up going, to much negative outcome for me to risk spending 4 years in school for and not being able to get a job.

listen, if you can afford college do it!
After your 1st job nobody cares what your degree is in, They just care that you got one. I.E. have proven you have the ability to learn.

I typed something earlier probably way more watered down but here you go.


I have a degree in Agriculture, I'm in Energy. Why? Cause Energy pays 3x's what Ag was paying now its even more. My group is made up of people from all different backgrounds. Former NFL Quarterback, Former Communications Officer on the USS Kitty Hawk, Mechanical Engineer, Rice U. track athlete that washed out and finished an accounting degree at a Juco, Stanford Business School, OU meterologist. I have a grip of direct reports and honestly can only think of a couples actual degrees, but I know where they all went to school.

I dont love my job either, I mean seriously who loves their job really??? It should be a means to an end, not the damn end. If they do they are lying to themselves because they dont make **** at it enough to afford anything else.

The guys I know that have been going offshore the past few years have been killing it. If I didnt have a family I'd be doing the same. 60 days on, 60 days off all over the world. Travel days dont count on your off time. You cant spend money when you are in the middle of the South China Sea.
Ask any of them if they love their job, you'll get a resounding "**** NO!" but ask about their paycheck and time off??? They tuck tale. Cause they all got new houses, new trucks, new harleys, etc...

Wildlife Management, Secondary Ed., Turf Management, Journalism, anything that says Arts in the Degree title. Sure you may really end up loving what you do, you better its all your going to do from here on out.
I think too many people fall into their college path out of not doing any research what so ever. What jobs are out there? (you are clearly doing this) Earning potential? Career Path? 5 years down the road? 10 years down the road? Retirement?
Look at industries that have weathered decades of growth. Look at industries that bring it with returns to Wall Street. Those are the businesses that if they make money people continue to put money into and thus jobs stay secure if not grow.

I'm not knocking anyone doing any single job, the world needs Dr's as much as it needs ditch diggers. But if you can, and have the chance to better yourself up the food chain you had better do it cause its a tough ****ing world we are living in, and it aint getting easier.

 

[B.DRAKE]

If you are open to options about what to go to school for, look at Machining or Maitenence and even Robotics. I feel like there will always be a future in manufacturing or anything like that, just may have to move around and not stay in one place unless you find that certain place you like and love working there!

I been in CNCmachining for about 9 years and i cant complain about it its been lretty good to me, but I also have had several different jobs til the job I have now because I was gaining experience and goin where the money is! I will tell ya though experience is the name of the game :****:

 

[JW79]

In terms of schools, UT Knoxville's Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries program is one of the best in my opinion. I loved it. A lot of the professors work closely with professionals within the field and I got a lot of face time meeting and talking with people in the field. The program also is really geared toward gaining you experience. The spring semester of your junior year is called a "spring camp" semester and the entire semester is spent traveling all over the southeast to different WMA's and actually performing work with professionals in the field. It gave me a real understanding of what to expect in the line of work. Knoxville is concentrated more on the Forestry and Wildlife side than Fisheries but there's some course options for everything if you want to take them.

Now saying this, when I graduated in 2007 the only work available was out of state. The economy was in a down turn and I noticed that if I wanted to stay in state, I wasn't going to have many options. I didn't want to waste my degree so I decided to go for a masters and broaden my chances at a job so I got a masters in general biology with a aquatics concentration. I ended up getting pretty lucky and got a pretty well paying job doing biological sampling for a local governments EPA permit. I love my job. If you can get one, you'll never leave it and will be worth the effort. You really need a masters to compete anyway cause there's so many people with these degrees and not enough jobs to go around. I also worked my ass off in school, got top grades, volunteered with state, federal and private agencies to get experience, this is a MUST in my opinion to be succesful in the field. Oh yeah, 21 people were in my graduating class in 07 and I think about 5 of us have jobs in the field and most of them make about $12/hour. I know people who work for TWRA here in Tn and they say it's next to impossible to get a job doing anything besides law enforcement within the agency. But that sounds like what you're after so I would say you might have a pretty good chance. Feel free to PM me as well and I'll give you my number if you want. I have been through it and don't mind lending some suggestions.

 

[nathanl_01]

Look up the Engineering Technology Dept at TTU. Def interesting for the hands on type of person. Mostly deals with manufacturing, but has a wide range of job opportunities. From CNC, Robotics, Maintenance, Foundry, Engineering, Machining, Etc.

 

[bearslayer2829]

Re: Re: Wildlife Management Degree

I just had an interview with waste management in Clinton, TN starting out at $18 an hour and a truck driving job offer. Still not sure if I should turn them both down and go for the degree or just settle with one of them jobs. With the economy the way it is I'm not sure turning down a job would be a safe move on my part.