What is it you like most and least about this career?
#Urbanforestry #urban-forestry #forestry #environment #environmental-science #ecology #biology
2 answers
Gail’s Answer
Things is I like most about my career (I am a scientist that studies urban ecology, entomology, and horticulture):
1. Nature is amazing! I always learn new things.
2. Urban ecology is understudied, and so important in today's urbanized world. I like that urban ecology is interdisciplinary, and requires an understanding of history, sociology, landscape science, and ecology.
3. Teaching is fun, and I get great pleasure sharing my love of nature with students. I also do a lot of science outreach, in my position.
4. I have a lot of freedom to decide what to study.
What I don't lime:
1. I spend a lot of time answering emails, rather than doing science.
2. Budget cuts make it hard to do good science and science outreach.
3. It didn't bother me, but is important to note that it took me about 20 years (school and first jobs) until I made a good salary.
Gail recommends the following next steps:
Mona’s Answer
It is also a rapidly developing domain and so one has to be a constant learner to be able to keep up with the developments.
There is nothing not to like! But the bottleneck in execution usually lies in the trade-offs between economic development and environment degradation.