Volunteer Research Assistant Job Description

How to Start in Ecology

You don't necessarily need a college degree, it might help,but you really just have to find a job where you can get some field experience under your belt  and then work up within the company. Probably the easiest way to do it.

How I Became a Research Assistant 

Personally, I got a college degree at Eckerd College, which is a local school in Florida, and I gained some research experience studying black skimmers, which is a kind of bird there.

One seasonal tech job in Oregon, where I was listening for birds and doing other research, like population surveys, and then I applied for this internship and worked my way up to the research assistant level.

Research Assistant Requirements

This position really requires that you're detail oriented for things like data entry, but also able to be super outdoorsy or pay attention to little behavioral issues and kind of be okay with waking up at sunrise and whacking through all of that mess that’s really fun, stuff like that. So it really requires that you wear a lof of different hats. I love it.

Average Day

Currently what my average week looks like is waking up at sunrise, coming to the office, going out in our ATVs into this shrub. And then going to the three territories of different Florida scrub jays, which is the species that I study, and trying to find their nests. Continue monitoring the nests that we do find throughout the year and just generally collecting demography information on them, and it is super fun.

Pros and Cons of a Field Research Assistant

Some of the pros of this job are that I get to spend all of my mornings in nature, which is beautiful and awesome, and I get to learn so much about the ecosystem that I'm in.

And I also just love the people that I work with. I love the community here at the biological station. Some of the cons are that when you're having a rough morning in the field, you'll really just kind of wish you had an office job. So it's definitely not all peaches and roses being in nature every day.

Advice From an Expert

I would just recommend getting field experience early on, looking for those seasonal tech jobs and a lot of local places that  do bird banding. You can reach out to them, and they're always accepting volunteers. That's a great experience to get.

Things to Know

Looking back, I do wish I had known how exhausting the job can be, because it's fun and the highs are so high, but the lows can be low and frustrating. But at the end of the day, I love my job and I love what I do, so it makes it all worth it.