Hi, A question about education.

[Mark Daffin]

Hello All,

My names Mark, I'm 23, I have been a member of the BTS for a few years now but haven't been able to really contribute up until now due to ill health.
I originally had a collection of around 50 spiders but had to give everything up when I was struck down by a mystery illness and confined to bed.
As you can guess everything went on hold as I was prodded and poked for about a year to confirm what was wrong with me Anyway, after a stay in hospital and every test under the sun, I have been diagnosed with a non-specific form of inflammatory arthritis.
I'm on medication now and receiving hydrotherapy twice a week with the goal of getting me back on my feet.
Once the medication levels are right I should be able to get back to some sort of normality, so now I wish to start thinking about education.
I have 5 tarantulas back in my life (thanks to Lee at the spider shop for selling me the beautiful T's) and have decided that my career lies somewhere in the Tarantula field.
After all the waffle (sorry for boring you with stuff about me), here is my Tarantula related question:

What should I be looking at studying to go into the Aracnological field?
Zoology, Life science etc? I'm a bit lost.
Obviously I cant attend a University in person yet but I can study long distance, Open Uni etc, to get knowledge under my belt to prepare me for Uni and a degree.

I hope to start contributing more to the forums now I am a little better and hopefully attend a few meetings / shows.
Thanks for reading such a mammoth and boring post and I hope I have posted in the right forum.

Thanks once again

Mark

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Mark,
From what I can gather qualifications in Biology or Entomology would be the way forward. To tell the truth I wouldn't mind knowing a few more details on this myself

[Chris Dadswell]

anybody???

Hi Mark
im the same age and been thinking down the same lines not for a job just for fun an open uni course or something pls someone must know????

[Jay Howdle]

Try your local Agricultural college.
My son is 9 and has just applied for a home study invertabrates course which covers all bugs & arachnids.

[Mark Pajak]

Work Experience

I'd recommend spending as much free time as you can afford doing voluntary work for science based organisations - If you stick at it they may offer you a job without the necassary qualifications.

[wesley flower]

your storey is much the same as mine sir.........i am also 23 and when i was 16 i was taken very poorly....had to get rid of the spider collection and all uni ambition went out the window.....but i am also back!......i have been reading research papers and alike and am doing some active research into spider behaviour etc
so it can be done......and i wish you well
kindest regards
wesley

[James Box]

hey Mark, sounds like really rough times, but glad you're improving and getting your life back!
good luck with your studies when you find out your best options!

[Mark Daffin]

Thanks for the kind words and advice, I'll keep everyone posted on any info I find.

Mark

[alex smith]

studies

Hi Mark-glad your on the mend, well i went to uni and studied environmental science, in this time i learned i could have studied zoology also-(and wish i had) these are very broad subject areas and designed to give you a good all round grounding in the life sciences. Degree level is so transferable, however it's not until you move onto phd/masters that you get to specialise and then you could choose something as specific as arachnology.Good advice about the voluntry work although i wouldnt hold your breath for them giving you a full time paid position unless you were very lucky-these positions are very much saught after and competition is feirce.If you were applying for a job they would generaly expect at least three years relavent voluntry experiance, -good thing is you could fit this in with your studies if you are organised.I spent three years on a dragonfly sanctuary/bittern watch point on the Lee Valley, North London-brilliant.Hope i havent put you off!! all the best.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... What should I be looking at studying to go into the arachnological field? Zoology, Life science etc? I'm a bit lost. ...

Mark and All -

First, there is no future in arachnology. I quote Dr. Robert Gale Breene III: "No jobs for arachnologists. Never were. Never will be." The byline for arachnologists is "Do you want fries with that?"

Having said that, there are a very few professional arachnologists in this world, but those jobs are already taken and you don't have the chances of an ice cube in Hell of getting one them.

However, that doesn't mean that you still can't study or do research with arachnids. You need to get into one of the other biological sciences and then just coincidentally pick a project for which tarantulas, scorpions or some other arachnid is the best subject animal. You can find out who's doing this kind of research by finding a big university library and reading current issues of the bulletins of the British Arachnological Society, the American Arachnological Society and any others you can locate. In fact, you might become members of them so you automatically receive their publications.

The major problems in your life are your age (and presumed lack of education and training) and your current health problems. You might have been able to overcome either one of those by itself with enough hard work and dedication, but together they're going to be an almost insurmountable obstacle. Sorry. Life dealt you a bad hand.

Because I'm only familiar with the North American education system I can only tell you how to do it here. I'm given to understand that the British education experience is a little different, so you'll have to make adjustments.

The best way to do this is to visit the biology, zoology or entomology departments of any close universities and ask questions. Don't just make an appointment with some counselor. Go to the biology, zoology and entomology buildings and walk the halls. Go into interesting labs and speak with the lab technicians and grad students who are already there, tell them what you want and ask them for advice. You have no idea what a lunch in a local pub or café will do to loosen a tongue! This will give you your bearings ... tell you how to approach the problem.

I would suggest that you pursue the best education you can, given your current conditions, but always try to move towards a career in the biological sciences. That may require going back to high school or taking remedial college classes to bring yourself up to speed. Then you need to take a full fledged, undergraduate college level, biology curriculum. This will acquaint you with the field and all its major divisions, helping you to decide which area is best for you.

While you're doing this you need to become friends with one or more college professors who are doing research in a field you think you'd be interested in; and you need to convince them that you'd make a good graduate student. The surest way to accomplish this is to start working in their labs as a volunteer test-tube-and-bottle-washer or summer student, then wheedle your way into helping the grad students with their work. Finally, after you've begun to prove yourself, do your level best to graduate to doing your own elementary, full fledged experiments.

At the appropriate time (timing is everything), after you're fairly assured of gaining your undergraduate degree, you broach the question, "Can I become one of your grad students?" Your prof will then pull whatever strings are necessary to get you admitted and find funding for you. An important point here: You can't do this by yourself. You need a prof who knows the system and wants you as a student. Suck up to him/her. They're your ladder to success!

Depending on the field of interest, a masters degree will take 2 to 4 years. A PhD will require another 3 to 6 years. If you're really, Really, REALLY, REALLY bright you can meld them together and get out of grad school in 4 or 6 years.

At any point in this schedule, if conditions necessitate, you can drop out and maybe get a job working as a lab assistant in someone's lab. This way you will still be able to be an important part in serious scientific work without all the alphabet soup after your name. And, the pay is almost equivalent to the prof's! Plus, you don't have to put up with all the political stuff he has to endure.

Hope you get better soon, and I wish you the best of luck in your new career.

Nose to the grindstone! Shoulder to the wheel! Heave! Ho! Heave! Ho!

[Mark Pajak]

I just found out today that I have been offered a job as documentation assistant for the Natural History department of Bristol City Museum. I need to vent some of my excitement so this seemed like a good place to do it!

I had been volunteering there on and off for over two years, whilst looking for and doing other Jobs, so voluntary work does pay off! Admittedly I do have a Zoology degree, and I can't help but feel incredibly lucky that my career has turned towards the scientific side and I'll get to put into practise all of the skills that I have tried so hard to develop in the absence of any kind of paid work.

Apart from being incredibly excited and in need of a good booze or two, I think this is an approprate place to say that any step in a scientific/ zoological direction is a good one, even if it is just doing data entry just one day a week. A few years ago I was in complete dispair that I was never going to find employment doing what I love - thats why I started volunteering. In the job interview most of the things we talked about were the skills I'd learnt in voluntary positions (rather than in a call centre!).

So yeah bvasically thats it.... Volunteer! oh and dont forget that all skills are transferable - you just have to convince your interviewers that.

Woo hoo!

[alex smith]

Congratulations Mark and well done.Go ahead and prove me wrong!!Well you did have the degree already.I always had hoped my voluntry organisation would offer me a paid position-but i didnt have my degree.I tell you what though mate couldnt agree with you more-voluntry work is the business.Good on ya and enjoy that sweet pint of success.

[Elaine Ross]

Congratulations on the job Mark. You worked hard to get there so enjoy

Elaine

[PAUL_JAXON]

BRAVO MARK, Good for you.

Paul

[James Box]

congrats Mark! that's great!