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Paleontologist Interview Questions


BryceCold

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I have to do this for my school paper, and I need some answers from paleontologists.

1) Do you like working as a paleontologist?

2) What are the pros and cons of being a paleontologist?

3) How does a typical day at work look like?

4) How much college/specialized training is required?

5) What kind of on the job training did you receive?

6) What is the general salary range?

7) How does a person get promoted in this career?

8) What classes will be helpful to get me into this career?

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1) YES (technically Paleobotanist)

2) Pro - I get to do what I love to do for living

Con - Not a whole lot of money, and pretty much zero respect from people who don't care for fossils (99% of Californias in my experience)

3) Take my specimens out of the cabinet, fire up the microscope, fire up computer, and perform research like there's no tomorrow.

4) Many years if you want to be a "professional", but it only takes passion to collect fossils.

5) Hard to explain...amateur fossil hunter, then volunteer at a lab. Lots of years of looking at fossils.

6) Low...unless you score one of the few real prime jobs or know how to market yourself.

7) Conduct solid, important research that isn't a load of baloney.

8) Geology, everything about it. Also, as much biology related to the area you wish to study as you can stand. Once you know your way around both rocks and dead creatures you'll be well on your way. Writing classes are not a bad idea either, especially anything to do with composing scientific literature.

Good luck, and happy hunting.

Joe

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Dang... Joe's answers are spot on.. but here are my versions:

1) Yes, mostly (see #3)... technically I am a preparator, but I oiften tell people I am a paleontologist because it is so much easier, and folks all think I am one. Most folks don't know the dif b/w a paleontologist and a preparator... they all just work with fossils.

2) see Joe's answers, but I would say here in Wyomoing a lot more folks care about fossils... its almost a part of the culture here.

3) supervising prep lab volunteers and a lot of computer time, organizing this and that. Too much computer time for my liking, but I seem to have worked my way up to almost administration...

4)... for what I do not as much as for what Joe is doing. I have a bachelor's degree. And a lot of on the job training

5) a lot... and I learned a lot just form doing it at home... fairly well self taught. Part of my job is also Collections Manager... that was almost all OTJ training.

6) & 7) see Joe's answers

8) Geology and Biology, esp sedmantary geology and animal oreiented bio such as anatomy and evolution classes. Generally geology training is better for back-up career, because there are a lot of geology jopbs if you don't get that elusive paleo job...

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1) Do you like working as a paleontologist? I love working as a paleontologist, can't think of anything i would rather do with my life!

2) What are the pros and cons of being a paleontologist? The pros for me are that i get to fulfill a life long dream, get to meet lots of like minded individuals, travel and work outdoors, get to work with some rare and little known fossils. The cons are there are few jobs and lots of competition for the jobs there are, not the greatest pay, research can be tedious at times.

3) How does a typical day at work look like? Depends on the time of year, but it is usually some type of lab work or research. You can expect at least 10 hours of lab work for every hour of collection.

4) How much college/specialized training is required? This depends on the field you choose and how hard you work. I am still an undergraduate and will publish 3 research papers this year (hopefully if we can get finished). The real answer is none, anyone has the ability to read the same publications as a Ph.D and do a bit of research to understand them. However there is an expectation that only researchers with advanced degrees can be taken serious.

5) What kind of on the job training did you receive? I also work as a preparator, but I am self taught.

6) What is the general salary range? Low to 52,000 (the highest I have personally seen posted)

7) How does a person get promoted in this career? Hard work, personal promoting, great research that makes an impact, and reputation.

8) What classes will be helpful to get me into this career? As has been stated, Geology (sedimentology, mineralogy) is the most important, also biology (invertebrate, anatomy and physiology, whatever area you plan to study). I think Taphonomy is a very important class, field schools for Geology and even Archaeology.

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