What to do.... What are you doing?

daisyscience

Heya,

Im a recently graduated botanist and trying to figure out what to do with the future. I have been considering a masters in environmental science or a PHd if can get a funded one but im just not sure what to do, im aware of a lot of the options that I have in Ireland but would love to hear, first hand, the experiences of people doing such courses out there.

So if your doing a masters or PHd in Ireland related to environmental science could you tell me where it is, do you think that the course is relevant to the present and do you think that its likely to increase your chances of getting a job when your finished??
Thanks!!

El Siglo

Hard one to call, I did an MSc in Environmental Science in TCD and I'm now doing a PhD in QUB in more or less the same type of thing. Jobs will be tough for the next few years, that goes without saying. It depends on what exact type of stuff you're interested in. If you want to go the conservation route, there's the biodiversity and conservation MSc in TCD as well. There's also a course in sustainable and green technologies in UCD (this kind of area will become pretty big in the future). It depends really on your particular interests, I did the environmental science one because I was interested in fluvial sediments and heavy metals pollution, but I knew bollocks about techniques or what even pollution was. Did the MSc, learned a few techniques that I'm building on even more with the PhD.

What I will say, having these skills are extremely transferable and doesn't necessarily mean that you'd have to stay in academia. I know that for example a load of people that are doing geostatistics can get jobs in the mining and oil industry as well as in remote sensing. That people with XRD experience can be employed in determining building stone aggregates and chemical tracers used in pharmaceutical drugs. That stable isotope mass spectrometry people can determine counterfeit cigarettes and drugs. It's having the skills as well as the ability to research that can really stand out on a cv.

daisyscience

Thanks for the info.
One of the PHds im hoping to hear back from is in QUB. Id love to get it. I found it strange that I was only supposed to write 250 words of a research proposal in my application though, asides from all the general info stuff about qualifications and all that. Well they did detail what the PHd would be about.

Fingers crossed anyway!! That I didnt get it wrong and mess it up that is!!!

El Siglo

daisyscience wrote: »

Thanks for the info.
One of the PHds im hoping to hear back from is in QUB. Id love to get it. I found it strange that I was only supposed to write 250 words of a research proposal in my application though, asides from all the general info stuff about qualifications and all that. Well they did detail what the PHd would be about.

Fingers crossed anyway!! That I didnt get it wrong and mess it up that is!!!

QUB is class so it is! Good luck with your application, I'm sure it'll go well. Is the PhD project in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology? Feel free to pm me any specific questions you have.

riffmongous

I did an MSc in meteorology, that counts as an environmental science right?

El Siglo

riffmongous wrote: »

I did an MSc in meteorology, that counts as an environmental science right?

It does indeed!:D

riffmongous

What is the maths content like in the other areas on environmental science? I remember a few people in my class being surprised by just how much maths was needed for met

daisyscience

El Siglo wrote: »

QUB is class so it is! Good luck with your application, I'm sure it'll go well. Is the PhD project in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology? Feel free to pm me any specific questions you have.

Im applying through Biological Science as thats more the side of it that im interested in. Ill definately get in touch if I come up with any questions, thanks!!

El Siglo

riffmongous wrote: »

What is the maths content like in the other areas on environmental science? I remember a few people in my class being surprised by just how much maths was needed for met

Not as much as met but still a manageable amount. There's a load of stats in all of the areas I've studied (forams and geochemistry). It's not that bad though and I'd say it'd be piss easy for a meteorologist to do ANCOVA, ANOVA, PCA, DCA etc... I came across a met PhD online one time from UCD, fucking hell that looked mental!

daisyscience wrote: »

Im applying through Biological Science as thats more the side of it that im interested in. Ill definately get in touch if I come up with any questions, thanks!!

No worries, there's only one interview but it's not too bad (<hour). Belfast is class! Good luck with it in any case!:pac:

riffmongous

Yeah it really does come as quite a shock just how much maths you need to study met, I think a lot of people only recognize the forecasting/synoptic side of things, but learning about Dynamical Meteorology and weather/climate models is very tough. And while maths wasn't my strongpoint at least I was used to it, I could imagine how difficult it would be for someone who just wanted to become a forecaster.

Those statistical methods you mentioned still look fairly advanced, do you know if much maths is studied for geography at undergrad level? Just wondering if I should emphasize the maths incase I apply for a few environmental phds

El Siglo

riffmongous wrote: »

Yeah it really does come as quite a shock just how much maths you need to study met, I think a lot of people only recognize the forecasting/synoptic side of things, but learning about Dynamical Meteorology and weather/climate models is very tough. And while maths wasn't my strongpoint at least I was used to it, I could imagine how difficult it would be for someone who just wanted to become a forecaster.

Those statistical methods you mentioned still look fairly advanced, do you know if much maths is studied for geography at undergrad level? Just wondering if I should emphasize the maths incase I apply for a few environmental phds

From my personal experience, people do geography to get away from maths only to have to encounter it again when doing any kind of geostatistics or physical geography. Undergrad geography really is a joke when it comes to any kind of maths, the only maths I can remember doing was the the formulas for river flow etc... It is a shame though, there should be a proper stats module at undergrad, I know in QUB they do a stats module but not with R or SPSS, but at least they do the theoretical components with simple stats (T-tests etc...).

I would definitely highlight that you have numerical proficiency and that you are good at using certain software and programming languages as well. Like if you can do the dynamical meteorology stuff, then things like granulometry will be very doable. It can get tricky but it's generally not the worst.