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Old 03-20-2019, 01:05 PM
 
3 posts, read 3,484 times
Reputation: 18

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I graduated back in Dec. 2018 and I honestly thought that day would never come. But I also did not want that day to come either because I knew things would get harder afterwards looking for jobs and whatnot. As I search for jobs, I'm starting to feel strong regret for getting a Biology degree. I chose Biology because my only interests after reflecting on the classes I liked/disliked in HS were biology and math. I loved studying diseases and I was always good at math, specifically algebra. But I chose biology because at the time, I heard that biology was a good major to get into and you had many options to choose from with that degree.

But throughout my undergrad years, I had some doubts about my major from time to time. I found that few classes truly interested me. What I truly liked were microbiology, biostatistics, and research. More than likely would've liked Medical Micro, Immunology, and Virology if I could get into those classes. Did not like labs, genetics, DNA techniques, ecology, etc.

But anyway, my very rough plan was to get a master's in public health with a concentration in Epidemiology. From the research I've done, it seems Epidemiology might be the right choice for me since it seems to combine both my interest in diseases and math together along with research. But I'm not 100% sold on the idea which is making me feel unsure about my future. I'm not truly sure if this is really what I want to do.

I'm just at a point now where I don't know what I should be doing right now. Without a master's degree it seems like I can't do anything with this bio degree at the moment and I'm not 100% sold on grad school even though my mom keeps pushing me to go. I'm not sure what jobs I should be applying for. I only worked retail in the past as a summer job and that was hell. That also happens to be my only job experience. I'm going to have to start paying student loans off in a couple more months but I don't know what jobs I should be looking for. Do I look for Bio specific jobs or do I just apply to anything I see?

I apologize if this sounds incoherent. I just seem to have a difficult time figuring out how to support myself for life after college. Any advice including jobs, career paths, bio degrees, life after college, etc would be most appreciated.
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Old 03-20-2019, 01:20 PM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,940 posts, read 36,707,217 times
Reputation: 40634
Well, I was a bio undergrad myself. I guess I was lucky in knowing what I wanted to do from a young age and went right into wildlife related field work.


Don't go to grad school until you figure out what you want to do though. I took about 6 years working professionally before applying and it really helped me focus on what I wanted to do.
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Old 03-20-2019, 01:21 PM
 
Location: Western NY
729 posts, read 959,981 times
Reputation: 863
My main areas were in biomedical engineering and some other more electronic product and medical device areas in the work I did (now retired), but I can honestly say I knew and worked with many who did biology then MPH, and got good or very good jobs they enjoyed afterwards. It is a real good one to have an interest in, a definite go for it. You won't regret it.
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Old 03-20-2019, 02:56 PM
 
9,891 posts, read 11,673,828 times
Reputation: 22079
A lot of posters are ---Complaining there are no jobs---Salaries they are offered or are so low, they will not work for that salary,

Salaries are based on a few factors.

What the job is worth for the employer.
What are the potential number of available graduates in that field. If way more graduates in that major than available jobs incomes will be low. If there is a shortage they will be high.

Here are the salaries by degree.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/vis...llege-degrees/
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Old 03-20-2019, 08:29 PM
 
5,317 posts, read 3,181,148 times
Reputation: 8239
Since you don't know what you want to do, do this:

Take a Myers-Briggs test. Plenty of sites online you can take for free.
Find out what personality type you have (such as ISTJ) and then google "jobs for ISTJ's" or whatever your personality type is.

Then you can see what other jobs might be interesting for you, and then you can get training or more education in that area.
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Old 03-21-2019, 09:33 AM
 
Location: California
1,618 posts, read 1,074,750 times
Reputation: 2616
Default I hate bio

Don't go to grad school in biology. A masters is treated as a BS with 2 years experience and a PhD leads often to postdoc limbo unless it's at an ivy league school with major publications.

Healthcare is the best place for bio grads to go. There's the popular ones like doctor, dentist, nurse etc but there are also less well known ones like respiratory therapist, occupational therapist and physicians assistant. Figure out what you want to do there and do it.

Taking prerequisites to get a masters out of the field entirely is another option. Your bio degree is worth less than you paid for it. Once you accept that you can succeed.

Bio grads often get less than $20/hour without benefits. And the jobs are pretty dead end.
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Old 03-21-2019, 12:21 PM
 
Location: broke leftist craphole Illizuela
10,326 posts, read 17,328,538 times
Reputation: 20321
Yea Chemistry isn't much better nor any iteration of the two. Consider either a healthcare professional program or getting a MSc in a completely different field like accounting.

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Old 03-21-2019, 12:34 PM
 
Location: Nantahala National Forest, NC
27,074 posts, read 11,692,069 times
Reputation: 30347
Quote:
Originally Posted by sfletc15 View Post
I graduated back in Dec. 2018 and I honestly thought that day would never come. But I also did not want that day to come either because I knew things would get harder afterwards looking for jobs and whatnot. As I search for jobs, I'm starting to feel strong regret for getting a Biology degree. I chose Biology because my only interests after reflecting on the classes I liked/disliked in HS were biology and math. I loved studying diseases and I was always good at math, specifically algebra. But I chose biology because at the time, I heard that biology was a good major to get into and you had many options to choose from with that degree.

But throughout my undergrad years, I had some doubts about my major from time to time. I found that few classes truly interested me. What I truly liked were microbiology, biostatistics, and research. More than likely would've liked Medical Micro, Immunology, and Virology if I could get into those classes. Did not like labs, genetics, DNA techniques, ecology, etc.

But anyway, my very rough plan was to get a master's in public health with a concentration in Epidemiology. From the research I've done, it seems Epidemiology might be the right choice for me since it seems to combine both my interest in diseases and math together along with research. But I'm not 100% sold on the idea which is making me feel unsure about my future. I'm not truly sure if this is really what I want to do.

I'm just at a point now where I don't know what I should be doing right now. Without a master's degree it seems like I can't do anything with this bio degree at the moment and I'm not 100% sold on grad school even though my mom keeps pushing me to go. I'm not sure what jobs I should be applying for. I only worked retail in the past as a summer job and that was hell. That also happens to be my only job experience. I'm going to have to start paying student loans off in a couple more months but I don't know what jobs I should be looking for. Do I look for Bio specific jobs or do I just apply to anything I see?

I apologize if this sounds incoherent. I just seem to have a difficult time figuring out how to support myself for life after college. Any advice including jobs, career paths, bio degrees, life after college, etc would be most appreciated.

Don't have answers but just so you know....a great many of us had the same feelings and predicament as you find yourself in...
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Old 03-21-2019, 01:01 PM
 
1,660 posts, read 1,197,200 times
Reputation: 2890
There's a lot of options, you may need more schooling. Look for professional careers like RN, PA, MD, just to name a few
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Old 03-21-2019, 01:26 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
31,343 posts, read 14,063,596 times
Reputation: 27840
You must get some work experience and at the same time, start paying back your loans. Do whatever you can to get some experience in your field of study. You can always go back to school at another time, with some work experience under your belt.
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