Question

What are some good fields to go into as a career in biology?

Answer 1

Biology is at a point where recently developed high through put experimental techniques are giving us very large datasets. There is a lot of demand for computational biologists / applied mathematicians who can process, analyze and interpret all that data. As well as demand for people who develop the experimental protocols.

Translational biology - that is, using the basic research to come up with better medical protocols - is also a growth field. Especially stem cell research but there are certainly many other subfields of that.

But bottom line: pick a field that attracts you intellectually rather than financially or because it looks like a good career move.

Answer 2

Thank you! :D

Answer 3

Blue has put it very well, but incase you did not take him seriously let me attempt a diffrent approach.

Let's break it down, you wish a finacially secure job that pays well, it's true some fields pays better than others. But consider this, A lot of biologist, microbiologist and other similiar proffessions students graduates and some goes for Ph.D. Fact is you need to be better than the majority and have more knowlegde in your niche than the majority in order to land a great job. Unless you pick something you've a genuine interest in you'll most likely end up jumping from project to project without any financial security, nor any substantial salary.
Just because you've graduated a accomplished field doesn't garantuee you any good jobs, you need to compete with multiple proffesions aswell as on a international scale.

Answer 4

if you are at the beggiging of your journey through biology, unless you know exactly or have a very strong idea of what you want to become, why not try the branch of environmental biology?
Our two other friends here, blues and exuras have exposed great trues and very right to the point advises to you, which i share. but seems to me they are more into the laboratory kind of biology. Now i offer you another option, e. biology which i myself have pursued. i work in marine biology and although the work is also very hard but also very rewarding. besides we are always in need of some enthusiast of the ecology cause!!

Answer 5

I'm just at the beginning of a bachelor's degree myself, so I won't be specialising for a few more years (students don't specialise at the bachelor's level here), but based on what I've heard from others in the field, what the above commenters have said sounds about right. If you want to do research, you need to figure out what you're passionate about, and there are a lot of different possibilities. You could easily devote your whole life to studying a single species... and there are so many to choose from!

As Phascolarctos pointed out, environmental biology is also a possibility, and plain old conservation... but from what I've heard, it can be very difficult to get paid work, and a lot of people just end up volunteering with various environmental organisations.

Another possibility would be teaching. It might not be glamorous, but the world needs more biology teachers, especially ones who know what they're talking about :)

Oh, and I've heard that there are jobs in agriculture and fish farming for biology graduates, but it's not really something that interests me so I haven't looked into it.

Answer 6

hmm... well i m attempting for a medical as a doctor but if i dont get in medical colg what rest field i can enter widout wasting my time.. and gave me security of job too...

Answer 7

Thank you so much everyone! I really appreciate your help. :)

Answer 8

@phascolarctos

Answer 9

bio-chemistry is really good to that is wha im going to try to do !!

Answer 10

This is a great question. The American Institute of Biological Sciences has a nice web page on biology careers: http://www.aibs.org/careers/

Answer 11

do what the crocodile hunter did and hunt crocs!