Fancy Scientist with Dr. Stephanie Manka

The inspiration for all of my writing and videos stems from animals. So often people want to become a wildlife biologist because they want to help animals. They envision themselves conducting important research to grow populations or captive-rearing animals for reintroductions. But I’ve learned through all of my years of research, that to really help animals we need to take a look at ourselves. 

And the truth is all animals will be affected by climate change – including us. So if we really care about animals, we have to think and do something about these larger issues and we can’t only talk about species-specific problems. 

For my Earth month series, I’m kicking it off by talking about this big issue of climate change. Most Americans now recognize it is human caused and that we need to so something about it. Many are even experiencing climate anxiety and/or grief. 

I recently read an article about how doing something about climate change can actually alleviate grief. I thought now would be the perfect time to empower you all with actions that you can do to help alleviate climate change. 

In this week’s podcast, I offer you 21 different ways you can contribute to fighting climate change starting off with the most impactful things you can do based on research to the ones you still should do, but that have less of an effect. 

The key is to always move towards progress – not perfection. It is way better to have lots of people taking action imperfectly than few people getting it all right. 

What actions have you been taking? Leave your answer in the comments below. 

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

This week’s podcast episode covers the second most popular answer to the question, “What is the problem you are struggling with most in regard to this career?”

And the truth is all animals will be affected by climate change – including us. So if we really care about animals, we have to think and do something about these larger issues and we can’t only talk about species-specific problems. 

For my Earth month series, I’m kicking it off by talking about this big issue of climate change. Most Americans now recognize it is human caused and that we need to so something about it. Many are even experiencing climate anxiety and/or grief. 

I recently read an article about how doing something about climate change can actually alleviate grief. I thought now would be the perfect time to empower you all with actions that you can do to help alleviate climate change. 

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

In this week’s podcast, I offer you 21 different ways you can contribute to fighting climate change starting off with the most impactful things you can do based on research to the ones you still should do, but that have less of an effect. 

The key is to always move towards progress – not perfection. It is way better to have lots of people taking action imperfectly than few people getting it all right. 

What actions have you been taking? Leave your answer in the comments below. 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

This week’s podcast episode covers the second most popular answer to the question, “What is the problem you are struggling with most in regard to this career?”

To recap, a couple of months ago, I put this post on social media asking for people in wildlife biology, ecology, or zoology careers to help me out with some research:

I got so many people who were interested in helping me out (thank you!).

Episode #68 covers the most common answer, and in this episode I talk dive deep into the second biggest problem: A lack of insight on careers. 

This is something I am SUPER passionate about because this also happened to me (for more on this check out this blog post). 

Over and over again, I heard college graduates say that their professors did not prepare them for or talked about actually careers in wildlife biology, ecology, zoology, and conservation biology. 

In this episode, we’ll cover: 

•  All of the different variations of this answer and what they mean/imply
• Summaries of statements from the research on how graduates felt about their college experience
• What to do if you are feeling this way
• Tips on how to deal with too many options
• A tangible answer to the question, “what can I do to make myself attractive/competitive to employers?”
• and MORE

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

A couple of months ago, I put this post on social media asking for people in wildlife biology, ecology, or zoology careers to help me out with some research:

and I was shocked by the response! I got so many people who were interested in helping me out. Thank you to all of you that participated!

I did this research for my own internal knowledge – so I could learn how I could better help you. In this podcast, I cover the most frequently stated answer to the main question in my survey: “What is the problem you are struggling with most in regard to this career? “

I interviewed 88 people of all different career levels, although most were graduates with a bachelor’s degree or in college, but the greatest response was “getting a job.” Specifically a permanent job. 

This answer ended up being a little complex, so I took a whole podcast episode to delve into the different nuances of it to understand why it has been such a struggle for people to get a job even after having a degree.

At the end of the episode, I go over some tips for you can self-evaluate if you are having the same problem. Whether you are brand new to the field or out there looking for a job, you will learn a lot from this episode. 

Specifically I go over:

• Innate biases in the data (so you don’t freak out too much)
• The different reasons people think are causing them to struggle in the job market
• Factors affecting the job market
• Specific experiences and feelings from people I interviewed (so you don’t feel alone)
• What you can do to stand out in a “sea of applications”
• and MORE!

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

It’s summer time here in the US, which means lots of people head to the beach for vacation. With parties, holidays, and leisure happening at the beach, it can be easy to forget – or some people may never even know in the first place – that beaches are habitat for lots of wildlife. 

I’ve seen so many fun animals at the beach in my adventures across the world like tropical fish, eels, dolphins, seals, coral, sea urchins, sea stars, and probably more that I can’t remember.

But our visits to the beach are not just visits; us humans have lingering effects on this environment from the sand to the sea. You may be doing some things that are harmful to wildlife without even knowing it. 

In this episode of the Fancy Scientist podcast, I share with you my top tips for reducing your impact on beach ecosystems while still making sure you have fun. All of these tips are easy to do!

Specifically we’ll go over:

• Beaches as ecosystems – some of the species I’ve seen and that you may expect to find
• Best practices at the beach – what you should be doing before and after your visits
• How you can reduce the impact of others at the beach
• Animals that can be impacted by us at the beach
• Businesses and products to support 

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

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Several years ago, I went on a trip to Hilton head, South Carolina, and I woke up in the morning really early and went to the beach. This is something I always do when I am by the ocean, because you get to find some really cool stuff in the morning. And this time I found the best thing ever, or the two best things ever!

I saw two baby sea turtles make their way to the ocean. Members of their nest likely hatched the night before, and these two were stragglers. I got to see them make their journey to the ocean. 

One of the coolest parts was that is that the sea turtles were right in the middle of this tourist spot. And that they were basically co-existing with humans on this busy beach for a short period of time. Ever since then, I’ve been wanting to talk to somebody about sea turtles conservation and science.

I invited sea turtle biologist Dr. Christine Figgener on the podcast who is not only a sea turtle expert, but famous for sparking the movement to reduce plastic straw use. She is the one who took the video of the sea turtle who had a plastic straw up its nose. In this podcast, we talk about everything sea turtles, plastic, and conservation. 

Specifically we talk about:

•  How Christine got interested in sea turtles and science
• The steps Christine took to become a scientist
• What Christine does on a daily basis
• What sea turtle research is like
• The biggest threats to sea turtles
• Easy tips that you can do to help out sea turtles (all from home)
• How the straw video went viral
• How sea turtle releases can be harmful, why hotels do them, and why you shouldn’t support them

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

You get a degree and then a job, right? That’s how it is supposed to work. But in wildlife biology, ecology, and conservation careers, it’s not so straightforward.

In the wildlife science realm, you need experience, but the crazy thing is, that in our field, a lot of experiences are unpaid. Even though they are full jobs, quite often they don’t pay.

To be honest, it is extremely hard to get into this field without any volunteering. There are very few programs that will give someone with no experience a paid work opportunity.

On top of that, once you graduate, most jobs are temporary, low-paying, and seasonal. Even if you do find a job, you might be trying to piece together these positions, and often across different areas of the country (moving is expensive). 

Unfortunately, finances are something you need to think about before you enter this career. 

Therefore, I thought it was a great idea to invite my friend Dr. Emily Roberts of Personal Finance for Ph.D.s for a dual interview for both of our podcasts. Emily’s mission is to inspire and empower early-career Ph.D.s to make the most of their money. She engages with graduate students and postdocs through her Personal Finance for PhDs seminars, coaching, and websites.

In this episode, we talk about all of the financial realities of going into a career in wildlife science.

Specifically we discuss:

• What are pay-to-play jobs and experiences
• Why you will probably need to volunteer before you get a paying job
• What should you expect financially in a career in wildlife biology
• How you can better prepare yourself financially
• Alternatives to careers in wildlife biology that can still satisfy your need to help wildlife/conservation
• and MORE!

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

When I scroll through my Pinterest home feed, zero waste is a common word that comes up among eco-friendly bloggers. I always wanted to try it, but producing no waste seemed so hard! I was really intimidated by the challenge and felt like I needed help. 

So when Alexa Smith, author of An Economic Eclipse, reached out to me to talk all about zero waste, I was definitely on board. 

In this episode, I interview Alexa Smith all about what it means to be zero waste – and it’s not as intense as you think it is. She breaks it down for you in easy to understand terms and like me, she believes progress is better than perfection. 

Alexa is only 20 years old and already wrote a book on the subject! If you ever feel depressed about environmental and climate issues, turn to people like Alexa. Young people like her inspire me to keep going and show me that so many of us really do care. 

Specifically, we talk about:

• What is zero waste
• Why Alexa decided to go zero waste
• How you can get started going zero waste:
• The biggest thing you can do
• The easiest thing to do
• What is a circular economy 
• How Alexa was inspired to and wrote a book (and in only 9 months too!)
•  What corporations are doing to tackle the waste problem
• and MORE!

Alexa inspired me to try zero waste at the more extreme level. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes about my journey.

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

Through my 17 years in research, one of the biggest lessons I learned is that science alone cannot solve the biodiversity crisis. We need people to care and to change their behaviors. 

People tend to view corporations as the enemy of conservation – and with good reason, they pollute, cause deforestation, and destroy habitats. But the truth is, we need to work with them if we want to solve this problem due to their large impact. 

Therefore, when Lavaniya Das reached out to me to discuss how corporations view climate change and what they are doing about it, I was eager to speak to her. 

Lavaniya is a marketing professional with ten years of experience across Entertainment, eSports, SaaS, Telecommunications, B2B and B2C marketing, and now Renewable Energy and Venture Capital. She has in-depth knowledge and a solid understanding of the digital side of content creation and how it can be used in marketing from direct marketing to social media to building sales pipeline.

We talk about much more than just corporations and climate change – from the future of plastics to marketing conservation and urban London foxes. Enjoy this wide-ranging conversation where the world of science merges with marketing and corporations. 

For full show notes click here.

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology

When I was in graduate school, everyone was talking about how if you didn’t want to go into research, you could get a job in science communication – like it was something you could just easily do.

But when I was officially on the job market, I didn’t see a ton of science communication jobs posted. And when I did, I found out that employers wanted communications professionals interested in science rather than science professionals with a social media presence.

Also a lot of people don’t realize that most science communicators are freelance, so they don’t have permanent jobs. 

In this episode, I talk all about my experience attempting to get a job in science communication and how I eventually decided to do it on my own. 

You’ll learn about the ways that you can start your own business in science communication and the major ways you can make money doing it. 

Follow my journey into this crazy career I am creating. 

For full show notes click here

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

I’d love to meet you. Connect with me on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/pins/

Join the “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology” Facebook group to connect with other aspiring wildlife biologists, post your questions and get free advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiology