Zoology
As a zoologist, your research and work will most likely fall under one or more of five thematic areas, as identified by the Institute of Zoology:
- behavioural and population ecology
- biodiversity and macroecology
- evolution and molecular ecology
- people, wildlife and ecosystems
- wildlife epidemiology
For more information, please look at the Zoological Society of London website
Alternatively, you could find yourself working in related industries such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, conservation, the environmental sector or in unrelated areas such as marketing, human resources and business.
What roles do zoology students go into?
A good number of zoology graduates seek employment in conservation.
Conservation Careers recently stated that there are eleven key conservation roles. They are:
- conservation communicator
- ecologist
- economist
- educator
- fundraiser
- land manager
- organisational manager (running organisations that conserve nature)
- policy advocate
- project manager
- scientist
- wildlife carer
Read more about these roles on the Conservation Careers website
Conservation careers also highlight that you might be interested to learn that 100% of the key conservation roles usually require relevant experience, while 0% of the key conservation roles usually require a master’s degree at early career level.
They also highlight that the most-wanted transferable skills and behaviours by conservation employers are communication, organisation, teamwork, flexibility and initiative – all of which can be built in any experience, personally or professionally.
What skills will I gain during my degree?
As well as the skills developed on your course, participation in extracurricular and work experience, organisations large and small are also looking for students to have developed a range of attributes such as the following while at university. What employers seek from candidates is evolving all the time and it is important that you keep up to date with recruitment trends in the career areas that interest you.
Employers will recruit to the appropriate level of skill needed for the role. They will assume a standard level of attainment, knowledge and skills related to their degree.
Softer skills are the differentiators and will be tested at interview with competency-based scenarios around areas such as:
- Flexibility and adaptability to cope in fast paced environment with deadlines
- Teamwork
- Self-awareness
- Communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Accuracy
- Time management
- Planning
- Contingency planning (eg. for cell based assays, having a backlog of cells)
- Resilience the work can be stressful.
- Report writing skills, understanding core structure for a report, tone and content
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Awareness of statistical analysis techniques
- Sector awareness is desirable
- Digital literacy
Graduate destinations such as those noted above do not necessarily provide a complete picture of what students go on to do with their lives and careers.
LinkedIn can be very useful to track how careers have developed over time. You can also find out where former students work, what they do and how they got there.
This information can be useful to you when making decisions about your career planning, networking
and taking the important next step on graduation.
If you’re new to LinkedIn head to our networking page to get started,
Find out more about online networking
An audience with Twycross Zoo
If you have a keen interest in wildlife, conservation, research, and education, this webinar is for you! Staff from Twycross Zoo talk about:
- the wide range of careers available, including veterinary, animal husbandry, education officers, research roles
- how they collaborate with external organisations on their scientific research into welfare, health care and promote conservation, making a global impact in protecting endangered species
- their active research projects and top tips for gaining work experience and getting into the field
Login to SharePoint to watch the webinar
- Alumni: Email us to gain access to the webinar
There are many places to look for information and listed below are some that we think you will find useful. It is not exhaustive and no doubt your own research will lead you to other websites.