I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of fish from the atlantic basin, specifically in and around the south east US and Carribean.
It freaks people out sometimes when I just start reciting fish facts whenever the rare occasion this comes up.
It's from me living partially on a boat as a child and tearing through books about fish while dreaming of being a marine biologist until the cold hard reality of for-profit education hit me in my early adulthood.
What are your weird topics and skills?
I planned on it. Interviewed for the USGS a while ago but it fell through but field work would be the ideal for me but you know I have to work 40 hours outside of school to make ends meet but I graduate next semester so maybe more options will pop up.
USGS is a great place to start and the experience is diverse in future application but burns people out quickly if they aren’t ready for the workload so be wary. It’s a fantastic field to work in though and as much as I do not dream of labor, geologist has always been the closest thing to a dream job to me.
Unfortunately I don’t see as much of the field now that I’m living in nyc. I miss it a lot but you have the privilege of getting to live and be employed with stability just about anywhere you want with geology
I have been manual laborer for a long time before I went back to school. So the workload I'm used to but it's always been my dream to work outdoors. I just didn't have the programming stuff yet they wanted because I hadn't finished the courses involved. But hey maybe a graduate degree who knows.
It very rewarding to study. I want to go back for my PhD one day and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it. In case I do, I have a climatology degree to fall back on which I also recommend looking into! Good luck!