#26 - New Job

Over one month ago, I distributed curriculum copies to some of the largest companies nearby. Last week, I was contracted!

Today was the first day in my new job. There were long lectures about what exactly we will be doing and work safety. The company works with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). That is a temporary contract and I will be harvesting soybeans from experimentation crop fields, which is a little more laborious and requires more care than common harvesting, as the soybeans will be further tested and interbred.

We shall be using heavy machinery (harvesters) and, as it has been raining rather a lot in the last week, manual harvesting as well.

This is a great entry level job for agronomists students and biologists involved with agriculture. A lot of heavy work. In fact, the minimum and necessary education degree is high school.

I reckon I will be happy in the countryside for the duration of the contract (3 months at most) and gaining experience, however I am far from sure I want to keep working there in similar positions for many years to come. Or worse yet, to becoming an executive..

I was very anxious last weekend mulling over thoughts of working in that company for the next 30 or 35 years until I get to retire, so there is some comfort in that this job is but temporary.

Also, my dear friend, Bidia, told me that working an entire life in a company is something of the past, nowadays most jobs last 4, maximum of 5 years..

Even before receiving the job offer call last week, I had started considering seriously about my career as a biologist. I wrote en e-mail to an old technician fellow I met in 2008 when I started graduation to ask for some tips. He is a doctor biologist in limnology and was hired as a de facto biologist in university. Frossard used to work in pisciculture as a limnologist and after that university branch ended, he works more or less like a librarian who works with fish instead of books in a zoology museum.

I wrote a very long e-mail and he wrote a long answer, which I read from start to end at least 3 times so far. He has got an incredible life history and I identified with many parts of it, such as enjoying university campus as though it were an amusement park and the fun of laboratory life..

There is something he told me that may help to decide what profession or job you want for your life: think about what you would have do in 10 years from now..

Not an easy task but hard thinking will eventually prove fruitful. I already have got one idea for starters: a public job.

Thanks, dear Frossard!

Out of the dozen public contests I tried (most of which while I was busy studying financial markets), there were some which deserve mentioning:

• Itaipú (a very big hydroelectric energy supplier)
• Instituto Águas e Terras (public state division which oversees land and water affairs)
• biology council (however bureaucratic, a very large contest)
• Temporary positions as teacher in higher education and scientific institutes such as IFSC and UTFPR

There are some other public contests for which I am interested:

• IBAMA (public regulator of environment and biology stuff),
• Funai (promotes indigenous people health and property),
• and national parks.
• Universities and research institutes, maybe not as a teacher but biology technician.

With the exception of the biology council, which is 100% a bureaucratic job, others mentioned above offer positions for people to be more in the field. Working in a national park or university seems specially appealing..

As my mum was a public employee and had some good bonuses before going retired, a public position always seemed appealing for me.

But that will be it for today.