Blog Entry #6

This week I had an interview with an urban wildlife biologist and also met with professionals at the ISM Business Symposium. I learned that urban wildlife biology has three main components: habitat management, wildlife population management, and human relations management. The human management portion is by far the most important because a project will never succeed if the public us opposed to it. Learning about the different aspects of the field makes me like it even more because while regular wildlife biology is strictly science, urban wildlife biology leaves a lot of room for creativity in solving problems.My biggest takeaway from the Business Symposium was the importance of networking. When the man from Tumbleweed TexStyles talked about how an opportunity can come from anywhere, I realized how important it is to stay connected to as many people as possible. As soon as I got home, I went on LinkedIn and connected with all of the people I had talked to at the symposium along with Frisco High’s ISM students. This week, I am going to look for people working in environmental fields on LinkedIn and connect with them too. One of my SMART goals is to have my first five interviews scheduled by the end of the week. So far, I have been very proactive this weekend and scheduled two interviews. I hope to schedule my fifth later this week with a cold call and then continue to schedule more interviews because I am enjoying learning about my field.