VISIT DALLAS: What advice would you give to aspiring paleontologists, particularly women, who are eager to break into the field?
DR. DORI CONTRERAS: I'd say two things because I often get asked the question, "How do you get into this field"? And there are not really many paleontology programs. Your degree is usually in biology or geology, and you can go either route. They lean towards looking at the science in different ways. So my advice is to definitely get an undergraduate degree in geology or biology, and really lean into your studies. Ideally, you'll want to seek out institutions that have a good biology or geology degree and that will give you access to professors that are paleontologists that study the kinds of things that you're interested in.
I think one of the really important things is to just get as many experiences as you can early on. Reach out and seek people in the profession to talk to. Find out if there are opportunities to get some volunteer experience, to job shadow, or to do something where you can get a realistic view. Find out what is it really like to do these jobs and to understand what the careers within this field are. You only get that from putting yourself in those spaces.
I think another big thing is to learn what you don't like doing and what you don't want to do. The educational path to becoming any scientist is very long. So if you can get some early experience finding out what a job is really like, you could save yourself a lot of time. For example, if you don't like doing fossil hunts or writing manuscripts. As a scientist, I spend a lot of my time writing and editing. Ultimately, you have to figure out what are the things that you like about a job and what works for you.