Wouldn’t it be nice if those setting out to perhaps make a career for themselves in a particular field had a guidebook available to them that provided clear, straight-forward advice on not just the formal aspects of how to undertake the work done in that field but also explained the “unwritten” aspects of how those in the field actually got there and how, as it were, the sausage is made? Well for those for whom a career in the field of ecology is the goal – or even for those simply considering if it is right for them – How To Do Ecology has provided just such a guidebook since its first edition was published in 2006.
Now just published in a greatly expanded and updated third edition with three highly experienced ecologists – Richard Karban, Mikaela Huntzinger, and Ian S. Pearse – as authors, How To Do Ecology: A Concise Handbook (Third Edition), offers an inestimably valuable guidebook to the field, its central activities, and how one prepares for a career in it. This is indeed the book that should be sought by the new generation of students seeking a career in the field, by those already working in it who would appreciate a bit of useful advice in the development of their projects as well as their careers, and by any others who are curious as to just what ecologists do and how they do it.
If only back when I was an eager undergraduate someone had written and published a book with the same practical advice for those in my own field of study titled How To Do English Literature, it would have saved me much trouble and heartbreak! It would have been a short book, of course; Chapter 1 – “How To Complete a Starbucks Employment Application.” Just kidding… well, sort of.
