[pa5tabear]

>>STEM has low standards and anybody can decide to be a biologists on a whim

I'm not following... what do you mean by biologist? As far as I've been informed (perhaps biased by the difficult job market of recent years) it is VERY difficult to find actual jobs doing meaningful biology work.

[frozenport]

>> VERY difficult to find actual jobs doing meaningful biology work.

Depends what you mean by meaningful. My department the EE/CS labs have ~5 people, the biology labs have double. Cells need to grow, protocols can take days. Most people I know in biology are doing some form of technician work. Indeed an undergrad can come in to a biology lab and become a biologist on a whim, I even know many highschool students who are productive with a week of training - I don't know any in remote sensing. So you are correct.

[Looks my rep is gonna take hit, but I work with these people every day, so w/e]

[sghi]

Yeah, you're right. I mean, anyone who can follow basic instructions is part of the field, just like a 15 years old editing a WordPress config file is a Computer Engineer, right?

In all seriousness, there is a big difference between doing lab work, which can absolutely be done by high schoolers, and skilled, technical work in the biological / chemical fields. As pa5tabear said, there just aren't as many jobs out there for the skilled biologists or chemists, which is one reason you can usually see people with degrees doing jobs which they are "overqualified" for.

[sampo]

> Indeed an undergrad can come in to a biology lab and become a biologist on a whim, I even know many highschool students who are productive with a week of training

Are these people getting paid?

[Retra]

I guess burger flipping experience makes you a chef, too?