6 MARCH 2015 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Availability and access to employment and career information has kept pace with the growth of the global aquaculture industry. The widespread reach of the Internet now makes it possible for students, professionals and businesses to find an unprecedented selection of information on domestic and international jobs, graduate assistantships, internships, resumes and other career resources. A Google search for “aquaculture jobs” yields more than 11 million links to information about employment in aquaculture, fisheries, other aquatic sciences and the seafood industry. Employment categories range from top administrative and management positions to mid- and entry-level technical support jobs in business, academics, research, and extension, government agencies, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). A Simple Beginning WAS and chapter members use the Society’s website (www. was.org) for the variety of services offered, along with information about new publications, annual international and chapter meeting details and the latest job and resume listings posted by the WAS Employment Service. The Employment link is one of the most popular on the WAS website, averaging more than 4,200 unique visitors and 13,000 visitor sessions monthly. With few exceptions, virtually everyone accessing employment information via the WAS website knows nothing about the background of the employment service and its relatively inauspicious debut 30 years ago on January 13-17, 1985 in Orlando, Florida at the 16th annual meeting of what at that time was the World Mariculture Society (WMS). The WMS became the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) in 1986. That old saying “necessity is the mother of invention” probably best describes the reasons for why and how the The WAS Employment Service 30 Years of Career Information for the Society and the International Aquaculture Community John Ewart employment service began. It was all pretty simple. My funding support as a shellfish hatchery technician for the University of Delaware was ending, so I went to the 15th annual WMS meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, hoping to explore some new job opportunities. I was disappointed that nothing was organized or available for students or others looking for work, not even a place to post a resume. In what turned out to be a fortunate coincidence, Gary Pruder, a research colleague at the University of Delaware, was the incoming President of the World Mariculture Society for 1985-1986. His half-joking,-half serious response to my complaint about job hunting in Vancouver was to appoint me to be the coordinator of a new employment service for WMS members. So, the next year I made arrangements in Orlando for a display board and posted six job announcements clipped from trade magazine advertisements and one resume (mine). By the end of the meeting another 20 resumes and a half-dozen more job announcements were pinned up on the board. Things just continued from there. From such a simple beginning, who could have possibly imagined, 30 years later, that the World Aquaculture Society would still be providing its members and other aquaculturists from 174 countries with year-round access to job listings, resumes and 80 links to other websites with employment information? The Internet and Global Communication Following Orlando, interest and participation in the posting of employment information at annual U.S.-based WAS meetings continued to grow. Other services were added to assist employers with on-site interviews with potential job candidates. Summaries of available positions posted at the meetings were compiled for mailing to job hunters unable to attend. Those few and limited options for distributing job information changed in an Country Sessions Percent Percent of New users Percent of total new sessions of total United States 46,601 45.0 31.8 14,814 40.3 India 9,214 8.9 43.1 3,973 10.8 Canada 3,999 3.9 36.2 1,449 4.0 Spain 3,413 3.3 44.2 1,510 4.1 Philippines 2,973 2.9 40.7 1,210 3.3 France 2,389 2.3 37.2 889 2.4 United Kingdom 2,361 2.3 36.8 868 2.4 Mexico 2,170 2.1 32.3 700 1.9 Australia 2,100 2.0 35.1 738 2.0 Saudi Arabia 1,624 1.6 28.5 462 1.3 Malaysia 1,592 1.5 35.7 569 1.6
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