Changing from molecular neuroscience to ecology after PhD? Ecologist perspective needed! I am one year away from finishing a PhD in neuroscience and looking at PostDoc/future career options. Though I love neuroscience, I don't enjoy working in the field very much and I have had a life-long (though non-academic) passion for ecology/conservation biology. I have a very broad background in biology (zoology, plant physiology, marine biology, development..) and have done several ecology-related courses in my undergrad.

My questions goes mainly to ecologists out there, is it possible to learn the techniques needed for ecological surveys/conservation biology work (thinking mostly marine, climate change focused) "on the job"? I believe I have gained a lot of transferable skills during my PhD and I learn techniques quickly. However the fields are very different. I wish I could be more precise but right now I am just looking at a general idea based on the premise that during a PhD, one learns skills beyond one's subject and thus should be able to change, even though it's not easy.

Would it be necessary to maybe do a master's program to bridge the fields? My undergrad would allow me to do a master's in ecology, I already checked that. But at this point of my career I think it's more valuable to learn on the job than to go back to a taught course (also I'm quite old, >25).

I'm thankful for any input!
I am not an ecologist, but I work with several, and if you squint and don't look very hard I might pass as one.

It will very much depend on the type of ecology you're interested in doing, and what kind of skills you have now. "Ecology" is a very wide open field, which can involve anything from fairly advanced mathematics to lots of field work, and everything in between. It's certainly possible (a lab I know has taken several postdocs from fields further afield than your own), but it would help if you could find a way to either apply your current skill set to an ecological problem.

Failing that, while it's likely still possible, it may take more time and be something of a rougher path.

Short version: "It depends."