I am most definitely more into genetics then genetic engineering as the creation of different breeds interests me.
Um, be aware there are probably somewhere between "no" and "zero" paying jobs for that
If the whole entire field interests you, you can certainly work on color genetics and creating new breeds and so forth as a personal hobby -- possibly a publishable one, although I wouldn't hold my breath -- but what people are going to PAY you to do is to study resistance to <germ of the week> or optimizing broiler performance in cruddy conditions or things like that. Or if you are more on the general genetics/evolutionary biology end of things rather than agricultural sciences, things like using molecular sequencing data to infer evolutionary origins of <breeds, species, whatever>. (There are not all that many of the latter type jobs available, mind).
I might look into talking to somebody up there about pontential jobs in the poultry feild as well.
DEFINITELY worthwhile. In fact it would not be a terrible idea to write nice SENT BY SNAIL MAIL, BUT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADD'Y ENCLOSED letters to people in the industry, too. Basically what you wnt to know are things like, what sorts of jobs do they see as realistically being available/hot in the industry in 5-10 years, what do those jobs involve doing, and what education/credentials/experience would it take to be a strong applicant.
Does anybody have a clue what the starting pay is like for industry jobs, or university jobs? I am more into industry the university as I have no desire to teach students.
Dunno about the poultry industry but I've had students get jobs in the environmental monitoring biz and they seemed to start in the range of $25-35k (that's US$, late nineties and first few yrs of new millennium, dunno bout now). Can go up briskly with experience, in some cases.
In my sort of biological field (dunno bout poultry science), being a lab technician with a bachelor's or masters degree would be a bit lower salary on average, and less possibility for advancement (again, #s from '90s ish).
No point in even contemplating professors' salaries (they start a bit higher than the above) because you need a PhD *and* there are generally a jillion applicants for each position, and darn few positions open per year.
IME in biology, and I cannot believe that poultry science is any much different, a BIG determinant of how easy it is to get a job, and how agreeable a job you can get, is how much (if any) field-specific research and/or employment you get during college. Spending a couple years working in someone's lab, even if for peanuts or for free, or doing an undergraduate research project on something related to what you want a job in, or even 'just' a summer or part-time job doing something, ANYTHING, related to the field, is really a big seller when you graduate and are looking for jobs or graduate programs. So that is my biggest advice -- don't rely on coursework to 'certify' you to do <whatever>, go out of your way to get actual working experience in the field, ideally with someone well respected in the field.
Good luck, have fun,
Pat
