A big focus of my college was on biology as well. There are all kinds of paths that you can take with it. Unfortunately I don’t know what the pay grades are internationally or even from east to west coast in USA.
The level of freedom you have to choose your own career depends on your degree, your focus, and where you end up. A researcher working for a specific organization may want you to focus on this or that.
But to show how widespread the potential is I’ll tell you what I ended up doing and what a few friends of mine are doing.
I ended up focusing on landscaping. I found out through studying that in America what ended up dominating the typical yard was just turf grass. Boring old turf grass that provides very little ecological benefits. I learned how even yards with plants they tended to be non native plants and often invasive exotics. I learned how the nursery industry over a century ago brought over Chinese chestnuts as rootstock and it carried a fungal disease with it that the Chinese chestnut plant evolved with but it devastated the American chestnuts to less than 1% of its population and I learned about how kudzo chocked out trees, and Asian privets destabilized river banks.
As plants and insects evolve together they overcome one another. How monarch caterpillars eat milkweed but other caterpillars can’t because it’s toxic to them. Almost all caterpillars are host specific. I learned about how native plants and fungi developed these nutrient and chemical pathways. As more and more land was turned into yards and more and more yards were filled in with turf grass and exotic plants it resulted in less snd less caterpillars because less moths and butterflies were laying eggs which resulted in less food for birds and for less butterflies and so on. Entire food web systems were destroyed.
So with what I learned I begin to focus on thst within the landscaping industry. I still have a lot further to go to reach my goals though.
I have a friend whose a biologist and the director over a 1500 acre nature preserve. She keeps a eye on things and lead classes. Occasionally she does research as well or helps students with their research at the preserve.
Another friend whose of an acquaintance actually with their degree got a job to set up more natural environments for zoos. They select native and non native plants and create mini habitats with ponds and whatever at zoos and does maintenance on them. From volunteering at a botanical garden for a while I met a handful of biologist from the local colleges getting in hours. Often they would end up getting random jobs with specific agendas thst we’re usually founded through non profit organizations or colleges to visit a place for a while and collect data.
So depending on your focus there is all kinds of choices.
What are you wanting to focus on?