Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Paleontologist

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. 

We hope the sample list of ideas below will show you how to choose and use your character’s occupation to do more than simply reference a day job. For the full entry for this career and over 120 other ideas, check into our bestselling resource, The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers.

Paleontologist

Overview: A paleontologist is someone who looks for fossils that may be (dinosaur bones, eggs, egg fragments, fossilized wood, excrement, leaves, footprints, and various other vertebrate and invertebrates). The work is slow and taxing, involving countless hours of sifting through layers of dirt and rock to uncover fossils to determine their age, and whether they originated from land or sea.

Paleontologists travel to interesting locations (living simply while doing so) and may also work onsite with archeologist…

Necessary Training: A person can practice paleontology without a degree, but to gain employment, a degree in geology with courses in paleontology, a master’s degree, or a doctorate in paleontology is likely needed. Not many universities offer …

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: A knack for languages, a knack for making money, basic first aid, carpentry, exceptional memory, fishing…

Helpful Character Traits:

• POSITIVE: Adaptable, adventurous, ambitious, analytical, cautious, cooperative, curious, diplomatic, disciplined, efficient, focused…
• NEGATIVE: fussy, nosy, obsessive, perfectionist, workaholic

Sources of Friction: Losing your funding for a dig, the stress of not producing results (that will ensure continued funding), inclement weather, theft at a dig site, loneliness, working with others if there are personality conflicts, illnesses contracted…

People They Might Interact With: archeologists, students, interns, laborers, drivers, university staff, editors, researchers, locals…

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

• Self-Actualization: Paleontologists that dream of making a new discovery or proving a theory might becomes discouraged because they are so focused on the end result and so not draw satisfaction from their career as they believed they would
• Esteem and Recognition: Characters in this field may struggle if others are making interesting discoveries (and being acknowledged for them) while they are not, leading them to question…
• Love and Belonging: This career may create challenges for characters who are always away on digs rather than spending time with their significant other
• Safety and Security: Funding can be a constant area of struggle…

Common Work-Related Settings: ancient ruins, arctic tundra, badlands, campsite, canyon, cave, country road, creek, desert, hiking trail, lake, mountains, old pick-up truck, quarry, teacher’s lounge, university quad, waterfall, workshop

Visit the other Occupations in our collection HERE.

How will your character’s occupation help reveal their innermost layers?

Much of your character’s life will revolve around their work, and whether they love it or hate it, their job is a great way to show, not tell, their personality traits, skills, work ethic, worldview and beliefs, and more, so we should choose it with care.

To learn more, we recommend The Occupation Thesaurus book. Explore 120+ jobs to choose a profession for your character that showcases who they are, what they want, and what they believe in. Then learn how that career choice can characterize, drive the plot, infuse scenes with conflict, and get readers on the character’s side through the relatable pressures, responsibilities, and stakes inherent with work.

You can find this bestselling thesaurus writing guide in print, ebook, and PDF formats. To see what other authors think of the book, read its reviews at Goodreads.