Short one today
as I refer you to professor Donald Prothero’s web page here. This seems to be a precise summary of what you need to know about the profession of paleontology in 2019 — all the practical facts of life for aspiring paleontologists.
Bottom line: Very few aspirants make it to their dream job.
So be nice to the young, wandering PhDs we all know or have heard about. It has to be frustrating for them seeking a position at a university or museum, waiting for an opening. And when they get that job, the duties of the position often take them away from their studies.
Makes me glad that I did not go through the PhD route,
but just started digging and discovering without the tutelage of a traditional professor (Fig. 1). In paleontology, everything you need to know can be found in the textbooks and literature. And you can make contributions as soon as you have something to say.
More changes are coming to the fish portion of the LRT
as taxa currently known by diagram data jump from one node to another. Looking forward to presenting these results.
The Pterosaur Heresies 
“In paleontology, everything you need to know can be found in the textbooks and literature”
No. Initially you need to dig the fossils. Do not neglect our hard work.
No neglect implied. We all owe a debt to those who have made data available through the discovery, preparation and description of fossils over the last several hundred years. The problem with taxon exclusion, a perennial issue raised by this blog, is the neglect of the many fossils (taxa) already dug, prepared and described in the textbooks and literature. Meanwhile, trying to dig a fossil before knowing something about fossils invites mishandling of potentially important data. Thank you, Rodrigo, for your comment. I hope this helps explain my intent.