Academy Graduate. Salary: $30,000 or less 

Fresh out of the Academy, you apply to every state and local park office, refuge, conservatory, and agency. You spend weeks filling out forms and taking tests. Now you're spending the next three years as a local state trooper while you wait for a position to open up.

Deputy Game Warden. Salary: $40,000

You're the low head on the totem pole, so you pull all of the jobs the senior staff doesn't want. That means lots of dealing with school kids on field trips, and night calls to the local dairy farm because Farmer Brown is certain there's a big grizzly bear or a Sasquatch or something hiding in the neighboring woods.

Local Game Warden. Salary: $55,000

With so many hours spent rescuing hikers, fining hunters, and monitoring sparrow mating patterns for inconsistencies, you've worked your way up to your own office. You also get to use the station's Jeep whenever you feel like it (for job-related purposes only, of course―you're on the taxpayer's dime here).

State Fish & Game Warden. Salary: $75,000

You're now in charge of enforcing the wildlife laws of your entire state. Field offices from Springfield to Middletown report directly to your office. Whenever there's a major poaching investigation or sting, or bear roaming around the suburbs, it's your face that gets plastered across all of the local news stations.

Special Agent. Salary $100,000

A career spent wearing shorts with hiking boots and showing Cub Scouts how to build a safe fire has led you all the way to a cushy job in Washington, D.C. You care so much for nature and all its creatures that you rarely ever see them.