Paleontology Career Info and Questions

Just a "quick" multi-part question to those in the know. Although I am more an avocational/amateur field paleontologist and fossil/technical illustrator, I am speaking to my son's middle school 8th grade classes about careers and avocations in paleontology. I have a series of 6 areas where the questions will be focused. Although I have completed an outline with responses to the topics, I am curious and would appreciate other ideas and responses to the questions. The Career Fair is on January 9th so any responses prior to then would be appreciated. The topics under "Paleontologist" are: 1. Interest; 2. Educational Preparation; 3. Nature of Work; 4. Financial Rewards; 5. Other Facets of Interest.

I am primarily stymied on 3 and 4. The rest are easy but all comments are appreciated. Although I would request off-list responses, I'm sure most comments would be of interest to the list. I will summarize and post the results on-list.