Additonal to what Bill said there is a lot of competition for openings in the field. When I had my degree I found that there were people with bachelor degrees competing for technical postions, and people with masters degrees competing for bachelor level postions. Even PHD's doing labor postions just to get their foot into the door.
No offense but I doubt if you were taken seriously with an online degree in this field.
Another thing is there are a lot of politics and favoritism involved with some of the state positions. I was once denied a job due to my polticial afiliation. Some biologists actually get burned out too.
