I think you would like to do with herps in your life as a job, and not only to study them at the University, and maybe find a job as teacher, or employed in a Pharma industry, or curator in some old museum... and having to do with herps only during vacations as a hobby!
And if you study in some european university, this will be most probably your occupational future, if you are lucky.
In Italy, for instance, there's little interest for herps, there are no jobs in this direction, and the very few jobs in university are not given for merits or capacities, to say the least...
I would contact herpetologists in lands where snakes or herps are more "important" in general than in Europe, and select Countries where the financial and health conditions are not bad.
I would not contact, to be direct, herpetologists in Gabon or Guatemala, but surely herpetologists in the USA (I think about Florida and the problems there with Pythons in the Everglades), Sudafrica (Nick Evans) and Australia
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HrKECUTr8nYIn such Countries snakes are an actual "problem", and job possibilities in this direction are more consistent than in Europe. You cannot study or work with herps in Iceland for instance!
And in such Countries, even if you won't find a job inside a university, you can always find something else in the herp direction: collaboration with universities or local administrations, removing snakes from houses, making independent research activity, opening a reptile park or working in an already existing one...
Let us know! Hope I've given you at least some hints or ideas...