Yeah tell me about it!
I have more than adequate experience, a 2.1 and just completing a masters in Ecology and still no luck! It seems as though they want people that are over qualified for some jobs! Even 'graduate/trainee' positions seem to want people with lots of experience.
What I don't understand about the 'admin side' as you put it, is that this is surely the 'easier' part to pick up. I've heard from numerous people within conservation of poor quality identification and ecology skills they have found in reports written by consultancies. The funny thing is, some consultants I meet don't seem to have much of an ecology background and have got a job straight after their degree in environmental science with little ecology teaching and with little work experience because they know how to write a report!!!
I am genuinely mad about the situation
but hey, what can we do about ?