[meinchewster]

I am also a freelance ecologist and can only offer the same advice as offered by others, get experience and memberships to a proffesional body like BES of IEEM etc, although these memberships in my experience cannot be used as a proxy for any individuals expertise.

No one as yet has painted a real picture, the reality of working in the environment sector, especially in consultancy. The reality is, that as a proffession, ecological consultancy has a very recent history, only really becoming accepted about 20 or so years ago. In its infancy, when someone stated they where an ecologist, people didnt know what an ecologist was and here is the real crux of the matter....people have jumped on the band wagon as a lifestyle choice, its sounds good, thats what i will do, i want to become a ecological consultant etc etc, the downside is that with the growth of consultancy, every man and his dog wants a slice of pie and not many have the genuine, intrinsic passion or scientific ability that deserves the jobs out there.

Because it seems an ideal job, sounds great etc there are pretenders and they are all competing for the jobs that you are also chasing.

Finally, expertise is always a commodity and is rarely overlooked.