Getting a permanent job in Ecology is so hard for a budding ecologist, please help!

[Holly Tree]

Hello!

I have been trying to get a permanent ecology job in consultancy and conservation for over two years now, but despite my best efforts I have had no luck. My frustration has reached the end of its tether, so I was hoping that if I share my experience, some of you nice people might be able to share your views please?

I graduated with a 2.1 in Biology in 2006 and immediately set off to fulfil my life long dream of working in the environmental sector. I began by volunteering for my local environmental records centre, which gave me lots of field survey and GIS experience, but in interviews for jobs I either did not have enough experience or was advised to get experience with protected species. Since then I have volunteered for two ecology consultancies, my local council and two different Wildlife Trusts. I am currently working for an ecology consultancy as a field surveyor on a 6 month contract, so combining all this I have now managed to gain lots of survey experience of protected species and mitigation, along with a range of other fauna and flora, and I have a Great Crested Newt licence.

I know that I am lacking experience in the admin side of ecology work but this is something that so far, I have not been able to get into. I get really good feedback in job interviews now, but I never get the job and get told they have hired the person with the most experience.

I do not understand how anyone can break into the environmental sector when all companies and organisations seem to care about is experience, and will not give young budding ecologists a chance. There seems to be a lack of Senior Ecologists as there are lots of these jobs being advertised all the time, but I am not surprised if it is this hard to start a career in ecology.

If anyone has had any similar experiences I would love to hear from you, and any advice would be much appreciated!

[Fritillary]

I have just finished my phd in Ecology and your commentary worries me
I found very difficult even to find a volunteer job. I am very enthusiast and I have left happy bosses with my part time jobs. However always looking for a volunteer job or a paid job in nature it is just too difficult. They ask too many things that I wonder if I will have a job one day in this sector. Sometimes I have the impression that the jobs given are only for a exclusive circle of people related. Maybe the children of someone that work in a reserve have more posibilities than someone coming from the exterior.... I just wonder

How we can get more experience if they never want to give jobs to people without too much experience?

[JimboUK]

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 ?

[moo]

I'm in a vaguely similar position, but am not interested in consultancy (having had a brief go and realised I prefer communities to species ).

So...Is it only consultancy you're interested in? - is the main question. It seems (from my somewhat limited experience!) that many of those taken on by consultancies have experience in working for a stat body like natural england/EA first - it certainly helps with understanding the systems and also with local contacts. Not sure what it's like round you, but it's quite scary how well everyone in ecology or environment jobs round here knows each other - and how fast news travels! I also know a lot of people will take random/not good jobs with EA etc as chances of movement within the organisation are good.

If it has to be consultancy then I'd be targetting my volunteering to rack up licenses asap - you must have a local bat group for example. Also make sure you get membership at whatever level possible of IEEM or similar - do the workshops, make the contacts.

Not sure that's very helpful, but good luck!

[Holly Tree]

Hey, thank you for all your posts!

Fritillary,
I completely agree with you, it sometimes feels as if it’s not what you know, but who you know, and it should not be like that! You should be able to find voluntary work though, but some of the animal groups can be hard to get hold of. I have found the wildlife trusts are good, and if organisations do not answer your emails, try calling them too. I would hope your phd would put you in a much better position then me and help you move up the ladder more quickly, although unbelievably I saw an Assistant Ecologist job advertised the other day requesting that a phd would be an advantage. I was hoping that was a mistake!

JimboUK,
Yes it is totally infuriating, my friend has recently started a job with a consultancy and they have sent her out to do all kinds of surveys that she has never done before. She said that she does not feel experienced enough to do them on her own with another person who is in the same boat.

In interviews I have been asked whether I have had experience of desktop studies, report writing etc with a company, and although I do not have this experience yet, I do not see it as a huge problem. I have seen reports at work and they are far less complex than the reports I had to write at University, and doing data searches is not hard. Oh well we just have to keep plugging away until someone notices us!

Moo,
Thank you for your advice, it is very useful. At the moment I think consultancy is definitely what I want to get into, I have considered stat body's but I thought they would probably be even more competitive to get into then anything else. Although maybe getting an admin job with a stat body could be a way in, but I would be worried that as they would know I want to be an ecologist in the long term, they would not want to employ me for such a position.

At the moment I only have Graduate membership of IEEM and I have attended lots of courses with various organisations this year, including Phase 1 as this is another area I have not had an opportunity to experience. Also I am working towards my dormouse licence, and I would love to be able to work towards a bat licence. I heard it takes 3 years to get enough experience and finding bat people to go out with seem to be few and far between. Despite all these obstacles I am determined and I am not going to give up! Do you mind me asking how you got your first job with a consultancy? Oh and what did you mean by everyone knowing each other? It seems to be that way round here too.

[Gill Catton]

Hello!
Right well I am an ecological consultant and I can tell you that you are doing everything right Holly and it is only a matter of time it really is. Keep on with the field ecology and the key thing also though is meeting people. Try to wangle field work where you are supporting another ecologist rather than working solo. The next best thing to lots of experiance is networking. join societies, the bat conservation trust is a good one, also the mammal society. Perhaps even better is to join IEEM at their graduate level, you will then have the opportunity to do reduced cost workshops and training courses, and more importantly you'll meet people and all decent consultancys recognise the value of IEEM membership and will also recognise that you're serious. I know its all money but it will help in the end.

For those of you being forced to work outside of your comfort zone keep speaking up, don't stay quiet and if you keep getting ignored look for a new job, such consultancies that continually send out people to do work they are not experianced enough to do or work people so hard that they are exhausted and are liable to make mistakes as a result or crash on the way home, are going to run into big trouble one day.

Good luck folks, feel free to pm me if you have any further questions

[hanbagz]

Hello,
I can completely empathise with everybody. If consultancy is something people are interested in I can recommend the MSc in Environmental Consultancy that I did at Newcastle Uni. I know it's not for everyone and is quite expensive but I graduated in 2007 and the uni were really good at getting contacts for people and many people from my course have gone on into consulting. It's also worth applying to general construction companies who have an 'environmental' department rather than strictly environmental consultancies.

Funnily enough I ended up working for 7 months at Durrell in Jersey instead as a zookeeper, and am now having a crack at trying to get into conservation back in the UK. I must be a glutton for punishment No joy so far, I'm amazed at how much experience is required purely for volunteer positions! It can be disheartening when you work your butt off at uni, do lots of volunteering and still don't get a look in, but I'm trying to stay positive. Good luck everybody!!

[Dipti]

Hi all,

I work for a recruitment company called that deals with environmental jobs. Im not sure what your opinions are on Recruitment Companies but if you are still looking for an ecologist position please feel free to email me your CV

***

Links removed - please only advertise via the google adverts

Thanks

Stuart

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[sophiemay]

Hey,

Im quite new to this site, I graduated this July with a 2.1 degree in Ecology and Biogeography, i totally find it hard to get into anything ecology related, i recenelty moved to cornwall to be with my finance and just started going out with the local bat group as i really want to get my bat licence and do bat ecology work, but its really hard to get ahold of someone to train you for your licence. i want to get it within the next year. But at the same time im trying to get out with the mammal group to get experience with general trapping, Im not sure who else to approach to get some experience does anyone have any tips for me??? or anyone know of someone who can train me for my licence down here???
but im going to stick with it however hard it is to get into it and get noticed. Im saving to do some workshops with IEEM which i think will really help.

thanx

Sophie

[The Woodman]

From a no bias perspective, my wife is a NE roost visitor bat licence trainer and what really hacks her off are people who want to benefit from her considerable time and effort as a volunteer trainer and as soon as they get their licence, they become instant bat consultants who rarely do the job the were trained for i.e. roost visit volunteer bat workers resulting in putting more pressure on a dedicated hard core of folks who really care about bat conservation over financial gain.

Believe me, as a bat licence holder myself with nearly 25 years experience, you never stop learning and if I was able to give any tips, I would say put yourself out as much as you can afford to. Travel to help research students with projects, join a bat (special interest) group and join in with events like checking bat boxes etc.

Every year, the Mammal Society publish a list of who's doing what in the project world. I've made some lifelong invaluable contacts by cold calling and offering to help with field work.

I think it's difficult to become a good all round ecologist. Maybe try to specialise and finally, keep a weather eye open on the political scene, politicians can influence the drivers that keep the great and the good in jobs.