For this post I thought I’d run through my hints and tips for making it in the ecology world. 

Realising I was close to coming to an end of my degree, nearly qualified enough to get my first role (two degrees!) and having no job, I applied randomly for a few seasonal ecology roles to gain some experience. An email landed in my inbox one day and asked me to go and collect some great crested newts in a bucket and move them to an adjacent receptor site. I’d never done this before, but sure, I said OK and the rest is history. 

There are definitely a few things I wish I had known before diving straight into consultancy this way, but sometimes the deep end is a great place to learn. 

Here’s some advice for starting out in ecology and progressing up the ladder.

• Go For It – As far as reasonably and practically possible, say yes. Try different surveys, in different locations, with different people. There’s a lot of opportunity out there and gaining a broad appreciation of the ecological consultancy landscape I think is a must. Everyone has different skills, views and ways of working so also make sure you soak up as much as possible from a variety of senior ecologists. 

• Generalise then Specialise – Linked with the above, start of broad. Dabble in a little bit of everything, learn what interests you, build your foundations and then start to specialise. There are many specialists out there doing fantastic work, but I think you’ll find most of them started of broad before finding their niche. If you know you were born to be an ornithologist then of course, dive down that avenue, but I’d suggest keeping options open to keep pushing yourself to develop.  

• We’re Nothing Without Plants – Plants and fungi underpin ecology. Too many ecologists dive straight into the job with a focus on newts, bats, dormice, badgers, without any knowledge (or at list limited knowledge) of basic botany. It’s a skill that’s gaining more focus with BSBI’s Field Identification Skills Certificate (FISC), but still in my opinion underutilised and under invested in. Get a good grounding in botany and that will help you understand habitats. Start off with the basics, learn the common grasses, ferns and indicators of certain habitats. Understanding habitats will help you with your ecological knowledge of all the fluffy (or feathery or slimy) things later on. Botany not only adds another skill to your toolbelt, but it’s also a fascinating field where you can never stop learning, identifying and exploring. Plants are very interesting, useful for habitat identification and most importantly vital to the rest of the ecosystem. Get botanising people!

• Question Why? – If something doesn’t feel right, question it. Many graduates come into the role and just get on with what’s asked of them, get jobs done and move onto the next one. Great, progress made, project complete, experience gained. However I’ve seen numerous cases where graduates are put in tricky positions, out of their depth, in the grey areas of the law or undertaking surveys in unsafe conditions. It’s always best to stop, think and ask why in these situations? Don’t pick up bad ecological habits, start off on the right foot, understand your capabilities and know when to question ecological practice. In many workplaces this behaviour should be praised, if it’s not… then your probably not in the right workplace. 

• Get your Licences in Order – It’s a slight cliché, but if you don’t have a GCN licence within the first few years as an ecologist, where have you been? Licences are a little bit like ecology trophies, something to aspire to, something to collect and importantly something that can get you that next job role. The classic starter licence has to be the Class 1 GCN licence. You’re sent out on countless GCN surveys and translocations, working under someone’s licence, but before long you’ve gained sufficient experience surveying, mitigating and handling this species to acquire your own licence. It’s a great one to start with and one that most ecologists hold at some point in their career. The other licences are notoriously hard to acquire, so you may need to focus on one at a time, in line with your future career aspirations. 

• CIEEM and CPD – I used to feel like this was a slight nag from managers. Are you the correct CIEEM membership level, and have you completed your Continued Professional Development? But it’s a critical part of the job, not just for career progression, but for your own personal sanity. CPD has enabled me to learn new skills, refresh my practices and develop my career, but importantly for me, it breaks up the mundane aspects of the job. I often use CPD as a way to relax, reset and to take my mind off the spreadsheets, financial forecasts and survey programming. Being a CIEEM member not only holds you to a Code of Conduct but is also that great network to tap into. If you need advice, help, guidance, training don’t hesitate to join, there’s a network of ecologists that can help you out. So get your first membership underway, earn those post-nominals and stop putting it off writing about how great you are. 

• Build Your Library - I'm addicted to books. Gather and build a library of sources, digital and physical that can help you progress in your career. Collect identification crib sheets, field guides, survey best practice guides and management guidance documents. The information held in these documents will help you grow as an ecologist, learn knew skills and be to hand when your can't remember your anthers from your stamens or your greater coverts from your alula.