Conservation Careers | Highlights from 2019
Since Conservation Careers officially launched in 2013, we haven’t stopped learning, growing and innovating – even for a second!
This year is no exception – we’ve developed a new conservation training board, ultimate guides, live webinars, and a brand new membership scheme.
As we look ahead to a new year, we wanted to reflect on what we’ve learnt and accomplished during the past year at Conservation Careers… and where we’re headed as we enter a new decade. Here are some highlights…
How to Apply for a Conservation Job | A complete guide
We all know that conservation is a fiercely competitive sector. But we also know that all too often, talented, well-trained conservation job-seekers do everything right but still miss out on great opportunities because they fail to stand out at the application stage.
Early this year we developed our ultimate guide ‘How to Apply for a Conservation Job: A Complete Guide to Producing CVs, Resumes and Cover Letters by Conservation Careers’.
The guide takes you through the 10 key steps to the application process with easy-to-follow exercises, explains how to create stand-out applications with real-life examples, and helps you choose the right CV or resume style for you with a series of templates.
It’s already helped people land interviews for the dream jobs with organisations like Blue Ventures, The Nature Conservancy and ZSL, and we can’t wait to see who’s next!
US Conservation Jobs
In June, we began actively expanding our job listings into the US Conservation Job Market. Now we find and list about 12 new opportunities every day from the US.
The US is home to hundreds of conservation organisations (ahem, organizations), many of which employ hundreds of employees. This is also an exciting place for internships – with tons of internships that come with salaries, stipends or other benefits. Don’t believe us? Check out our job board!
In December 2019 we launched a list of the Top US Conservation Organizations, based on over 5,000 conservation jobs in the US which we’ve shared on our site over the past six years. If you see anymore missing from the list, let us know!
Ultimate guides | In-depth resources for conservation careers
Does it feel overwhelming trying to understand and navigate the conservation sector? We hear some questions come up over and over again, like ‘How do I apply for a conservation job?’, ‘Do I need a master’s degree?’ or ‘How do I switch careers into conservation?’
That’s why this year we started developing ultimate guides that distil all of our experience and the advice from professional conservationists into question-by-question guides to help fast-track your career.
We’ve created one ultimate guide per month since June:
- 15 Key Conservation Jobs | Ultimate Guide for Conservation Job Seekers
- Top Paid & No-fee Conservation Internships
- How to apply for a conservation job | The 10-step guide to nailing your dream role
- Conservation Internships and Volunteering | Finding the best opportunity for you
- Top turtle conservation internships
- How to switch careers into conservation | Top ten questions answered
- Do I need a Master’s Degree (to work in Conservation)?
- TOP US Conservation Organizations
Webinars & Live Events
While we love searching out the best jobs and creating resources, we also love getting to know and interact with YOU, the conservationists we’re here to support. We’ve been running monthly live events where we delve more in-depth into popular topics and answer your most pressing questions.
If you missed them, you can still check out the recordings:
Kick-starter for conservationists | Spanish-speakers support
From July to August 2019 we ran our first online Kick-starter course with extra support for Spanish speakers, partnering with Dr Fernando Mateos González of bioblogia.com.
We also ran two four-day workshops focussed on developing a personal career plan with Conservation Careers and getting training in project management with WildTeam UK. Together the workshops helped 60 people with a 100% satisfaction rating.
Searching for the World’s Top Conservation Training Opportunities
We spent a large part of the year behind the scenes planning and preparing to launch a brand-new part of our site dedicated to sharing conservation training opportunities – including master’s, degree / Bachelor’s, short courses, postgraduate certificates, workshops and more.
In October we launched the search for the world’s Top Conservation Training Opportunities, based on student reviews. To be a Top Conservation Training Opportunity, courses or programmes must have at least five positive reviews from current or past students.
So far we’ve found 1307. You can see the (growing!) list and suggest a training opportunity or leave a review.
Conservation Careers Podcast
The Conservation Careers Podcast is almost two years old and it’s really gaining popularity this year with interviews like:
Dr Mike Clarke | RSPB
Jack Randall | Wildlife Filmmaker, global adventurer, conservationist
Dominic Jermey OBE | ZSL
Dr Cheli Cresswell Sinclair | Conservation Optimism
Ruben Hoekstra | Future For Nature Academy
Dr Nirmal Jivan Shah | Nature Seychelles
Chris Thompson | Audley Travel
Prof. Ken Norris | ZSL
Prof. Brendan Godley | University of Exeter
Neil Prem | Seven Steps to Purpose
Dr Mark Anderson | BirdLife South Africa
Rhett Butler | Mongabay
Dr Ben Sullivan | Fishtek Marine
Dr Stacy Jupiter | Wildlife Conservation Society
Suzanne Smith | Amazon River Dolphin Conservation Foundation
Andrea Pawel | Oana Namibia
We’ll be finishing off this year with a special podcast episode interviewing Conservation Careers’ very own Dr Nick Askew and Kristi Foster.
Conservation Careers Academy
This year we’ve given our memberships for job seekers and career-switchers a big upgrade with the Conservation Careers Academy.
The Academy contains the best career-boosting resources, training and support from the leading experts in the conservation industry. This includes jobs, training, experiences, a support community, an online classroom, a career explorer library of jobs, an employer connect service, live chat, careers advice, application and interview support and … ways to get paid!
Careers Advice | Conservation Careers Bloggers
We welcomed 21 new writers to our team of Conservation Careers Bloggers, who interview professional conservationists and write careers advice articles for the site. In return we help them to refine their writing skills, promote their work and network them into jobs.
Think you might like to become a blogger? Let us know! The single question we ask of any volunteer blogger is ‘how will you benefit from writing for us?’
Ecopreneur Action Group
With recent growth in social enterprises seeking to aid conservation efforts, we began supporting ecopreneurs to get their ventures off the ground. We launched an Ecopreneur Action Learning Group to support six exciting new ventures during their first period of growth.
Our team
One of our early bloggers (back in 2013 when Conservation Careers was just getting started) recently became the second member of staff at Conservation Careers.
After writing for us five years ago, Kristi Foster went on to work for Ecotourism Australia, Fauna & Flora International (UK), the World Agroforestry Centre (Kenya) and in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru. She joined as Head of Engagement in April this year.
In October we welcomed our new Social Media Officer (Volunteer), Christina Colondres. If you’ve wondered why our social media presence has recently become more exciting and engaging, now you know why!
We’ve also continued to work with a diverse global team of job posters, developers, podcast editors, transcribers and experts on a weekly basis. A special thank you to Karen, Hiral, Valentina, Jarryd, Matias, Andreea and Lloyd.
Looking ahead to 2020
As we head into the new year, we’re excited about what’s in store.
In January we’ll be announcing the final list of Top Conservation Training Opportunities, based on reviews from current and past participants. Better yet, we’ll be awarding all training providers on the list a special webinar for their students with our top advice for careers in conservation.
We’re also starting looking into the conservation volunteer and internship space, seeking to provide better access to opportunities and information for people seeking experiences.
Podcast-wise, we put out a new episode every two weeks on Tuesday, focusing on helping people explore their career options and form a plan of action, and we’ve already scheduled well into 2020…so stay tuned!
Recognising that our mission is to ‘help conservationists achieve career success’ a key part of our development going forward will be to start providing career support to professional conservationists – not just those seeking to gain their first paying role in the sector. We’ll be developing a tailored career coaching service for professionals, careers switchers and early-career conservationists.
We usually have far more ideas than we can put into action all at once. But this is what makes Conservation Careers journey exciting and we’ll continue to share our experiences, to listen to your views and to bring you along for the ride…
Artwork by Wild Lines – an artist focused on raising awareness about wildlife conservation. Follow them at https://www.facebook.com/