EJN's Top Ten Tips
for Obtaining an Environmental Job

Tips based on the Workshop hosted by
Environmental Jobs Network

Friday 17th 2006 Federation Square Melbourne

1 - Build your knowledge of your Industry of Interest - attend relevant events and lectures / network.

2 - Build your knowledge of your Industry of Interest - read relevant publications and talk to someone who has the job you'd like to have.

3 - Create networks- get to know and to be known within your industry of interest / get your foot in the door of unadvertised positions.

4 - Add to your CV - volunteering, graduate programs, cadetships, mentorships and extra education courses.

5 - Be specific about the volunteering you do - take on roles that would be suitable in the career you want, gives you on the job experience and something specific to add to your CV.

6 - Only apply for jobs you really want (but keep in mind positions which might be able to build skills you need).

7 - Put in the effort in your resume, key selection criteria and cover letter.

8 - In the interview - know about the job position and the employer.

9 - In the interview put your strength, interests and passions forward - be enthusiastic, show your confidence!

10 - Be clear about career goals / career of choice. Really think about what it is you are looking for in a career / industry and then follow steps 1 to 9 to get there.
EJN Top Ten Tips Workshop

At the 2006 Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, EJN brought together another successful and informative career-building event, with this popular interactive workshop designed to provide the best environmental career advice going around. Rather than a panel of experts talking to the crowd, the speakers interacted with the audience to come up with a top ten of environmental career tips listed above and on the SLF websites. The event attracted over 100 environmental job seekers from different backgrounds and career stages.

Organised by Cathy Oke (Firestarter), this workshop brought together a panel of experts with different backgrounds and very useful experience. Alexi Lynch (ICLEI, Office Health, EJN) led the panel introduction, as they briefly provided information on their backgrounds as well as providing their tips on environmental career paths. Nichola Porter (RMIT) took the time to review the range of environmental jobs available, especially in environmental science (download the RMIT Careers in Environmental Science Infographic - PDF 20kb).

Ian Thomas provided notes about the social science options at RMIT for environmental careers and studies. His tips emphasized getting experience (paid or voluntary), developing broad skills, networking, clarity on your skills and what you want, and being able to sell yourself effectively.

Lex reinforced the importance of networking at every level. Even at elementary levels and events like this workshop, networking can always help you to get your foot in the door.

Laura Donnellan contributed very helpful tips from a different perspective – Human Resources. She stressed planning, research and networking. It is very important to think out how and where you will get experience. Who will you be volunteering with and what skills are you after developing? You should also indicate what projects you want to work on within the scope of their organisation to avoid doing tasks that aren’t relevant or interesting to you. Getting relevant experience by volunteer or otherwise is key. It always helps to call a potential employer, as this gets them familiar with your name. Networking can be an intimidating concept, but a lot of it is just meeting people and talking with them. Networking also helps with referees, which are a very important part of the job search process. Natural networks can come up from even volunteer experience and education experience. Finally, it is very important to research the type of work that you want.

The bottom line is that it’s a very small world and just by getting out there, you will start to learn about who people are and what opportunities are available. Volunteering is a great way to get your foot in the door if you are struggling to get experience. Jobs can sometimes come out of volunteering as well.

After hearing a few interesting stories and tips from the audience to help break the ice and get the ideas flowing, the audience broke into small groups to come up with tips, stories, questions and faux pas for the environmental job process. Many of these are included below.

After the workshop groups came up with their tips, questions and experience, the audience reconvened and shared this information. The panel then answered some of these questions and reinforced many of the points brought up by the groups.

The panel did a fantastic job of listening and adding information. The workshop was concluded by the panel condensing the information and picking out their favorite points.

Find out as much as you can about the place you are applying.

Arm yourself with questions ahead of time to make an impression on your interviewers. This also shows respect and enthusiasm. Interviewers will sometimes ask for your perception of the role or what do you think you’ll be doing on a day to day basis. If you know nothing, this doesn’t put forward a good impression.

Also, be prepared with ideas at the interview. These can be about the job, opportunities for that position or anything else to show your interest and capabilities.

If you don’t get a job, it might not be meant to be – don’t be disheartened. Don’t lose your enthusiasm.

Preparation is important – networking, knowing what you want, being prepared to apply, being prepared for the interview.

Be prepared to take the job if you get it. You should think about how it will affect your life in different ways.

Put in the effort to write up a good resume and strong application letters.

Networking

Lex ended the workshop with a call for a better word for ‘Networking’. We all have to do it, and it isn’t that bad – but ‘Networking’ has turned into an unnecessarily intimidating concept. To get rid of this perception, EJN is asking people to send in a new word to replace it.

After what seemed a very quick workshop, the audience left with some new ideas and enthusiasm to get back out there and put these tips into practice.

 

Speakers' Biographies
Alexi Lynch is the Co-Founder of Environmental Jobs Network and works at ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability as NSW State Manager with the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. He is Chief Editor of Office Health (www.officehealth.com.au) which provides health, safety and wellbeing information to organisations around Australia. Alexi was co-host of the highly successful EnviroPluck TV series on Channel 31 in 2004, and has overseen the rapid growth of EJN. He also sings, plays guitar & piano and teaches music.
Cathy Oke has studied and worked in the environmental field, specialising in marine and fisheries conservation for over 13 years. Cathy has a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Marine Biology and Zoology, and a PhD in
Genetics. Cathy has worked for the Marine Stewardship Council, a group using an eco-label to reward well-managed fisheries; Earth Systems an environmental consulting company, and is currently working for Firestarter Pty Ltd. Firestarter is an award-winning environmental business responsible for running the Kids Teaching Kids River Health conferences across Australia (www.riverhealth.com).
Laura Donnellan, has recently commenced with Moreland City Council as the Greenhouse Coordinator working in the Sustainable Development Branch. Laura previously worked with ICLEI-A/NZ as a State Manager for the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign. Her role included supporting councils through the the CCP and CCP Plus program and coordinating the Eco-innovative Cities project. Laura is currently studying her Masters in Environment and Planning at RMIT and has previously completed a Bachelor of Business in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. Prior to working with ICLEI-A/NZ, Laura worked for three years in Human Resources for Greening Australia Victoria. Her role required her to manage all aspects of human resources for the non profit organisation. Laura also held a number of other HR roles both in Australia and abroad.
Ian Thomas teaches into undergraduate and postgraduate environmental policy programs at RMIT, and has written on environmental impact assessment and environmental management systems. In his research Ian has investigated the issues of embedding environmental education in the curricula of universities, examined the status of tertiary environmental programs, looked at the employment of graduates from these programs, and recently instigated a survey of environmental professionals in Australia, which provided the basis for the Guide to Environmental Careers in Australia. 
Dr Nichola Porter, Senior Lecturer, Environmental Science Program Coordinator School of Applied Sciences SET Portfolio RMIT University, did her honours in Chemistry. Her next step was teaching to High School students whilst completing a Masters Degree in Education. She later decided to pursue her interests in state of the environment by doing a Master's degree in Environmental Science at Monash. Her work as a research assistant in the Physics department on instrumentation, lead to her joining the Water Studies Group at what was then Chisholm Institute of Technology but is now Monash. Nichola continued on to do a PhD in Analytical Chemistry, which eventually lead to her appointment as a lecturer at RMIT. After starting off as a lecturer in Analytical Chemistry, her passion for Environmental Science led to her appointment as the coordinator of the Environmental Science degree.

Additional Workshop Group Tips, Questions, Wishes....

  • Several participants wished there was more money for rural office extensions.
  • Others wanted to see more advertised jobs for zoologists.
  • Find out which rganisations offer volunteer work (Conservation Volunteers Australia and EJN's volunteer ads can help).
  • Figure out your role or how you fit in.
  • Only apply for jobs you really want (but keep in mind positions which might be able to build skills you need).
  • Attend events and lectures.
  • Think about utilizing TAFE as a first step to education.
  • Show your interests to let your strengths show, by asking lots of questions.
  • Consider groups like Green Corps and Green Reserve to get experience with a stipend.
  • Have written goals (RMIT careers centre can help students with this. They try to look at where you want to be in 5 years and work backwards from there. Once you have figured out where you want to be, it is useful to contact someone who is at that point and ask them for additional advice on how to get there).
  • Identify what it is you want to do.
  • Then make sure you can be happy in that area.
  • Have qualifications across different areas.
  • Know how to sell yourself.
  • Network.
  • Be prepared to negotiate.
  • Look into recruitment agencies.
  • Repackage yourself to make yourself more marketable.
  • Find a way to get funding for your dream project if it is something you are truly passionate about.
  • Build up your knowledge of the area. This can be done by volunteering, reading, talking to someone who has the job you’d like to have. Even if you don’t know someone, it can be worthwhile to cold call and use this opportunity to meet someone.
  • Have some variability in your volunteering tasks.
  • Look into opportunities in graduate programs.
  • Be proactive – There are a lot of unadvertised jobs that you will never see unless you put yourself out there and start to make contacts.
  • Make people aware of your passions and interests.
  • Create contacts within the industry and identify what you want to do. There is a large range of environmental positions these days, from grass roots to fully corporate environmental. You need to figure out where you would like to be. There are also a lot of opportunities in some areas, more so than others. For example, there is a large demand for environmental scientists and engineers.
  • Take opportunities to get your foot in the door – volunteering, taking a job you might not really want, but offers relevant opportunities.
  • Use education opportunities to gain specific skills.
  • Some companies don’t always recognize transferability of skills. Need to clearly sell yourself and these transferable skills.
  • Education in any form is important. Shorter courses are also available (e.g., MEFL offers several relevant ones).
  • You can always take green skills into any industry (e.g., plumbing, etc.). There are opportunities to make any job an environmental job.
  • Try to avoid being pidgeon holed as greenie. Being flexible and multi-talented can be very attractive to employers.
  • Make sure you develop basic job skills.
  • Urban and regional jobs are quite different. Regional job seekers need to be more proactive and might need different skills.
  • How do you apply for a full time job if you will only be available for a year? You may want to broach this issue in your second interview. Ideally, you can look into organisations that value professional development and make this an asset for your application.
  • Should you apply for a job you think you don’t really want? Possibly. You should determine whether it might be an opportunity to get skills or create a network. The danger is that it may make you less enthusiastic about your career.
  • What about jobs that require specialist skills? These jobs should still be considered, as a lot will have skill building training provided.
  • How do you address Key Selection Criteria you don’t have? You can deal with these by addressing broader issues to show you have general awareness and understanding, despite the lack of experience. You can also address these more personally. You should apply anyway if you don’t quite have the amount of experience required. The Key Selection Criteria are somewhat general, so it is always worth having a go.
  • Volunteer under an internship arrangement. This can get you skills that you will be able to sell later.
  • Work within your environment to change practices within the corporate sector. Make changes if you don’t work for a green agency.

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