Is Ecology/Conservation a difficult career to enter?

[SpinelessBastardsAll]

DS is halfway through his A-levels of Geog, Biology and Environmental Science. He would dearly love to go to University to study Ecology and Conservation.

But research online suggests that there are very few jobs in this sector. (As with many careers after Uni I suppose)
He's been volunteering with our local wildlife trust, but he's worried that with so few opportunities he would limit himself with pointless degree after 4yrs.

Has anybody got any experience in this area?

I work in consultancy (engineering) and we have a huge team of ecologists. We regularly hire graduates, sometimes on seasonal contracts to support survey work. I would say that it is the poorest paid discipline in the environment team, but great if you like a career that gets you out and about. Most colleagues in the wider Environment team have an MSc to support their undergraduate degrees (usually in geography, environmental sciences, etc) and there are some great courses out there that lead to jobs (the Environmental Consultancy MSc at Plymouth University produces excellent grads in my experience).

Agree, I know of ecologists working for civil engineering companies eg doing surveys related to contracts they have with the Environment Agency. But some people just want to work for conservation charities and from a friend’s DC’s experience that’s tough, insecure, needs driving licence, is often voluntary or part time as PPs have said. Arguably there is more actual impact on conservation helping construction and planning be more sustainable.
Your DC might find he could do a CivEng degree with foundation year if he is basically ok and positive about mathematics but just didn’t choose it for A level. Lots of sustainability in those degrees not an easy degree but good employability compared to many others at the moment.

Or do geography and choose modules related to ecology concerns (look at the modules offered in different unis.) Maybe then a more specific masters in ‘Water and the Environment’ or planning. (This info is based on my own degree and hearing about the field from family members).

My neighbour is a planner and has had a really good career. She had a career break for about 10 years and was able to get back in and is thriving

Agreeing with others re. geography / planning / landscape achitecture type courses.....the construction industry is seeing a big shift towards not building things rather than just pouring concrete in the ground e.g. urban drainage ponds rather than surface water going down sewers, carbon neutral buildings, urban design is taking more account of "social value" etc.
e.g. Geography and Planning BA | Undergraduate study | The University of Sheffield
Urban Planning MPlan(UG) | Undergraduate study | The University of Sheffield
Landscape Architecture BA | Undergraduate study | The University of Sheffield

I work for the Environment Agency. We employ ecologists, but jobs are few and far between. Many of our ecologists entered the organisation via other routes initially. Having said that, the newish BNG legislation has increased demand on ecologists, but we have a recruitment freeze. We outsource a lot to large civil & environmental engineering constancies though who also employ in house ecologists, people like Arup, JBA & Atkins - the framework consultants change periodically.

Thank you so much everyone, this thread has been so helpful x

@ItmightbeOKtostepaway I simply don’t think a foundation year for civils is sensible without Maths A level. If he was good at maths, he would have taken it. It’s the most popular A level. Neither has he got physics and that’s often a non negotiable too. So civil engineering isn’t really possible. There are ecology teams working for consulting engineers but this work is very different from the charity sector. A lot of the work is ensuring designs are SUDS compliment for example.

Sheffield university is great for land degrees and landscape architecture is a great shout. I dint believe you need maths - just some artistic ability!

I studied Ecological Science at Uni - graduating in 2001. We recently had a 25 year anniversary meet-up and these are some of the roles of my cohort. We are all a bit further on in our post-grad careers but it gives you a flavour of what people are now doing. I think when you get to 40+, a salaried desk job is preferable to adhoc fieldwork!

• Flood Risk Manager for Environment Agency
• Forestry Manager for Forestry England
• Biology Teacher
• Christmas tree farmer
• Climate Modeller for Met Office
• Social Worker
• Countryside Ranger for local Council
• Waste Manager / incinerator manager
• CO2 / plant growth in changing climate researcher
• Communications Manager for National Trust
• Sustainable Transport Manager
• Deer "counter" on one of the Scottish islands
• Some highfalutin position at the UN I'm not going to pretend I understand
• Coastal Erosion researcher / lecturer
• Bike shop owner
• Renewable Energy Infrastructure Planner

As part of the reunion event we met current graduates and technology/AI is taking a much greater role in ecological surveying - ie with drones - so there is scope for future roles in a techy/IT side of things.

i know someone who does similar. The consultancy does lots of work for councils and developers.

definitely lots of work relating to newts. She travels around the region but most of the work she does is fairly local (within greater Manchester)

@Clearinguptheclutter When you look at the numbers of dc doing these degrees though, the jobs you mention are few and far between. The NT and wildlife charities have ecologists but the unis are churning out env science grads and even biology and zoology grads who look for similar work. Whether you should need a degree for some of it is questionable too.

Totally. My son in law (they met during a networking event) is a civil engineer and works in the same field as my daughter. Urban sustainability. Funnily though they find themselves on opposite sides of tge table mutually banging their fists on it. But leave it behind at home.

The volunteering with the local wildlife trust sounds like a really useful start. I’d be inclined to look at the degree options alongside the wider range of jobs graduates can move into, rather than judging the whole subject by the number of jobs advertised as “ecologist” or “conservationist”.
It might also be worth speaking to people actually working in the sector and asking what degree, experience and skills helped them get their first role. That could give him a much clearer picture than general job-search websites.

The world needs more ecologists. Local councils haven't a clue. They think planting a few trees is going to save the planet. Whilst at the same time granting planning permission for data centres. (Sorry to derail) I wish your DC all the luck they need.

Would he be interested in Arboroculture? My dh is a consultant in this field and is finding it impossible to find decent graduates. He does a lot of work with planners and has just taken an expert witness exam. He started as a tree surgeon so definitely knows his trees!!

Degree in geography, masters in town planning, then worked his way up at different councils and is now in a senior role helping to come up with housing plans for the area.
He isn’t directly involved in ecology but has an ecologist on his team. Council ecologists do things like checking planning applications to make sure environmental requirements are met, helping to develop council habitat banks for BNG, and advising on maintenance of council owned parks and nature areas.

My dd has just started this degree (it’s 3 years unless they want to work abroad for a year.)

I have similar concerns to yours op but dd is passionate about wildlife and conservation so 🤷‍♀️ I can see dd working for a charity or possibly working abroad. Given the state of the planet I think there will be jobs trying to protect it or negate some of the damage humans are doing to it.

My DH has a PhD in Ecology. He works as a Director for a development company in the Middle East. Over the years he’s become an expert at Arabian plants. Spent the last 5 years working on sites for luxury hotels and golf courses.

Any interest in Town Planning i would recommend looking at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) website to find out the detail of courses and apprenticeships. Lots of good advice above too.

That’s me and DH. We started off with the same qualifications and very similar jobs, but went down divergent routes. Twice, we’ve ever up on the same ptojrct as regulator or contractor, once transparency was enough, once I asked to be moved off the project.

I did a degree in ecology. No one from my course works in ecology despite several trying for a number of years. They did lots of voluntary work and only one managed to get a paid job relating to our degree. He is now in the police. This was over 20 years ago though so things might have changed.

Often highly dependent on volunteers to work, especially until they have 'enough' experience, seasonal contracts, remote locations, low pay, can be very unsocial hours (dawn in summer anyone....?)

It's incredibly difficult to get the experience especially with protected species to work your way up to those posts though and get chartered etc as well

Newer trucks and vans are often also still manual. And usually with some quirks regarding which gear they'd like to be in.

There are also the relevant 'tickets' for equipment such as chainsaw that might be wanted

@SpinelessBastardsAll Geography gives far more career opportunities. No council has loads of ecology experts but they have a lot of planners. Geography then post grad planning is a well trodden route. Private companies employ planners too and they pay pretty well. I’d strongly advise anyone to start with a broad degree with plenty of options and then specialise.

Thank you everyone, DS is going to pursue Geography now, as he has seen so many jobs suggested here that he had no idea about. I'm so greatful to everyone who commented.