Hi Adam,

I work in the Conservation Technology team at Fauna & Flora. We’re a small team of 5 people working to provide help and solutions across the organisation and our partners on all data and tech-related questions. My background is in GIS & Remote sensing, I studied BSc Geography followed by MRes in Wildlife Conservation after which I spent some time volunteering using my GIS skills before starting at Fauna & Flora nearly 4 years ago. So it sounds like we have a similar start in our careers, you’re on the right path and it sounds like you are building up a lot of great experience. Unfortunately, our team don’t have any internship opportunities at the moment, but we do quite regularly host internships – these are shared on the Fauna & Flora careers page here when we have them. 

My main advice to you would be keep doing what your doing, searching for internships and careers in this sector is tough but they are out there. When I was starting out I used Conservation Careers website a lot, there are also often roles and internships advertised on WILDLABs – so remain active on here! 

If you’re looking to learn more about GIS I would recommend checking out some open source training materials e.g. QGIS training material, or I use the website Spatial Thoughts a lot for various tutorials.

Best,

Chelsea

Hi Adam, 

I am an employer in wildlife tech in Canada. Unfortunately, we don't have an overlap with your skill set and training but I can offer some advice. 

From an employer perspective, I always prefer hiring people with a passion and background in wildlife. However, it is extraordinarily rare to get applicants with this background. A combo of applicable technical training and passion/experience in wildlife at least for me is a guarunteed interview. I would recommend you do an extensive search of potential employers in wildlife tech and start introducing yourself. Call, email, visit ones close if you can, even if they are not actively hiring. 

You may also want to consider going to the dark side to get an early stage boost - for profit environmental consulting often done by engineering firms. They always need GIS work. The work of course is environmental compliance for development purposes not conservation but you get a lot of hours and gain seniority quickly if you choose to move back to the good side. 

Lots of service side or non-profits at the least view GIS as an asset so you may have luck there. Organizations doing drone work would be a good place to start.

For your resume, some feedback:
 

•  I prefer a 1 or 2 page max resume for an early stage person. You can cut some block text from your descriptions. You may want to format the resume using a designed template as well.
• A photo of yourself, date of birth, and health status are not common or expected in North America. Most employers do not want to overtly get this information and may filter out your resume because of it. Consider a separate format for N. America if you look here. 

Best of luck in your job search.

Hi @Adamtours , in case you are still looking for an internship this opportunity at SOLOM EARTH might interest you. Alternatively, the Satellite Applications Catapult will be advertising soon several interhsips (they may or may not be conservation related though but keep an eye out for those).

Hope this helps!

Adam,

I work for the Zoological Society of London. We currently have a 9-month paid internship in the Estuary and Wetlands team, supporting inshore marine habitat restoration projects. The closing date is soon (26th Feb).

See here: