Case studies : Project officer, Scottish Mink Initiative: Sarah Atkinson

Sarah has a BSc (Hons) Conservation Biology from the University of Aberdeen and works as a project officer (Scottish Mink Initiative) for the Rivers and Fisheries Trust of Scotland.

Shortly after completing my degree in conservation biology I went to the Seychelles to do three months' voluntary work on a nature reserve. During my time at the University of Aberdeen I did a lot of other voluntary work too, including locally with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which I did once a month assisting to maintain nature reserves, and three months' work experience with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service in Australia.

I was also involved in sports clubs and other charity work while I was at university and I think all of these experiences gave me skills that I now use at work, such as dealing with people and time management. I even developed a new group for fellow zoology students to learn new skills in practical wildlife monitoring.

As my degree was in conservation biology, I studied a wide range of subjects including botany, ecology, tropical ecology and environmental legislation in the UK. It meant I could gain knowledge of a wide range of areas and not be too specialised, which has helped me gain a wider understanding of the environment and opened up a lot more options for a career in ecology. In my current role, I need a good understanding of some of the laws surrounding wildlife in the UK, as well as general biology of invasive species, which my degree has helped me with.

My current role is very people-orientated and I really enjoy getting people involved in conserving their local environment by monitoring for invasive American mink. I spend a lot of my time talking to the public, recruiting volunteers and taking part in community events. When someone who is really enthusiastic gets involved, it is really rewarding to know I am helping protect our native wildlife.

The biggest challenge I have to face is being completely in charge of my own time - it’s almost like being self-employed as I have to be very organised in order to achieve the goals of the project I work on. I work alone a lot of the time too, so I have to motivate myself and manage my workload effectively.

Most of my days are spent in the field, monitoring and trapping American mink and recruiting new volunteers for the project. There is still paperwork to do at the end of the day, and in bad weather I can only work in the office, so I write articles for local press and arrange to do talks to local community groups or schools. There is often data analysis to do too, which my degree definitely helped me with.

To work in ecology you have to be really enthusiastic and dedicated - a science degree is hard work and involves a lot of time in lectures and lab sessions. I also found that a degree isn’t necessarily enough: the field is very competitive so you need to have some experience, usually gained through voluntary work. I also found a full, clean driver’s licence is nearly always essential - no matter how eco-friendly you want to be!