Ecologist : Employers and vacancy sources

A range of places employ ecologists including:

Governmental and statutory bodies:

• The nature conservation agencies: Natural England ; Scottish Natural Heritage ; the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) ; and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)  
• Government departments, e.g. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)  
• Environment Agency (EA)  and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)  
• The Forestry Commission  
• Local government, national park authorities and water authorities.

Scientific bodies:

• The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)  and its research centres, including the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the British Antarctic Survey, and the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory.
• The Marine Biological Association (MBA)  
• Freshwater Biological Association  

Conservation and ecology NGOs and voluntary organisations:

• British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV)  
• British Waterways  
• The Wildlife Trusts  and Scottish Wildlife Trust  
• The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust  
• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)  
• Plantlife  (the wild plant conservation charity).
• Friends of the Earth  and Greenpeace UK  

Other employers include the media and public relations, educational institutions and businesses and industry. Biological survey work is also carried out by consultancies working for any of the organisations above or for commercial concerns, such as construction firms, including highway construction, landfill companies and renewable energy companies developing wind farms. Environmental consultancies are listed in the ENDS Environmental Consultancy Directory .

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• Environmentjob.co.uk  
• Ecological Recruitment  
• Countryside Jobs Service (CJS)  
• The Green Directory  
• GreenRoles  
• ENDS Environmental Job Search  
• Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM)  
• Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM)  

You can use and build up your contacts to write speculatively to organisations to enquire about both jobs and voluntary work.

Get tips on job hunting, CVs and covering letters and interviews.