Are employers from a different planet or is it possible to understand exactly what they are looking for in an ethical employee? What should you put on your application? What questions will you be asked? How many people are you competing with for jobs?
How can people get a foot in the door at Earthwatch?
We offer a range of graduate internships in both the UK and the rest of Europe for graduates who want to gain experience in one of our departments. They are unpaid but are a great way to gain skills and the experience looks really impressive on your CV.
We also welcome volunteers to work in our offices to help with general administration. We don’t pay people to work on our practical environmental and research projects but we do accept paying volunteers with the costs going towards supporting our research programme. We also offer bursaries for students and the un-waged.
Is it essential to have a degree?
Most of our staff have degrees but it isn’t essential. It’s more important that every team member makes a valuable contribution to the work we do and we look for people who have the right combination of skills and experience for a particular role. It’s vital that you read the person specification very carefully and really stress how you match it.
Do applicants need to know lots about environmental issues?
We look for people who show a keen interest in environmental issues but they don’t necessarily have to have worked in this area before. Many of our current staff have volunteered for similar organisations and their experience definitely helps them to communicate with our volunteers. Experience of living or working abroad can also be helpful to land a job with us because our projects are based all over the world.
What essential skills are you looking for?
The skills we are seeking really vary between individual jobs. Most of our jobs are in administration and running our fellowship programmes, although we also have a small science team based in Oxford. In addition to a keen interest in environmental issues and our work, we look for strong administrative and organisational skills, including familiarity with computers, being able to work to deadlines and good time management.
Applicants to our fellowships schemes need to be able to work with people from a wide range of different backgrounds as well as our corporate partners. Our science team seeks experts in a particular field, for example conservation or heritage. They are looking for the knowledge and experience to help us decide which new projects would be most appropriate for us to support.
How can candidates make themselves stand out?
We want your passion for environmental issues to really jump off the page and grab our attention. Make it very clear why you want to work in this area and why we are the right organisation for you. Enthusiasm is key to making our work a success.
What’s your best advice for people wanting to work for Earthwatch?
I would definitely recommend applying for one of our internships, which we regularly advertise on our website. We really take pride in our internship programme and provide our interns with lots of essential skills and experience, with many of them going on to land great jobs. Any volunteering experience, whether in the field or the office, is also a definite sign of commitment and I would encourage anyone who is serious about working for us or a similar organisation to consider it.
What questions might successful applicants face at an interview?
Earthwatch works with a lot of companies in the corporate sector, including HSBC and BP. We often ask people to comment on why they think we work with corporates and how they feel about this. We also ask questions that will reveal whether people have done any research about Earthwatch before they come to the interview, so anyone wanting to work for us should make sure they’ve read our website and annual report!
Earthwatch
www.earthwatch.org/europe
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