Spotting the right route

How to choose?

Breaking the barrier of No experience = No job = No experience
Lists sources of general careers advice about matching what you want with what you need.

General Careers Advice

There are several key websites for general careers advice on finding jobs, placements, volunteering and courses. These will help you choose the right route for you.

StudentForce has produced a poster describing the different routes into environmental careers. The poster is available to you to download, print and display in your workplace.

Routes to Environmental Careers

Prospects is the recognised UK graduate careers support service, primarily aimed at undergraduates but also of direct relevance to postgraduates. Prospects includes information on employers, jobs, work experience and career choices. Useful features include: Quick Match – matching your own skills, motivations and preferences with hundreds of occupations, and Occupational Profiles – cross-referencing similar occupations, Analysis of the graduate job market and salaries, CV and interview advice, and job opportunities.

Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services is the association for careers professionals in Higher Education. AGCAS has web pages on sector briefings, vocational courses, career development advice, jobs skills, toolkits and CV advice.

Hobsons provides graduate jobs and career advice. Hobsons has web pages on Looking for graduate jobs, Advise for good applications, Successful Interviews, Assessing your skills, Gap year advice, Work experience, as well as careers advice for working in the environment.

Virtual Careers Library links careers site for graduates.

DoctorJob has a database of job and volunteering opportunities in the UK. DJ has web pages on job vacancies for graduates, work experience, careers advice, postgraduate courses, and a life page on how to live and work post graduation.

Analyze My Career has a number of resources that find careers and jobs. AMC has web pages on careers, jobs including ecologists and environmental technician, colleges with over 7000 colleges and universities, and downloadable sheets on careers advice.

Specialist advice on environmental and sustainable development careers

Several organisations specialise in advice and information on environmental and sustainable development careers.

StudentForce for Sustainability and the wide range of environmental professional bodies (listed in Joining the Right Network) offers specialist advice on environmental careers to registered students and recent graduates.

Environmental Careers Organisation is a US non-profit organisation offering placements, volunteering and careers advice to US students and recent graduates. ECO has environmental careers advice and an outline of US placement and volunteering opportunities, including labour market statistics.

Environmental Career is a website on environmental employment and the home of the US Environmental Career Center. EC publishes and promotes several books on environmental careers, and the monthly National Environmental Careers Report, organises video and teleconferences on environmental careers, and runs an annual student environmental careers conference in February and a Green Careers conference in October.

World Service Enquiry helps students who want to work on overseas development. WSE offers a One to One advisory service by phone, e-mail or face to face, a new email course to help you think and plan your career in international aid and development, called E>volve, publishes an annual guide to volunteering, an online survival guide, a monthly list of Development jobs, and can arrange travel insurance and criminal record checks.

Ethical Careers is an ethical careers service aimed at UK students and graduates, managed by People and Planet, which claims to be the largest student campaigning organisation in the UK working on the environment, human rights and poverty. EC helps young people to find a socially and environmentally responsible career, by providing career profiles, lists of organisations offering volunteering and internship opportunities, and publishes YOUR FUTURE which includes advice, job profiles and events listings, with 3 issues per year.

Experience Development acts as a central portal for information on the many different aspects of international development. ED has web pages on information for essays, dissertations, job or volunteering opportunities, university courses, and UK volunteering and internships with UK-based international development organisations.

Growing Careers provides information on UK careers in environment, food chain and rural sectors. GC has web pages on 50 career paths with typical employers, qualifications sought and sample job adverts, a map illustrating universities and colleges courses, information on job vacancies, courses, career and job application tips.

British Ecological Society is a learned society for those with an interest in ecology. BES offers careers advice with its downloadable publication Rooting for a Career, with advice on employers, qualifications required and career profiles, and offers grants to students and recent graduates for residential specialist courses, especially those at the Field Studies Council Centres. There is also a careers and training page with links for jobs, graduate careers advice and postgraduate courses.

The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment provides environmental practitioners and professionals of all levels with advice, support and assistance to ensure that the methods they use and the knowledge they receive are in-line with current best practice guidelines in environmental management and assessment. IEMA’s job service advertises over 1500 jobs online and allows you to search under classifications of job-category, region and pay scale.