Tell us a bit about your current job. 

I work as a Senior Citizen Science Project Officer for The Conservation Volunteers. I am based in Glasgow and have been with the organisation for over 3 years now. The Conservation Volunteers is an environmental charity with a focus on connecting people and nature and improving green spaces for the benefit of both.

I work on a huge variety of projects from hedgehog conservation, projects to encourage young women into outdoor careers, outdoor learning with primary schools, survey design on topics like woodland health and hoverflies, as well as running events, nature walks, wellbeing sessions and training courses. I can have about 7 or 8 projects on the go at the same time which are hugely varied, so you might see me running around all over the place – one day looking at hedgehog conservation projects, the next day on a boat on the river looking at creatures in the water. 

What and where did you study after school?

I studied for a BA (Hons) in English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Strathclyde Uni. Then I went to London to study a diploma in performing arts and teaching and lived there for 3 years. I enrolled in a distance-learning Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation in Edinburgh and moved home to begin some volunteering work and start an apprenticeship in the sector I wanted to move into. I have just submitted my final thesis.

How did you get from answer 2 to answer 1?

I didn't originally intend to take this path at all. I didn't know what I wanted to do so I just thought I'd go and study the thing I was good at in school and do an English degree. After uni, one of my first interviews was for Penguin publishing on the Strand in London; I fell in love with the city and the idea that it was possible for little me to go and live there in some capacity. I needed to believe in myself more. I didn’t know what I truly wanted to do but I followed my passion at that time  which was performing and I got into the final year of a Performing Arts degree at Italia Conti in London. I graduated, got an agent and began working as a dancer. I had LOTS of side jobs (ping pong games host, receptionist, handing out flyers), LOTS of hustling to get by and get the roles I wanted and also gained experience but on the side I began to develop other interests as it became clear I still wasn’t quite fulfilled. I think its okay to realise that a hobby can be just that and still be as fulfilling, if not more, than when you're trying to make money from it.

I got a job at London Zoo as a presenter, doing animal talks with kids and schools, and it all clicked into place. I studied at home in my own time, used free courses, volunteered at weekends, wrote blogs, started a website then applied for an MSc. No other route into conservation was visible to me at the time, but something I’ve started now is an honest space for these questions to be answered: an online platform called And Another Thing (IG @andanotherplace) for anyone wanting to work in the industry OR have it as their hobby and interest. Anyone with a passion is welcome and we aim to have discussion sessions to openly find out our collective issues and worries, who we want to hear from and what we want to change, and then follow up with workshops, panels, speakers etc focusing on those topics. 

How does your formal education feed into your present career (if at all)?

Having that English degree background has been super helpful. Communication and conservation go hand-in-hand. Having a way with words, and being comfortable with a lot of writing is really important – there are always funding bids, press releases and reports and we do our own social media so it's being able to tap back into that knowledge of what makes a punchy sentence, what is going to sell this to your audience, how are you going to sell the story of a not-very-glamorous species... 

From performing I am confident talking to people, not shy of making approaches and not scared of a few no’s.

Of course there are certain jobs for which qualifications are necessary, but there is a lot to be learned in your first few roles and carving out your own position within the conservation/environmental sector can be key.

What things have you learnt outside of formal education that have been helpful to your career? 

I have been lucky to meet and work with a few brilliantly inspirational female figures, through volunteering and work, that have given me something to look up to. I think that's been key. I think initially with volunteering you need to feel the benefit to yourself (and not just be blindly volunteering), but it can show you the ropes and certainly help you make connections. For me volunteering helped me become able to identify trees, bumblebees, plants etc, which is key if you are taking groups out into nature. You can only really read so many books – so I surrounded myself with passionate people who knew this stuff. They'd say 'oh, that's one of the rarest bumblebees in Scotland, let me tell you all about it' and I'd get infected by their passion. If there was a free conference I'd go to it – where everybody was ten years older than me and much more qualified but I'd be there and try and introduce myself to people.

Another thing that was useful to me were online free courses from the Open University as a way of kick-starting my interest in the subject. I felt lost at sea – I didn't know where to start and I had no formal qualifications [in conservation] so this gave me a way to dip my toe in. I've also taken some 'social media for charity' courses to help with promotion which has also fed into self-promotion. I am always interested in having a side project for myself, to be a person outside of and not always defined by work. 

What are the really useful skills for someone in your job to possess?

It's hugely about multitasking and having organisational skills. As a project officer there can be six or seven different projects and partners on the go at the same time that you need to be on top of. You also need to be equally happy with your indoor office days, doing planning and research, as with your outdoor, muddy-in-a-field days. I think you need to be naturally inquisitive and want to drive things forward. The whole role relies on external funding year upon year, so to secure your role you need to bring money in, to have a head for suggesting ideas and be constantly trying to bring them to life. Resilience, and also a good way with words as you're constantly writing reports, bids, pieces for newspaper etc, newsletters. And ultimately just genuinely caring about seeing change in the environment or change in a community. 

What does an average day at work look like for you? 

There generally isn't an average day, but pre-covid an especially good day could include:

• Session with a primary school (building bird boxes etc). We do a lot of work with schools and young people and have a huge focus on outdoor learning and education. Mainly it's about getting to know primary school classes, form a relationship with the young people and get them outside in all weathers – a lot of them know me quite well now. We would have kids that in the beginning would say 'I'm not going outside it's raining' or 'I'm not touching that, that's disgusting', they'd want to stamp on worms and pull the wings off butterflies. We try to cover the whole of Glasgow which obviously has more affluent areas and more deprived areas, to try and make sure everyone has the same kind of access to nature. 

• Tree planting with a community group. We have a Scottish hedgehog conservation project which is the only one in Scotland – hedgehogs need hedges so tree-planting helps with this.

• Work on a funding bid for an air pollution project. We've got a big one going in at the moment about monitoring air pollution in front of schools. A lot of schools open straight out onto roads so we're monitoring to see if you build up a barrier of trees or natural resources whether it will absorb the pollution. 

• Site visit to a local nature reserve and have lunch 

• Filming on TV (interview piece or focus on a project)

• Researching potential project: pollinator corridors in city centre

• Hedgehog nocturnal survey safari with volunteer group. I take a team of volunteers out with torches during the night looking for hedgehogs to tag so we can monitor the population. 

• I might also squeeze in a bit of research – I'm always looking for ideas for new projects and if a new organisation has popped up we might try to link with them, for example we teamed up with an organisation working with vulnerable African women who have recently arrived in Glasgow. We took them out walking in natural spaces – it's mainly a social situation but we did one on birds where we told them the names of our birds and they told us the names in their languages. 

What’s the best thing about your job?

People – it's a cliché but its true. Working with really young kids, working with teenagers who are resistant at first – I see it as a mission. I just love being around people. There have been moments that have been so rewarding they've brought me to tears. We also do a lot of work with high school girls to show them that outdoor work doesn't have to be unglamorous, and that it's not uncool, breaking down the stigmas around women who do outdoor work. More and more as I progress, I can see all the things I wish I had had access to. I felt I had so many unanswered questions and didn’t see anything (as in job roles) that suited me and that would excite me: the visibility just wasn’t there.

Getting to work outdoors is a privilege, and to play some small part over positive change to the environment.

What’s your least favourite aspect of your job?

Sometimes the pressure of working for a charitable organisation and knowing that funding from external sources is needed to keep you in a role, that you need to find ideas and successful bids to keep on going. It's all down to you whether you get the money for the charity or not, in the way you've written the bid and shown the project. 

What advice would you give to someone seeking a job like yours? 

You need to show your passion for it. Conservation/the environment/the outdoors – it's so big; I used to worry I needed to know everything to be able to be worthy of being there but if your speciality is squirrels, or oak trees, or you've just come from a community-focused background, you just need to show your passion for whatever area it is. Show that you have spent time researching and volunteering. 

I would look for free training courses and conferences like I did, mentorship schemes – there's a really nice one for women in ecology, by the British Ecology Society, which is open to anyone around the world to be paired up with a female mentor. It was really helpful for me, having a mentor. Use social media smartly to connect with people, and don't be afraid to reach out (because I was for so long) – build that community. If it's, say, hedgehogs you want to work with, look for the people who are in that field and make connections. 

Be happy, genuinely happy, in the outdoors – there are days when it doesn't stop raining and you're up to your face in mud and you don't see any wildlife, all day, and you're freezing cold – and you just have to take that. You do see lots of wildlife and it is exciting but you have to know you're in it for the right reasons. We've got so many iconic Scottish animals which are really cool to work with but they're also impossible to see, so you're working for the benefit of those animals without touching them or even seeing them. 

Follow Kirsty on Instagram @wildscotplace

And Another Thing @andanotherplace

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