I Got Hired: Somerset Wildlife Trust

Posted on: 30 January 2023 by Samantha Riella in Graduate stories

Jemima Western is a class of 2021 MBSc Biological Sciences - Zoology with a Year in China graduate, now working as a Farm Liaison Officer at Somerset Wildlife Trust.

How did you find out about the role?

I had applied for a different role at the Trust, which I ended up being rejected for at the interview stage, but the interviewers kept in touch with me over the course of the following few months and suggested I apply for the job that I ended up getting.

How did you get to where you are now?

A mixture of years of hard work building both my academic achievements, but also my broader skills and interests to make sure I was a well rounded and confident person when it came to job applications coupled with some inherent privileges associated with being able to live and work part time from my family home after I finished uni. I spent a lot of time on my job applications, aiming high, and leveraging relevant attributes that I felt set me apart from the crowd.

What has been your best experience as part of your role?

My favourite experience so far has been taking part in a typha head harvest as part of a paludiculture trial being run by the RSPB on one of their wetland sites. It was a day spent stomping about a peat bog in wellies with some great people!

What has been the most challenging part of your graduate journey?

Getting my foot in the door. So many jobs require a certain level of experience or hyper specialisations. It's difficult getting rejected from a job for something you can't change in any short space of time, especially without the financial means to acquire the experience needed through volunteering (which is often the expectation). Other than this, a big challenge has been learning and adjusting to how difficult it is to effect positive environmental and ecological change in a political environment that is actively seeking to stop us from doing so.

What are your top three tips for other students and graduates?

  1. Find your unique hook - mine was having a Masters level education in conservation, but also coming from a farming background.
  2. Work hard in all aspects of what you do, from hobbies to academics, to job applications. It will pay off.
  3. Don't sell yourself short and aim high.