WiseOceans' top 15 skills to help you stand out from the crowd
As you might have heard, we’ve been doing a bit of a recruitment drive recently. Reviewing such a high number of stellar candidates, with a range of extra curricular skills, got us thinking about the additional skills which are useful for a career in marine conservation. Lucky for us, the team at WiseOceans had already done the legwork for us and were happy to share their tips below…
The WiseOceans team has scoured over 100+ ‘Interview with WiseOceans’ to bring you the top 15 skills that interviewees have needed in their marine conservation jobs (but didn’t necessarily know they would need when they started out). How many have you got? Can you tick them all off?
You’ll often find yourself working in small teams/organisations or perhaps in remote locations, so bringing these extra skills can make you an indispensable member of the team!
In no particular order…
IT skills
You might find yourself needing to edit/build websites or put together spreadsheets, posters, PowerPoint presentations etc…
Marketing and social media
Communicating what you do is an ever-increasingly important part of any job. Understanding and using social media effectively is a valuable skill to bring to any job. By developing your own web presence – blog, tweet, make Instagram stories, podcast etc… you can gain these skills and help promote yourself and network. It is a win-win!
Maintenance
Fieldwork is often remote with challenging time constraints. Being the person that can fix something to help get the project back on track makes you very valuable. So, learning how to fix boats, cars, compressors and bikes or having something like plumbing or electrical skills make you a very useful person!
SCUBA qualifications
Not all jobs in marine conservation take place underwater but having at least the equivalent of PADI Rescue Diver, or preferably Dive Master is often an essential qualification for jobs and opportunities in the field
Freediving
Learning to safely and effectively free dive is an excellent skill to bring to a team. There may be lots of reasons why SCUBA diving may not be practical, so being a good freediver can be very useful.
First aid
Out in the field, having some first aid knowledge is very valuable and very often these types of jobs/opportunities require a first aid qualification.
Boat handling
Qualifications like the RYA Powerboat Level 2 are very often essential or desirable for many jobs. Having plenty of hours at sea is even better!
