Environment, Sustainability & Conservation

A simple, well-organized resume is a great place to start. Generally, staying away from fancy graphics and the free templates online will help you to rework and add to your resume as you continue to gain experience, allowing you to adapt content over time. Depending on your experience, here are examples of different content to include to tailor your resume when applying to jobs and internships.

Tips to Tailor Your Resume: 

• Focus on highlighting your relevant coursework under your Education section
  • Examples: Ecology of Fishes, Limnology, Environmental Toxicology, Entomology, Museum Studies
• Include relevant skills/accomplishments within your bullet points and/or in a separate section
  • Examples of Technical Skills:
    • Excel (proficient), ArcGIS (proficient), and Premiere Pro (familiar)
    • Land navigation (highly proficient), mapping, topography, and lab/field research
  • Example Bullet Points:
    • Communicate well with landowners, cross-culturally, and publicly
    • Coordinate outreach efforts, organize and plan community events, lead group activities
• Use section headings that describe your interests, experience, knowledge and skills
  • Examples: Research, Conservation, Outdoors, Environmental, Wildlife Care

Ready to get started on your resume? Check out the SuccessWorks resume page, and set up an appointment with a Peer Advisor or Graduate Intern for feedback on your draft! 

It depends on the type of jobs and internships that interest you! The community newsletter highlights relevant opportunities as they’re posted, and this handout provides you with examples of local organizations where students are known to volunteer, work, and intern locally and across the U.S. Handshake is also a good site to check out, because it has information about career fairs and employer events as well as job and internship postings. I recommend adding the Handshake widget to your MyUW homepage to easily access the site. And of course, there’s the student job board for UW-Madison where you’ll find research, on campus, and Madison based opportunities. Finally, you will find environment specific job boards under the More Resources to Explore section at the bottom of this page. See the Build Your Experience & Skills menu to get started! 

Larger job boards (LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.) are always an option, too. While they can be overwhelming they do give you suggestions in the job search window of other titles to search. This can be helpful in creating a keyword list to help narrow your search. For the time being, I recommend you start with more focused search resources like the ones included above.

Potentially! To get started as an undergrad, consider searching for research opportunities (on campus or summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) and field based study abroad programs (like CEIBA or School for Field Studies programs). Also, field based programs in the US like WRFI may be more accessible than study abroad programs in the upcoming year.

When you graduate, environmental work often requires specific experience, education, and specialized training. Depending on skills you have developed in college, you may qualify for various technician, specialist, and consulting roles. In addition, depending on the type of work you are willing and able to do, you can begin through gap year programs, internships, limited term and part-time jobs. Environmental email job boards are a good resource to sign up for to get a better sense of what types of jobs are available.

While most people who go into environmental related career paths aren’t looking to get rich, environmental jobs span all work sectors, including finance, policy, law, business, real estate, government, and non-profit. Figuring out the different work environments will help you better understand which paths you might want to pursue.

You first want to learn the different ways in which you can work with animals. For example, you may become a zoologist or wildlife biologist working in different paths in conservation management and wildlife rehabilitation where getting a master’s degree and the appropriate certifications and permits will allow you to work in state and federal government positions. Some paths will require further education, especially work with more of a research focus. Figuring out the types of animals you want to work with will also help determine the necessary level of education. If you don’t know what you’re interested in yet, do something, anything to narrow down your interests.

Trying out multiple related opportunities during college is just as important as doing the same once you’ve graduated. When you’ve gained more job experience and tried out different functional areas to build your skills, then figuring out the next right step for working in sustainability will help you be prepared to follow a path that works for who you are and what you want to do. Here is a good article to read more about this process. Learn about local initiatives and resources happening here in Wisconsin.

If you’re just getting started with your resume or cover letter, the Resume and Cover Letters page has all you need to put together a solid draft! Then, start with our General Advising to help you make sure your application materials are ready to submit and highlight all of your relevant skills and experience!

If you know you’re interested in environmental careers and are looking for ways to gain experience, check out the resources on this page. On these pages, you’ll find examples of different career paths related to conservation, ecological restoration and consulting, renewable energy, environmental outreach and education, environmental policy and urban planning, sustainability, and business + more.

If you have in-depth questions about figuring out when and if you should attend graduate school, how to gain relevant experience and build specific skills to become qualified for jobs, or are feeling lost and want help getting a better sense of your options within this Career Community, then that’s a great time to meet with our Career and Internship Specialist for Environment, Natural Resources & Wildlife! Our specialists can help you with mock interviews, honing your application strategy, negotiating a job offer, and discussing that transition from college to career or graduate school. Make an appointment here.