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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication data applied for
Hardback: 9781119052845
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Courtesy of Bailey Taberham
I would like to dedicate this book to my Mum who inspired my love for books; my Dad who instilled in me the need to work hard and have ‘stickability’; and to Jasmine for her constant love and support. Many thanks to my children for their involvement – Bailey for the book cover image, Ethan for keeping me well fed and amused and Lara for proofreading. This book is in memory of my Dad and Mama Lee, who gave me great support while I was writing but never got to see it finally published.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the entire team at Wiley who have helped to bring this book to fruition and most notably to Andrew Harrison, Senior Commissioning Editor and Mandy Collison, Managing Editor.
A group of reviewers helpfully reviewed the book text and passed on their expertise to help make the book more valuable to readers. They are Carol McClelland Fields, Kevin Doyle, Lisa (Yee) Yee‐Litzenberg, Laura Thorne and Sharmila Singh.
I would like to thank my networks and the numerous volunteer contributors, text reviewers and experts globally who have made the book more global, relevant and information rich.
The names of many of the major contributors are noted at the end of the book, but there are also hundreds of additional helpers who chipped in with views and helpful ideas. My thanks go to all.
Justin Taberham, London
June 2021
1 Introduction
1.1 Author Introduction
The author, Justin Taberham, is an environmental professional and Chartered Environmentalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the global environment sector, working for Government agencies, a water utility, a lobbying charity and a global professional body. He is now a Consultant and Advisor, working in environmental publications, business and careers. He has significant experience of environmental recruiting, developing staff and advising and mentoring people globally who seek to develop a career in the environment sector. His website is www.justintaberham.com, and the site has a full professional profile.
Figure 1.1 The Green World of Work.
Source: Martens 2020. © Joanne Martens.
The Env.Careers Website
The author manages the Env.Careers website www.env.careers which is ‘The “one stop shop” for people who want to develop a career in the global environment sector’.
The Env.Careers website is an allied resource to this book, and it helps deliver ongoing additional content. The website is also a standalone resource with tips, advice and mentoring for those seeking a green career.
1.2 The Author’s Green Career – Any Lessons to Learn?
I grew up in the Norfolk countryside, in rural England. I was an enthusiastic scout, angler, hill walker and conservation volunteer. I was also keenly involved in environmental campaigns on issues such as Rainforest Conservation, Acid Rain and Species Loss. My parents were very tolerant of me bringing home ‘roadkill’ and other natural finds to ‘study’.
As I got older and had to make career direction and subject choices at school, I was often shunted into a specific area of interest which would enable me to more easily get a ‘standard’ job – early suggestions from careers questionnaires were Policeman, Insurer and Teacher. None of these were of much interest to me – it was a mystery why the questionnaires never asked, ‘What do you actually want to do?’ Careers advice tended to just look at the limited subjects I was studying and extrapolate what career field was broadly relevant; the more sophisticated current career survey techniques still extrapolate from your school subjects, general interests and personality traits and find you very common areas of work, in an almost apologetic attempt to pigeonhole you.
In the early 1980s, very few people worked in the environment sector and I struggle to remember any careers talks that mentioned it. ‘The Environment’ tended to be a subject for hippies and drop‐outs, and environmentalism was not perceived in the more positive light that it is today. The ‘Natural World’ was being promoted to the public by the likes of David Attenborough and Jacques Cousteau, but it seemed very exotic and separate from normal career options. Protecting and managing the environment as a career wasn’t promoted, even following the major nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986 and the scourge of acid rain in the 1980s.
Many people I have met who work in the global environment sector have grown their passion from childhood experiences with nature and I’m an example of this. Just because a quality has been developed in early life, this doesn’t preclude it from playing a part in your future career decisions.
I decided at school that I would take ‘general’ A‐Levels (UK examinations pre‐university), investigate environmental degrees and consider what jobs were on offer. It must be noted that this was a time when internet searches were not possible, and university and jobs information had to be found in a school or public library, by searching the indexes and shelves. School careers services were very limited and only the most ‘popular’ career sectors had information booklets.
My parents were wonderfully supportive of my decisions and I enrolled in the leading Environmental ‘sandwich’ degree at what is now the University of Hertfordshire, UK (a sandwich degree is a degree that has a year in ‘industry’ in the middle). From the first day, I was hooked and realised that this was a career direction worth pursuing with a passion. Because of the sandwich degree format, I gained a year’s experience in fisheries management around London and Hertfordshire, which helped me to get on the jobs ladder after graduating, in 1990. However, getting my first job still took four months of odd jobbing, hundreds of applications and endless job hunting until things worked out.
One thing that strikes me, when I look back at my attitude at this time, was my ‘stickability’ in the light of people giving me advice to go for a mainstream job. In the global environment sector, this trait is hugely important. Throughout
