Starting Out - Lewis' path

Becoming an Early Career Ecologist is probably one of my better moves. Granted, I found the shift into a new career scary but also very exciting. It was something new and different and, yes, scary. But the good scary. The week when I made the decision brought with it this sudden realisation that I was now walking into a profession that would demand a lot from me and I was naturally scared. But this is what spurred me on. Since I was 16, I had found myself in low paid jobs that didn’t want much beyond an enthusiastic customer ready smile and bland obedience. The kind of jobs that want maximum effort for minimum wage. It wasn’t all that challenging or satisfying and I needed out.

I started helping Cairn Ecology with bat surveys in 2019. Back then I was nothing more than a spare body that was curious about bats. This curiosity was sparked while on a family holiday the year prior. Bats lived near our villa, and we could see them flitting about at night. Being a dyed in the wool ecologist my sister had her echo-meter with her, and she left the family group to stand in the dark, listening to the bats. I ended up joining her and I am glad I did. She gave me a very brief crash course on acoustic analysis on her iPad showing me how you can identify a call and marry it to species. I found it kind of awesome and seeing those bats flit about our heads and getting to hear them like that was new and amazing. At least I thought so. Not long after that I was asked if I would like to help on bat surveys with Cairn Ecology and that was me for 2019 and 2020. About midway through survey season 2021 I started to seriously consider a job in the environment sector. I really, really enjoyed doing bat surveys and through chatting with my colleagues I was learning more about different survey types, species, habitats, everything! I found that the more learned the more I wanted to find out.

This culminated in me finally asking if I could start, maybe, working towards a bat license or doing a badger survey or tagging along on a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal. Lorraine met this tentative line of questioning with abundant enthusiasm and after an intense and lengthy chat, with some added googling, she offered me a full-time position within Cairn Ecology, and I was going back to University to do a Masters in Sustainability & Environmental Studies.

My background is in the Arts (my undergrad was English Literature) and I had spent so long doing your minimum wage type job that to suddenly find myself starting a new career and going back to university gave me figurative whiplash. To be honest, under all my outward excitement and obvious apprehension, I was very, very insecure about this decision. What if this was the wrong move? What if I wasn’t cut out for this? I was painfully aware that I wasn’t a scientist of any sort. Up to this point I had read the occasional non-fiction book to do with science or the environment and I bought New Scientist every now and then. My interaction with Ecology and Science was pedestrian at best. But I figured that if I could learn how to work and echo-meter, identify bat species by behaviour and sonogram and take appropriate notes then I could probably learn how to do much more. Easy. But what gave me the final push was my anxiety over climate change and ecological collapse. The feeling, the need to do something good, something that would make a change for the better became an ethical necessity.

But why Cairn Ecology? The obvious answer is because I was already involved with the company. With two bat seasons under my belt and halfway through my third I had my foot in the door. And, like I already said, my concerns about climate change were pushing me in this trajectory already. But objectively Cairn Ecology is an amazing company. For one, their ethos aligns perfectly with my own. They are all about paying a fair wage for fair work, having a work/life balance and ensuring that they consider their role in the environment and always strive to make a positive difference. This was a big, and welcome, departure from my past jobs. The emphasis on work/life balance really hit home for me. In one of my previous jobs I got a call while on holiday (that same holiday where I was introduced to bats) asking if I could cover a shift the next day. I was in France. They replied, “so you sure you can’t come in tomorrow?”. *sigh* I don’t want to talk down my previous experiences too much though. I have worked with some amazing people over the years and learnt skills that have been invaluable. But looking back, none of them can compare to Cairn. Not by a long shot. The team is stellar, and Lorraine is one of the best bosses I have ever had the pleasure to even be in the same room with. She is a font of knowledge and, yes, she wants things done well and to a certain standard but she wants you to enjoy yourself while doing it. Her enthusiasm and passion is catching.

I have now been within Cairn Ecology for 12 months and I can’t lie, my insecurities have remained. I still feel like I am groping in the dark half the time, or I overlook something that should be plainly obvious but whenever I step back I realise this is expected. The learning curve I am going through is immense to say the least and the journey from subconscious incompetence to subconscious competence is long and hard fought. But like I’ve already said, the team at Cairn Ecology are amazing. Everyone is supportive and understand of each other and it is truly a great place to work. I am reminded every day that my choice to move into Ecology as a career will be worth it. It already is worth it. Professionally and personally, I am changing for the better and I cannot wait to see how Cairn Ecology grows and how I grow with it.