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Charlie Fothergill

Ecologist
What employment sector do you work in?

Private Sector

How long have you had a green job for nature?

4 years

Salary Range

£30,001 – £40,000

Please describe the work that you do.

My core skills are in botanical field surveying – this involves identifying, listing, and mapping the plants at a site, in order to better understand the biodiversity value and condition of the habitats that are present.

Back in the office, I do desk studies to learn more about the site from existing data, I map the data I have collected both in the field and the desk study using GIS software, and I work on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) related reports.

What do you most like about your job? Any dislikes?

I love the constant learning curve of working with plants – whether it means discovering new and exciting flowers, challenging myself to identify grasses, or learning what the species are telling me about the habitat (is it chalky? acid? wet?). This fascination for plant ID spills into a hobby for me, and I regularly go out with my local natural history society plant group, as well as the British Bryological Society to look at mosses!

What inspired you into this career? 

I previously worked in marketing roles for places like the National Trust, and although I loved the places, I wanted to find a way to work in the beautiful outdoor spaces rather than purely in the office. During lockdown, I got obsessed with botanical ID and started making videos for friends on social media, and both friends and strangers encouraged me to try and make it into a job. Then I met two ecologists in my local pub and discovered that looking for plants could be a career!

Have you faced any challenges in progressing your career so far? 

As a ‘career-changer’ coming from a low-paid industry (arts & heritage) with no financial resources, it was really challenging to be able to make a complete career shift. In order to keep earning throughout the process, I really sold my ‘transferable skills’ which involved being able to manage projects, budgets, and the ability to write and communicate well. I juggled several jobs – such as having a part-time temp job with the local council redacting legal documents in the day, doing bat surveys at night, studying part-time at the weekends and doing volunteer botanical surveys to gain experience! It was tough to look after my well-being during this time, but I was driven by my passion for what I was studying, and I’m proud of how resourceful and hard-working I was during this time.

What education/training did you have?

In order to help with my career shift, I came across the MSc Biological Recording and Ecological Monitoring at MMU (now hosted by Harper Adams uni) which was run over intensive weekend courses over three years, which meant that I could both work and study. After a year I was able to leave my temp job when I was offered a 10-month traineeship with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust (DWT) to work in the Biological Records Centre (BRC), which gave me my first proper step into working in ecology. The traineeship was funded by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund and I’m very grateful for its existence, as it’s hard to afford time to volunteer when working and studying, and many ecology jobs rely heavily on people gaining experience from volunteer work. As part of the traineeship I was allowed to shadow other work within the DWT, and so I was able to go out regularly with the Local Wildlife Sites Officer to gain experience doing botanical surveys.

What advice would you give to someone coming into the profession? 

It may sound contradictory, but you need to find a balance between being resourceful & adaptable early on to get a foot in the door (ie. using my previous career’s transferable database skills to get me an office-based traineeship at the DWT) and not being afraid to try and push to stay in the area that you’re passionate about (i.e. botanical surveying). I learned from my previous career how easy it can be to be swept down a path that doesn’t suit you – be determined to fight for what you enjoy!

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Tags: England, Private sector, Data and mapping roles, Ecologist, Ecological surveyor

Date profile submitted: 16/04/2025

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