About Andrew

Andrew has been a member since June 29th 2012, and has created 14 posts from scratch.

Andrew's Bio

Andrew's Websites

This Author's Website is

Andrew's Recent Articles

Ocean Conservation Online Networking: LinkedIn – Part 2

Building Your Network Using Groups

Last week I guided you through the different parts of the profile on LinkedIn and told you how to build your profile with keywords so people, with similar interests and perhaps in the same career path, can connect with you. This week I’m going to show you how you can go out and hand pick your Ocean Conservation Online Network.

Online networks on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus can be tricky because anyone could connect with you. We also think we are better off having more people in our networks. Think of celebrities for example. They often have millions of people following them and this amount is suppose to be some measure of their popularity. But how many of their followers do they really know? And what is the real number with which they interact? Probably not many.

When you build your online network, make sure you connect with people with whom you will be able to interact or else there is no point connecting with them. Remember, you want to be able to converse with people that have similar career paths so you can help each other out.

This is where LinkedIn is awesome as you can target and connect with people based on similar interests or career focus. There is one small problem, LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to connect with someone you don’t know or have something in common with. That is why LinkedIn groups is such a great tool on this career focused social media site.

Check out the video below to see how you can increase your targeted network using LinkedIn Groups in Part 2 of our LinkedIn tutorial.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, by clicking here, to help you with your Ocean Conservation Career.

Join our Ocean Conservation Careers Membership Program to get access to tons of information to help you build a long and successful career in Ocean Conservation

If you want more information on how to convert Ocean Conservation Applications to Interviews, Sign up below to our Ocean Conservation Career Builder email list for FREE access.

Diving for Shark Conservation for a Living – with Christine Shepard

ChristineShepard

Shark conservation is often pictured when you think of Ocean Conservation. We love sharks, we fear them, and we respect them all at the same time. And one thing is for sure, we want to live out our passion to protect them from harm.

So how do build a career in Shark Conservation?

Do you become a scientist? Maybe

Do you become a photographer/videographer to document sharks in the wild? That’s another way of doing it

Or do you do both? ABSOLUTELY!!!

But there are no jobs posted on marine conservation sites with for someone who has those qualifications. What do you do? You can find another career or you could create your own opportunities using your passion and motivation for you interests.

This is what Christine Shepard did to land her job as Multimedia Specialist at the University of Miami’s RJ Dunlop Marine Conservation Program and I interview her today so she can tell you how she is working in her Dream Job! You are going to find out how she used her self confidence to create your own opportunities and work in a position that you will love. Enjoy the interview!

Christine Shepard

RJ Dunlop Marine Conservation Program

Shark Tagging Program

Christine’s Personal Website

Join our Ocean Conservation Careers Membership Program to get access to the only online resource designed to help you build a long and successful career in Ocean Conservation.

You can also get access to our FREE Video Short Course on how to convert Ocean Conservation Applications to Interviews, Sign up below to find out how you can get access.

Ocean Conservation Online Networking: LinkedIn Part 1

Ocean Conservation networking could mean you could get a job in your career path by possibly bypassing the application process.

Imagine you are sitting around one day and you get an email from a colleagues, in your network, who makes you aware of an upcoming job at his/her organization and thinks you would make a great fit. So you can just send them a resume and they will interview you without looking at other applicants first because they know you through their network. Sounds great doesn’t it?

There is only one problem…YOU DON’T HAVE A NETWORK of people in your field, so the above situation was made up!

LINKEDIN

Back in the day, networking in Ocean Conservation meant travelling to conferences or meetings to meet people and build a professional relationship with them. It was much harder to meet people before the internet. Then email came around and list-serves were created, where people can join email groups to have specific subject matter emailed to their inbox. List-serves made it easier to network online, but you still couldn’t find out much about people unless you personally emailed them, which people didn’t like all that much because they thought it was spam. But now, we can find out about people and make meaningful connections through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus…but LinkedIn is the site I on which you need to focus most of your energy!

LinkedIn is a site that is dedicated building online connections with other people in your field of interest that you couldn’t connect with offline. Many people have the preconceived notion that your LinkedIn profile is just another way of displaying your resume online to show potential hiring managers, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

LinkedIn is a place where you can establish yourself as an expert on a particular subject where people will seek you out for answers or for your advice. I’ve built my network up to almost 3,000 people (at the time of writing this post I was at 2,884 people) and I’ve created a network of people who are in my field that can help me share a story, search for a job position, or let me know of an Ocean news story that would be perfect for a post on SpeakUpForBlue.com.

My point is you should be on LinkedIn to help you in your Ocean Conservation Career!

Over the next few weeks, I will help you get familiar with LinkedIn and help you becomes established on this site to become the “Go-to” person in your Ocean Conservation Field. I will warn you that these upcoming “How-To” videos will be a bit longer than the normal OCC TV – Tips videos because there is so much information on them that it’s difficult to make them short.

Check out the video below to get familiar with LinkedIn and optimize your profile (or build an optimized profile if you don’t already have one) so people can connect with you based on keywords in your field.

Life of A Marine Science PhD Student with Jesse Senko

Jesse Senko Interview About Marine Science PhD

So you want to know about a marine science PhD? You want to know what to expect when you do a PhD in Ocean Conservation…well look no further because the video interview below is something you will want to see and take notes!!!

I’ve never done a PhD. I did a Master’s degree and I always wanted to do a PhD, but I never did (or haven’t yet). There is always an excuse like “not the right time” or “I can’t afford to be a student again because I have a mortgage and two kids.” Valid excuses, but none the less…excuses.

But one of my major doubts in doing a PhD is that I didn’t know what to expect from a doctoral program. I always wondered how I needed to apply; how I should choose my advisor; where I should go to do my thesis; and the list goes on. I’m sure if you ever thought of doing a PhD you had similar concerns.

So, I wanted to help you answer your questions, or at least the questions that I had, on what life was like as a PhD student. My colleague and buddy, Jesse Senko who is a 2nd year PhD student at Arizona State University, was really happy to help me out and help you decide on doing a PhD. Jesse is doing his thesis on Sustainable Fisheries Management and conducts his field work in La Paz, Mexico (lucky guy!).

In the interview below, Jesse talks about his reasons for doing a PhD, how he got into the program, and what his experience has been so far. This interview has a ton of information so make sure you take notes or watch the video more than once.

If you have questions for Jesse, write them in the comments below and he will try and answer them.

Check Out the video now

3 Skills To Help You Get An Ocean Conservation Job

People are hired for an Ocean Conservation Job because they are qualified for the position.

The statement above is true…to a certain degree, but what happens when a hiring manager comes across two or three people who have the same qualifications for a job? They could only choose one, but which one should they choose?

3 skills

Hiring managers will choose the BEST candidate for the job, which means they are going to choose the candidate that offers the best “Added Value” to the organization, company, or government department. So how can you ensure that you offer the best “Added Value” to the place to which you are applying? It’s not a simple answer.

Every organization, company and government department have different definitions of “Added Value,” so it can be difficult to try and figure out which added skill will help the organization you want to help the most. I mean, there are soooo many organizations out there, where do you begin with choosing a target place of work?

This is where it helps to have a clear defined career path in mind so you can narrow down the place you to where you would like to work. For example, if you want to nurse sick marine mammals to health, you might want to target and research the Marine Mammal Center to see what they do and the types of qualifications you need to work there. You might also want to see what extra skill set on which they rely to get their projects done, i.e. project management, fundraising.

In the video below, check out 3 extra skills that will come in handy to many Ocean Conservation Organizations out there that can be attained with a little hard work up front.

Powered by WishList Member - Membership Software