Andrew Lewin discusses strategies for finding opportunities in marine science and conservation, such as jobs, PhD positions, postdocs, and more. He emphasizes the importance of effectively marketing yourself in cover letters or emails to potential supervisors. By learning how to present yourself well, you can increase your chances of success in this field.
Tune in to learn valuable insights on seizing opportunities in marine science and conservation!
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When applying for opportunities in marine science and conservation, it is crucial to effectively market yourself by showcasing the value you can bring to the position or project. In a podcast episode, Andrew Lewin emphasizes the importance of catching the attention of potential supervisors or employers by crafting a compelling narrative about your skills, experiences, and passion for the field.
One key aspect highlighted in the episode is the need to tailor your communication to the recipient. For instance, when reaching out to potential graduate supervisors, it is essential to keep your emails concise, engaging, and focused on the value you can offer. By demonstrating your interest in their research and explaining how your background aligns with their work, you can increase your chances of standing out among other candidates.
Moreover, Andrew discusses the significance of storytelling in job applications, especially when applying to non-profit organizations or government departments. By sharing your personal journey, motivations, and aspirations within the field of marine science and conservation, you can create a compelling narrative that resonates with potential employers. This storytelling approach helps humanize your application and allows recruiters to connect with your experiences on a deeper level.
Furthermore, the episode emphasizes the need to research the organization or individual you are applying to and tailor your application to match their values and mission. By understanding the goals and objectives of the organization, you can effectively communicate how your skills and experiences align with their needs, thereby increasing your chances of securing the opportunity.
In conclusion, effective self-marketing in the marine science and conservation field involves highlighting the unique value you bring to the table, crafting engaging narratives that showcase your passion and expertise, and aligning your application with the goals of the organization or individual you are applying to. By following these strategies outlined in the podcast episode, you can enhance your chances of securing opportunities in this competitive field.
When tailoring your cover letter to a specific organization or position, it is crucial to stand out by telling a compelling story of why you are interested in the opportunity. As discussed in the podcast episode, crafting a personalized cover letter can significantly increase your chances of catching the attention of the hiring manager or supervisor.
One key aspect highlighted in the episode is the importance of conveying your passion and motivation for the role. By sharing a story of what inspired you to pursue a career in marine science and conservation, you can create a connection with the reader and demonstrate your genuine interest in the field. This personal touch can set you apart from other candidates who may simply list their qualifications without providing context or depth.
Moreover, tailoring your cover letter to the specific organization shows that you have taken the time to research and understand their mission, values, and goals. By aligning your experiences and skills with the needs of the organization, you can showcase how you are uniquely suited to contribute to their work. This tailored approach demonstrates your commitment and dedication to the position, making you a more attractive candidate in the eyes of the employer.
Additionally, storytelling in your cover letter can help you illustrate your journey and career progression, highlighting key experiences and achievements that are relevant to the role. By framing your qualifications within a narrative context, you can provide a cohesive and compelling account of your professional development. This storytelling technique not only engages the reader but also allows them to envision how you would fit into the organization and make a meaningful impact.
In conclusion, tailoring your cover letter to the specific organization or position is a powerful strategy for standing out in the application process. By telling a compelling story of your interest in the opportunity, you can demonstrate your passion, alignment with the organization's values, and unique qualifications. This personalized approach not only increases your chances of securing the position but also showcases your authenticity and commitment to making a difference in the field of marine science and conservation.
Storytelling in job applications, particularly for non-profit organizations, can be a powerful tool to capture the attention of potential employers and effectively convey your passion and commitment to the field. In the podcast episode, Andrew Lewin emphasizes the importance of telling a compelling story about your journey, motivations, and aspirations when applying for jobs.
When crafting your job application for a non-profit organization, it's essential to go beyond listing qualifications and experiences. Instead, focus on narrating your personal story and explaining why you are drawn to the organization's mission. By sharing the pivotal moments that led you to pursue a career in conservation or marine science, you can create a connection with the employer and showcase your genuine interest in the cause.
Andrew highlights the significance of explaining the reasons behind your decision to apply for a specific position at a non-profit organization. Whether you are transitioning from another field or seeking to align your values with your work, articulating your story can help employers understand your motivations and determine your fit within their organization.
By incorporating storytelling into your job application, you can demonstrate your authenticity, dedication, and enthusiasm for the work you are applying for. Employers in non-profit organizations often seek individuals who are not only qualified but also deeply committed to the cause. Sharing your narrative can set you apart from other candidates and leave a lasting impression on the hiring team.
In conclusion, leveraging storytelling in job applications for non-profit organizations can be a compelling strategy to showcase your passion and commitment to the field. By weaving your personal journey and motivations into your application, you can effectively communicate your values and demonstrate why you are the ideal candidate for the position.
If you're trying to find an opportunity in marine science and conservation, whether it be a job, whether it be a PhD opportunity, whether it be a postdoc opportunity, or master's opportunity, it doesn't matter. When you're looking for some type of opportunity that's going to benefit your career in this field of the marine science and conservation, you're going to want to listen to this episode because I had had some thoughts about finding jobs and what to do and how to really be able to describe yourself in a cover letter or an email to a professor that you want to want as a supervisor for your graduate work. And I feel like knowing a little bit of how to market yourself is a great way to get in your foot in the door. And we're going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. And this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about taking action because we're looking for ways to get opportunities in marine science and conservation. That could be a number of different ways. That could be an internship, a volunteer ship, which I'm not a huge fan of volunteerships. But if you have to do it, you have to do it. Graduate work, a job itself, where you get paid a full-time salary, consulting work, all that kind of stuff. And there's one common thing that we don't really talk about when we are trying to figure out how to get those opportunities. That is to market yourself. That is to catch people's attention. And it really kind of got to me when I was listening to a podcast, a video podcast from Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk-- people know him online as GaryVee is an internet marketing guru, I guess you would call him. He's the legitimate real deal. He started a YouTube channel back in the day on a wine-- I think it's called Wine Library, where he basically-- like when YouTube first came out, he leveraged that platform and started talking about wine to help sell wine from his dad's wine store, a liquor store. And it kind of blew up eventually. And since then, he's been on a book writing-- he's had probably seven or eight books, maybe more. His most recent book is Day Trading Attention. And it really caught my eye, but his talking about his attention is the way to get opportunities, whether you're trying to sell a product or you're trying to sell a service, whether you're trying to sell yourself to get a job or anything. Trying to get someone's attention in today's information overload system is very difficult. It's more difficult than it was in the past. And we are going to talk about what I think you need to do and what marketing skills will help to get the attention of that person that you want to get an opportunity from, or you want to get that job, get that internship, get that graduate work, whatever that might be. And we're going to talk about that today. I'm pretty excited about this. I've been thinking about this for a little while now. And I'm kind of going off the cuff a little bit. But it's something I think is really good. But speaking of attention, if you want to get attention drawn to ocean news, you need to have ocean news. And sometimes you need to know about all the different articles. And sometimes it's difficult to go out and get those articles and find them all the time. Because you have time, you have time to do other things. You have other priorities sometimes. You have to go grocery shopping. You have to take a bus or commute to work, or you have to drive to work. And you can't always dedicate that time. You have to spend time with your family, with your partner, with your dogs, your pets, and so forth. And sometimes you don't just have time. But wouldn't it be great if you just got an email from me every Monday to Friday to say, hey, this is what's happening in ocean conservation. You should take a quick look at this. Links to the articles, links to job opportunities and graduate opportunities and internship opportunities. And then, of course, it kind of lets you know what's happening with the latest podcast that was published. Because sometimes, hey, look, you get busy. I get it. You may not listen to this podcast every three days, or every two days, when I publish the Monday, Wednesday to Friday, I get that. So all you have to do is just be like, hey, you know what? Every once in a while, I'm going to read a little brief description of the podcast. And I listen to it right on the email, if I need to. Or I'm going to go to the podcast app, my favorite podcast app, and I'm going to listen to it on there. There's so many ways that you can get up to date on that. But the biggest thing is to get that news that are coming to you each and every Monday to Friday. So weekdays, you get it at 8 o'clock in the morning, Eastern, and you get access to that email. So I want you to go over and go to speakupforblue.com/newsletter. Speakupforblue.com/newsletter. Sign up today. It's free to sign up. It's free to get in your inbox. And it's probably the best thing you're going to get, especially if you're interested in ocean conservation. So check that out, looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Now, I want you to take a little-- go back about 30 seconds, 40 seconds, maybe a minute. And I want you to listen to that over again. I've never sold the newsletter like that before. And I want you to listen to how I did that. I made that a benefit to you. Not begging for you to sign up for my newsletter because I want attention. I made it a benefit for you. I made it to say, hey, you probably don't have time. You're busy. You probably don't have time to sign up for, or you probably don't have time to look around for all the different things on ocean conservation. You've got work to do. You've got family to be with, a partner to be with, pets to be with. You've got things to do. You've got to go work out. Do yoga, pilates, whatever that might be. Maybe go for a run. Maybe do some sort of team activity, hockey, baseball, football, European football, American football. Whatever that might be, you might be part of a team. Frisbee golf, all that kind of stuff. You might be busy. I made it look like, hey, you're busy. It's hard for you to go around and search. You just don't have the time to think about it all the time. Maybe you're searching for an ex-fication. Maybe you're searching for an apartment, a house, whatever that might be. But you're busy doing other things. So the benefit to you is if you want to know more about oceans, you get this newsletter every weekday, eight o'clock in the morning, eastern, in your inbox. You don't have to go searching for it. You just have to look at it. Briefly, look at the articles. And boom, you're up to date. Really easy, convenient for you. I'm making it about you. Not about me that, hey, I'm spending, you know, an hour, half hour, an hour each and every day putting this newsletter together. No, no, no, no. It's not about me. This is about you 'cause I'm trying to provide a service for you. You came to this podcast 'cause you wanna know how to protect the ocean, right? I'm telling you how to protect the ocean, not only on this podcast, but I'm giving you an opportunity to come back to the podcast and remind you that, hey, I got a podcast out Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and this is what this one is about on Friday, like it is today, right? So I'm offering the benefit to you. Now, I'm not just trying to say this and go over this to say, hey, you are going to benefit and get so much value from this newsletter. I think you will, and that's why I'm proposing it, but I want you to think about how I'm proposing it. I want you to think about what that does when you start to propose the value that you bring to an opportunity, whether it be graduate work, whether it be an internship, whether it be a full-time job, part-time job, consultancy, you have to start crafting the benefit, the value-added service that you provide if they decide to provide you with the opportunity, right? Grant you the opportunity. You have to start to catch their attention. Right off the bat, I'm like, hey, I know it's busy, you know, to find all this articles on ocean conservation, but you can trust me to put that together and send it to you each and every Monday and Friday, right? And that's the benefit, that's what we do, and that's how I want to sell it to you. I want to show you the value of what you need to do when you go for, you know, when you use my newsletter. It's free, all you have to do is put your email in, it's easy to do, you don't have to do anything other than read the articles quickly, even just read the headlines if you have to, right? But I offer you that type of service. And so that's how I'm selling it. Now, think about how to sell yourself for a job. Now, you're not going to go put this and be like, hey, look, you're busy. You know, you don't want to look through 400 candidates, I'm the candidate from you. No, that's not the way you sell yourself for a job or an internship or a graduate student type of work. But what you want to do is you want to catch their attention. You know, if you're trying to catch a professor's attention as a supervisor, you're not going to just talk about yourself, you're not going to send a big, long email. You're, they're busy, we know they're busy. So your email is going to be short. You know, each paragraph, if you do a couple of paragraphs, it's going to be like two to three sentences, that's it. It's going to be short. It's going to be eye catching and catching attention. Could be, hey, just read your paper on such and such. And I got really interested. You know, and I see that you, you know, this line of research is one of your focuses for your research. I'm looking to do the same thing for my PhD. I think I can provide, you know, that hard working attitude and learning, and I'm very passionate about this. I have a history of research, of doing research on this. Would you be interested in taking me on as, as a student, as a graduate student, right? Especially here in America and, and Canada, when you start to search out for a supervisor, when you're doing graduate work, you want to look for that supervisor's. You almost have to go to them first. You have to make sure you look at the university's credentials to get in. I know the US does the GRE. I don't know if that's still a thing, but they use the GRE. In Canada, it's less of that. You just look at your average. So if you go to their website, the university's website, and you see that you qualify for the basic qualifications, then you can say, okay, I, I qualify. You know, you can send that email. It's like, hey, you know, really interested in that, that study you did on such and such and such. And you, I read the paper and I kind of dove into your research. I'm very interested in doing a master's, a PhD, a postdoc. Here are my credentials. Here's my resume if you want to read it over quickly. But I think I could be of real value to your lab because I've got this history. I've done this type of, of, you know, a methodology before. I'm looking to expand my knowledge in this subject matter and work with you to be able to expand, you know, what type of research we're able to do. Love to discuss some ideas, funding, et cetera. Would you be open for a Zoom chat, or would you be open for me to come in and meet with you if you're local or something like that? Quick, easy, that's how fast it is, right? If you're, you know, you could do it in person. If you're at a conference, you get to know the person. Graduate supervisors, as long as you qualify, it will work with you if they know you can get along with them. So meeting them in person at a conference is even better. Now, I know a lot of us, we can't go to just every conference and, you know, we may not be going to a conference based on whether another person is going or not going. But that might be a place to go if you want to find, you know, someone and so someone can get to know who you are, get to see your passion for that type of subject matter and see maybe is there, is there like that working relationship chemistry there where they can say, hey, you know what, I think we'd work well together. Would you be interested in being a student of mine? And then you're like, boom, I'm in. But when you're doing it from an email, it's a lot more difficult. They're busy, they get lots of emails from students, especially now, if you think about how big the internet is, now people can cast a worldwide net of who they can contact. So one, if you don't get to the junk mail folder, if you get out of the junk mail folder and get into that primary inbox, now you're like, okay, this is something I can get behind. Like all of a sudden, I'm starting to see these emails. Your subject line becomes like the biggest thing, right? Subject line is like, hey, you know, you gotta pop out, you gotta show them that you're about. Now some people might be bold and be like, I'm the best graduate student you're ever gonna have. Probably not the best way of doing it, but that's gonna catch their eye. That's gonna catch their attention, right? You can also come up with something, you know, maybe a funny pun or something like that if you know they like puns or whatever that might be, right? But get to know who you're emailing. Don't just mass email a bunch of people, you know, serious emails, try and get to their personalities, try and find out any interviews they've done. Look them up on video, if they've done any videos or any like interviews on like a new show or anything like that, if they're higher profile, they've done any shark week shows or any kind of environmental show or, you know, if you've seen them before, you know what they're like, you know, try and go to their personality, try and hit their personality if your personality matches or you know that you can get that. It's a little bit more bold, but you can try and hit that up. The other thing is just hit up your ideas, you know, hit up what you can bring as a student or what your passion is for the subject matter and the research. You've gotta catch their attention and there's marketing skills to do that. You can go and start looking up what subject lines catch people's eyes. Now a lot of them will be more towards business and selling, you know, products, but you're trying to sell yourself here. So use that, adapt that knowledge. Once you find it to be like, hey, this could actually work, a headline or subject line can really catch somebody's attention and saying I need to open this email. That's your first thing you need to do. If you're sending an email, you need to have that catchy sort of catchphrase to be like, hey, this person might be the person that I'm looking for for this. And I wasn't even looking for a PhD student 'cause a lot of times when people email supervisors, they may not be looking, you know, they may have some funding in mind or they may not have funding at all, you don't know. So try and find out what kind of funding they have if they have fun, if they've been talking about getting graduate work or anything like that. But cold calling just if maybe they have funding, maybe they don't, you're not getting likely chances. What I would do is sign up for listeners. If you're in marine mammology, the Marmin listserv would be great. Sea turtle with the letter C and turtle listserv would be really good as well. There's a plastic pollution listserv as well. That's run through octo, the marine, I think it's called the marine debris, marine debris listserv, that's a good one as well. There's a number of different listservs that post opportunities, there's the coral reef listserv. That also has a bunch of opportunities, post doc, graduate work, master's, PhD, all that kind of stuff. Go to where you see those advertisements and then email the professor that's doing that, fill out an application or whatever that might be, whatever they ask you to do, send a resume or CV and then go towards that route. I think that would be really helpful. Now, when you're trying to look for an opportunity for a job, you gotta start looking at how to tailor your cover letter to that position. And it really depends on who the person is, what the organization or government department is like. Now, if this is government, I've talked about governments before, it's very cut and dry, it's very dry in what you're putting in. You're not trying to put too much personnel, you're just trying to make it past the first round. So if you're doing your first application as a resume and cover letter, you follow the instructions, you make it as boring as possible, but what you do is you put in all the qualifications that you meet and you put them in and put examples to show that you have that experience, you have that skill set and how you got it, right? You can put that in. When you're starting to apply to non-profit organizations, they wanna see a little something, right? A lot of times in non-profit organizations, they have small staff. So small staff that can bring a large skill set can really help, even if they're not asking for that skill set, you may wanna mention it. But really the thing is the story that comes around it. And this was given to me a while ago, you know, if I was looking for something and we talked about a colleague that was looking for work, but we know it was kinda like middle aged and looking for that type of work. And what really caught my eye about this advice was like, "Hey, you may have been in and out of the game "for a little bit, you may have had to go somewhere else "to get some money, you may have to do whatever." But if you're going back to the game and you've been out of it for a little bit or you've been in another type of field, like academic or government and you wanna go to non-profit organization, you gotta tell them why. Give them a reason why, what part of your life or at what point in your life did you decide at this point that this is the time you wanna go to a non-profit organization. 'Cause there's a good chance, very good chance that you're gonna have a lower salary. But you may have these expectations or you may have this mission to be like, "Hey, you know what? "I wanna start doing more advocacy work. "I wanna start doing more work "that's gonna pressure governments to change their policies "or that's gonna work with government "to change their policies." There's a lot of different reasons why you would go to a non-profit organization. Tell them that reason why at this point of your life, whether you're a young, middle-aged, older, you decide to apply to this organization that's a little bit different and that may be a little lower in pay, it may be a little harder for work hours and things like that, but you wanna go because you really are in tune with their mission, right? So for instance, for me, if I were to apply as a campaigner, like I haven't worked as a campaigner in a while or I've never worked for an organization as a campaigner so I may not have the qualifications or the experience that they may be first off demanding, but I do have a lot of experience in communication. So if I were to apply to a campaigner job, well then I would tell them why. I would tell them, look, I'm in Canada, so if I'm applying for something in Canada, I'm applying for this job because I see that there may or may not be a change in the federal government coming up soon and being a campaigner with the change in government with another party that's coming in that may not be so environmentally friendly, it's important for me to work at an organization that is working to put pressure or work with government to change their policies to be more environmentally friendly, climate friendly and so forth. That's something that I would say if there was a job that would, you know, putting that up there. That's how I would sort of use that angle and 'cause it's the truth of why I would go to that kind of job, right? Communications job is the same thing. I've worked as communications on my own, I wanna get experience working for communications with another organization. I've got a bunch of background on how to do digital communication, website design, all that kind of stuff. This is how I can help you out. This is where I can help you out, right? Here are my list of experiences and qualifications. So there's a lot of just different ways of actually producing content to match what people are looking for, but you gotta tell that story. You gotta have an interesting story. I remember helping a colleague of mine to put out, they were going for the NOS Fellowship. And this NOS Fellowship is a really important fellowship for early career scientists and conservationists. It helps them get experience within the government and usually leads towards more governmental jobs in the future and really at their choice depending on how well they do in the fellowship. Now this is something that is very prestigious, it's only a certain number of people per year and get it. That's a very popular program, so a lot of people are putting it together, but they had to tell their story. And we worked on it and we helped her, I helped her craft that story to tell them. And I remember telling that person to be like, just tell the story of what you were like, that story. She told me, that person told me, it's like, "Hey, this is how I got into this." This is where I got into it. I'm like, "Tell that story." That's the story that is gonna sell this fellowship. This is gonna get you that fellowship and it helped. Now, whether it was that particular story that helped, I don't know, regardless. That person was able to get that fellowship and now that person is working for the government has been for the last decade or so and is doing an unbelievable job doing work as we thought they would be doing. And so I think that's important, right? Is to tell that story of where you are in your life, what got you into this kind of field and where you wanna go with your life and how that place can help you get there. Whether it's gonna be long-term or whether it's gonna be short-term, how this place can help you get there. And that's where they're gonna look for. That's what's gonna catch people's attention. We're human. We love to tell stories. We love to listen to stories. And that's what we are looking for. And so when you're doing a job like that, that's what's captivating or doing a story like that for any type of opportunity job, that's what brings it together. Wanna be quick, wanna be succinct, but that's what helps catch the person's attention, especially when you're looking for a job in a nonprofit organization. I hope this helps. I'd love to hear your feedback. If you've had to tell a story that you think worked to help you get your job, love to hear that. Hit me up on Instagram @how to protect the ocean. That's @how to protect the ocean. And of course, if you wanna sign up for the newsletter and you wanna make sure that your busy life is not gonna be too busy for the ocean, you want that newsletter in your inbox Monday to Friday, all you have to do is go to speakupforblue.com/newsletter and sign up, put your email in. It's free. I never share the email. I never sell your email. I would never do that to you. Your trust is what I love, what I want, and what I wanna provide to you is my trust. So put that email in. We'll get you that information to your inbox. And that's it for today's episode of this episode, of this podcast, this how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time in happy conservation. [MUSIC PLAYING]
