Working in Conservation — An “Outsider’s” Perspective
There are some things in life that find you when you least expect it; a career in conservation for me was one of those things. After studying economics and business, it was expected that I would have a career in banking or marketing like a majority of my peers. I stumbled upon conservation by sheer chance — a summer internship that eventually led to a career.
Working for conservation was a whole new experience for me, it didn’t focus on market trends or the number of sales that had to be done in a quarter. Only that it was more real, more focused on something that mattered — something bigger. And above and beyond everything, it was inspiring.
It was interesting to see how something so important and essential was being ignored by a vast majority of “my kind”. I soon realized that people who work for conservation had a passion for it and they were doing phenomenal work to salvage it. I was surrounded by people who were experts in their fields and as a layman I started to see the beauty in protecting and saving our environment, like they did. It dawned on me that marketers, economists and other careers rarely realized how their actions are affecting the natural state of things. They were not programmed that way. Where I could understand the law of diminishing marginal utility and the hierarchy of needs pretty well, the environmental science was a new territory for me. It intrigued me and yet I was never able to fully get the crux of it like my colleagues did. My mind was carved in another way so I started seeing things in a light that made more sense to me. I substituted the economic and marketing theories to nature and reshaped my target audience from humans to other living things. That is when I realized it doesn’t matter what educational background you have, anyone with a curiosity and passion could work for conservation in their own way.
So what makes working in conservation worth it? Is it the satisfaction of working for the better good or is it the hardcore environmentalism that intrigues outsiders like us? It is definitely not the market competitiveness or the innovation of marketing strategies, and probably your peers in the corporate sector might be doing much better in terms of compensation and benefit structure. It is the prospect of making a difference to something that is impacting us all, it is the hope of saving an endangered species, it is the realization that someone needs to step up .It is the idea that one day your marketing or your business philosophy will help the environmentalist get their message across and that is all the difference that might be needed. Working in conservation is fulfilling on its own terms and it’s a choice anyone can make.
Nadia Farooq is Senior Officer Compensation and Payroll, WWF-Pakistan.
