We received loads of great questions about the Urban Rewilding Officer role from prospective candidates during the application process. In the interests of transparency and fairness, and also so you can all have a clearer understanding of what you’ve applied for, then please check these out below and let us know if you’d still like to be considered.

How long is the position for?

The role is a 12 month fixed-term contract but our ambition is to be able to extend this and make it into a full-time role after the first year if we hit our goals for project development and revenues in H1 of 2021.

Because of the corona pandemic, how will interviews we carried out?

All interviews will take place virtually via Google Meets. 

Will you be able to provide feedback to all candidates? 

We would love to but realistically we cannot do this given that we received 136 applications for this role alone.

Will you be contacting all applicants or only those shortlisted? 

We will let all candidates know whether they have been invited to interview or not for the role.

Which of the responsibilities defined in the job specification will be the core, day-to-day responsibilities or are they worked on in equal proportions?

For the allocation of core responsibilities it’s hard for us to say at this stage, it will very much depend on opportunities as they arise but the minimum requirements outlined in the specs are things we know the successful candidate will definitely be doing a lot of in their day-to-day work.

Are there several Urban Rewilding Officers or is this a sole role?

This is our first fixed-term role, so there isn’t a team really besides working with our Head of Conservation Elliot Newton, who works in Kingston too and the successful candidate would work with regularly and be the first Urban Rewilding Officer in Britain! 

I understand that the role is remotely located, so are there opportunities for the team to socialise? 

There will be opportunities to socialise with the small core team when we have social occasions to celebrate at the pub but more importantly there are opportunities to socialise with all our water vole community volunteers, to form friendships and who you will work with regularly, become friends with and support in project delivery. 

In the instances that the successful candidate would be working in Kingston, what is the work environment like?

When it comes to working in Kingston, we have a park cabin with an office and desk which is our hub during days outside but mostly when doing ‘office work’ then the candidate would be working at home at least until COVID is over. So the role in the first couple of months will be mostly a solo arrangement where there are some work from home days and then days on site delivering corporate/community/school engagement days until the team grows.

I am a none European Union or Economic Area citizen here under a Tier 4 student visa, which allows me to stay and work full-time until January 2021. After this, I would require sponsorship to stay in the UK. I was wondering if, given this, Citizen Zoo would consider my application?

This is a tricky question to answer. We sympathise with anyone wanting to stay here and work in the UK post studies. We think it would have to be exceptional for us to go ahead and sponsor someone simply because of how burdensome the process is for small organisations and the costs associated with that bureaucracy. Conservation is also an incredibly competitive sector with fewer jobs than there are applicants, so employers are faced with a tough decision of whether to do this to support excellent overseas candidates when there are equally excellent candidates nationally where you don’t have to go through that process. So in answer to the question, whilst it is not an outright ‘no we won’t’, in all honesty the odds are low which I know is not the answer you were hoping to hear from us when you decided to email. Here is the link to the UK Governments website so you can gain an understanding of what we’d have to go through and after that there is no guarantee of a successful application either.

I do not have a driving license yet, but I am easily able to travel myself between London and Kingston and between parks/reserves there without one, however would not be able to personally drive vehicles on the job if that was required. Am I still able to apply for this position or is a full driving licence too essential to the job?

We do need applicants to have a driver’s license as they will need to drive tools/supplies and communities volunteers between nature reserves.