What made you choose Arbtech?
After a career break, I was looking for a move into ecological consultancy and saw that Arbtech were hiring for the internship.
It really appealed to me that the company values the potential in employees over having followed a set route into the industry.
It means that you can get past the difficulty of not being able to get hired without a set number of years of experience, and not being able to get experience without first getting hired. Instead, they recognise that lots of the skills for ecology are teachable and provide opportunities for you to learn.
Flexible, home-working and part-time options mean that lots of barriers to employment that may be present in other companies are removed.
What do you love most about the company?
Arbtech encourages you to push yourself out of your comfort zone to see what you are capable of.
Also, there are so many talented and helpful people here in all areas of the business.
What do you do when you are not at Arbtech?
I’ve had an allotment for the past 20 years, so I really like getting out and growing fruit and veg, although I do get distracted watching bumblebees, frogs and newts on my plot.
I live in a beautiful part of the country, not too far from the North Yorkshire Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District and Northumberland, so I love to get out exploring whenever possible.
I’ve been volunteering over the past couple of years for a variety of wildlife and natural environment organisations, including being involved with practical conservation work and surveys for bumblebees, adders, butterflies and water voles.
One of my volunteering adventures involved a bat rescue in Durham Cathedral, where I ended up calling the bat ‘David Battenbrough’ and having him as a little house guest over the summer. He was a bit of a messy eater with his mealworms and clearly not too impressed with being in a house after living in the grandeur of the cathedral…
I also like reading a good book or a trip to the theatre.
What is your biggest tip to achieve the most in life?
Understand what ‘the most’ means to you.
We’re all different, so say yes to trying all sorts of different experiences and gradually refine your ideas of what brings joy, meaning and peace to you by learning from the experiences that you’ve had.
Your best life won’t look exactly like anyone else’s.
What is the best social you’ve been on at Arbtech?
So far, the only social that I’ve been to was during the initial internship training, and it was really helpful for getting to know my colleagues.
But I have my first ArbCon coming up, which sounds like it’s going to be a good mixture of training and social.
Where do you want to travel to next?
Well, I’ve just come back from a trip to Transylvania for some bear watching, which was really interesting, and I don’t have a new plan yet.
I am looking to do a lot more exploring in the UK in the short term, as there are so many beautiful places that I haven’t been to yet.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
I think of life and career as more of a web than a ladder, where you can go in lots of different directions rather than a straight line.
So, in 5 years’ time, I hope to have expanded my web to have more knowledge and understanding of ecology and to be working in a way that has a genuinely positive impact on the natural world.
What is a goal you have for the future, in or out of work?
I’m hoping to gain protected species licences to increase the range of ecology work that I’m able to do.
Sally joined Arbtech in October 2025.
