Early Careers Network

Welcome to the Early Careers Network

The Early Careers Network is a community of over 800 professionals and students in the water and environment sector, who are typically in the first five years of their careers.

The networks mission is to provide career support to professionals starting out in the water and environment sector.

We facilitate a platform for early-career professionals to collaborate, share, and develop, alongside other like-minded individuals from the global CIWEM community.

We aim to ensure representation of early-career professionals across the sector in all CIWEM activities. As a network member, you will access events, workshops, networking and exclusive opportunities that wouldn't otherwise be available to you.

Network

Access a powerful and supportive group of early-career students and professionals across the world and join over 800 early-career members on the networks LinkedIn group.

Develop

We will help you develop the soft skills required to form a successful career in the sector, including advice with your CPD, support applying for Chartership, mentoring advice, tips to develop your presentation skills and more.

Succeed

Broaden your horizons and grow your confidence and experience with a wide variety of opportunities to get involved in CIWEM events, webinars, our publications and more.

Early-careers resource hub

The early-careers hub provides resources and information for early career professionals starting out in the water and environment sector. Have a look below for ways to develop your soft skills, advice on how to develop yourself as a professional alongside tips and advice from senior CIWEM members.

CPD, made simple

Making a habit of your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is vital to ensure you grow and develop professionally, wherever you are in your career. Maintaining a CPD record can sometimes feel daunting and time consuming, so keep your CPD simple and relevant with our tips and advice.

A great place to start is using our Professional Development Planner below which will help you set both short and long term goals.

Our CPD top tips resource below provides you with suggestions for your CPD, whether you have 15 minutes, 1 hour or half a day, alongside advice for managing your CPD record.

And, don't miss our 'CPD, made simple' webinar, which you can access below.

CPD resources

Download our Professional Development Planner

Download our CPD top tips

Access further resources including our 'CPD, made simple' webinar

Presenting, made simple

Don't let the fear of presenting stop you from excelling in your career. Download our quick tips for creating an engaging presentation and delivering it too. And remember, presenting is a skill that you will develop over time - try to practice first with a colleague or a friend.

Download our top tips for presenting

Learn from others in the sector

The Careers: this is my story series delves into the careers of professionals in the water and environment sector.

Each episode provides insight into a variety of career paths taken by CIWEM members, including advice for early career professionals starting out in the sector.

They share with us their career defining moments, valuable lessons they have learnt along the way and what they wished they had known at the beginning of their careers.

Watch Fola Ogunyoye FCIWEM C.WEM CEng, Director at TJAY Consulting Ltd's episode now.

You can watch the rest of the series here.

Working towards Chartership?

Becoming Chartered with us will take your career to the next level. Internationally recognised designations - MCIWEM C.WEM is an instant badge of competence and integrity to show clients, colleagues and future employers.

We've put together some great resources to ensure you have all you need to apply. Watch our 'Chartership and beyond' webinar to get you started. You will understand the application process and mandatory competences in more detail and find the answers to our most commonly asked questions about applying for Chartership.

Don't miss our Chartership weekly breakfast webinar series which explains each mandatory competence in detail- each episode can be found on our membership webinar page.

Having a Chartered mentor is a great way to ensure you have everything you need to apply. As a member, you can find a mentor through our mentor platform to help with your Chartership application.

Make the most of your membership

As an early-careers member, we want to make sure you are making the most of the opportunities available to develop yourself professionally.

Have a look below to find ways for you to begin your journey with CIWEM and engage, commit and lead in the sector.

Not already a CIWEM member? Have a look at the benefits of becoming a member here.

Meet the steering group

The network is led by a steering group made up of 15 CIWEM members, who are ambassadors for CIWEM and lead the network’s strategic direction.

The steering group aims to identify challenges that face early-career professionals in the water and environment sector, including empowerment in the workplace, visibility, wellbeing, and access to opportunities.

The network organises activities to combat these challenges including opportunities for networking, mentoring, developing soft skills and support with applying for chartership.

Hear first about the activities the Early Careers Network are running, by signing up to our regular newsletter and joining the LinkedIn group.

You can meet the steering group here.

Get in touch

We would love to hear from you.

If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to get in touch about getting involved as an early-career member, please email chloe.goode@ciwem.org.