Job satisfaction.

We all know that working in the countryside sector is not done (or very rarely) for the money.  We get our rewards in other ways, seeing a newly laid hedge, watching the wildlife using a hedge laid 10 years ago, the excitement on a child's face as he encounters the great outdoors and discovers a rabbit's hole on his own, the delight of finding a dormouse in a nest box after years of checking and finding it empty.  When you move from the mud and ditches to life behind a desk the rewards are different, maybe not quite so visible but no less valuable, the success of a well honed report being talked about and making a difference, watching the membership numbers increase, reading the fantastic articles for the membership magazine, talking to the public and helping with their many and various problems (and yes, trying not to snigger when they ask a blindingly obvious question in all innocence - who planted all the heather?, how did you get the ospreys to nest in front of the hide?).  The CJS Team have all been working out in the field in one way or another overboot deep in the mud or knee deep in the teddy bear's picnics so we do understand some your joys and the tribulations too.  But we're incredibly lucky in a way which few others are.  Over the years many thousands of you have been subscribers to CJS, some will have been forgotten but for various reasons some of you are remembered, a name sticks and when it's seen again triggers the memory, "oh, yes they're a past subscriber".  Over the years we track progress through address changes and then latterly as names quoted in articles and even as the person to contact for information on adverts for new jobs.  We've seen them move from volunteer to first job and for those of us who have been here the longest we've witnessed past subscribers rise through the ranks to be recruiting their own staff, leading departments and even organisations.  It's a form of job satisfaction not given to many, the opportunity to see the long term benefits of your work and for that to have such a wide reaching effect.  I'm sure many of you would have got there under your own steam (and a few probably have) but we like to think we helped a little bit or at least made the tortuous process of getting a job a little easier; best of all is to see you succeed and even more so to see your hard work succeed and make a difference too.
So if you're currently looking for your first job or ready to move on you'll be pleased to know this week's edition has gone to press, is almost online and will be emailed soon.  This week there are 14 pages including the latest news on ash dieback, the January 2013 training calendar (which is understandably short at two pages) plus those all important job adverts, 36 new posts this week of which 32 came direct to CJS and 12 adverts for volunteers.