Gwénaëlle Hamon is the Executive Officer of the World Climate Research Programme’s (WCRP) Climate and Cryosphere Project (CliC), hosted at the Norwegian Polar Institute (www.npolar.no/en/) in Tromsø, Norway. She has more than eight years of experience in environmental project management and holds a Master’s degree in Ecology and Environmental Studies from the University Paris-Sud XI in France. Her first experience working on international environmental projects was through a marine bio-prospecting internship at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2007. From 2009 to 2014, she worked as a project officer at the Global Ocean Forum, a non-governmental organization, based at the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy of the University of Delaware in the USA, where she coordinated activities related to ocean governance. After her first visit to Tromsø in early 2014, Gwen knew that she would be back in the Arctic eventually!
In September 2014, she joined the CliC office in Tromsø to work with the team on the Arctic Freshwater Synthesis project as well as other CliC activities. She became the CliC Executive Officer in January 2015.
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1. What are the primary responsibilities and tasks in your current job?
One of my main responsibilities is the coordination of CliC activities and groups. CliC has about twenty projects, and I support the activity/group leads with the logistics and implementation of their work. I plan and prepare roughly 20 workshops per year. My other tasks include budgeting, financial reporting to WCRP, website management, communications and liaising with the CliC leadership and WCRP, reporting (e.g. preparation of the annual report), and outreach (e.g. social media). -
2. How did you get this position?
I started working at the CliC International Project Office as a project assistant for the CliC/AMAP/IASC Arctic Freshwater Synthesis project, on a three-month contract. The Executive Officer position was advertised shortly after and I decided to apply. -
3. Had you always intended to pursue a non-academic career? If not, what led you to it?
After receiving my Master ’s degree, I wanted to get a more diverse professional experience. I had already worked in an international organization, in the private sector, and in research labs but I still wanted to explore more to see what opportunities were available. I also wanted to work abroad, which I had never done before. Going to the US on a 6-month fellowship to work at a university for a non-governmental organization looked like the perfect opportunity to challenge myself and broaden my horizons. It worked so well that I ended up staying four and a half years! After that, the CliC opportunity came up and it seemed like a good fit; I could keep working in international environmental management, but with a more scientific focus.
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4. What would you have done differently to be better prepared for your current position? Which choices in the past were successful?
Although having a PhD is not directly applicable to the work I do, it would allow me to access higher positions earlier in my career. Also, I think that getting an official certification in project management would nicely complement the organizational skills that I have developed through my work experience. But it is never too late!
While I was studying, I did multiple internships on a broad range of topics, even when it wasn’t required or paid. One of those internships, at UNESCO, led to a job in the US two years later. So I think that doing more than the basic curriculum was a successful choice. Going abroad and challenging myself was another one, both professionally and personally. -
5. Do you have any advice for working towards this career?
I think that non-academic jobs in research don’t open on a regular basis, especially permanent ones. As a result, one needs to be very geographically flexible, open-minded, and adventurous.