I got my degree in horticulture a few years ago. I've done residential landscaping and now work retail. I find this a little unfortunate because before I graduated I had some really diverse internship work, including being a lab aid, doing research at a garden and working at a tree nursery.

I want to shift into doing more conservation and restoration work but I feel sort of stuck. My partner is at a job that he is very comfortable at and I don't think I could reasonably move away on my own to pursue new avenues, so I've been having to stick to nearby options which have been far and few. I've been searching since February and have put in a handful of applications and have landed interviews but very little follow-up/mostly rejections. One rejected me for not 'having a clear connection to nature' which I really thought was bewildering and a little upsetting.

There's one position that's popped up I'm particularly thrilled about. But I want to know if there's any more ways I can get myself to be more appealing. I'm obviously lacking in experience because I haven't had any restoration work under my belt, but I want to do as much as I can going forward to make up for the gap I have in not gaining experience from my work. I have a horticulture certification to go with my degree. I want to pursue ISA certified arborist certification, as well as following guidelines to become a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner, and potentially take coursework on GIS systems (or find a certification program for ArcGIS). I don't know how else to show that I'm eager for new avenues beyond certifications, and volunteering, which I also already do a small amount (2-3 hours) of monthly. I do lots of reading, listening to podcasts, and when I can I attend local seminars to keep learning and expanding my knowledge base.

My previous experience in horticulture does at least make me very familiar with natives and invasive, and is an obvious sign I'm very into fieldwork (why else would I have been working outside for the past 8 years). Is there anything more that I can do?