By Jackie Simmonds, NEJS Blog Editor
Green Jobs are of interest to many job seekers who are doing some soul searching and looking for a way to “give back”, find personal satisfaction and apply the skills they have gained during their careers. But where are they? And are they available for someone who doesn’t already have a Ph.D.? I have looked for green marketing positions and have only found ones that are so technical that I am hopelessly under qualified. How do you find a green position and make that career transition?
Although there are now more than 80 green job boards online — among them SustainableBusiness.com, EnvironmentalCareer.com, and TreeHugger – Carol McClelland Ph.D., founder and executive director of a Web site called Green Career Central says that many great opportunities can be found only through networking. “This is even more true for green jobs because so much of the growth in the green economy now is local. It’s happening city by city, town by town,” she says. “So start or expand your green network by joining local conservation groups.” You can also find groups on LinkedIn and other online social networks that share your interest.
McClelland, who is also author of a highly useful new book, Green Careers for Dummies, says “Major economic shifts always happen slowly. We’re moving to a new economy — what author Thomas Friedman called the Energy-Climate Economy — and it’s just getting started.”“This is all so new that the perfect job for you may have no formal job description yet,” McClelland notes. “You need to thoroughly research your chosen field, and then analyze where your skills and experience might fit into it.” In other words if you are truly committed to this new area then you are going to have to get creative in order to find and secure a position.
Annie Fischer’s interview of Carol McClelland continues providing advice on finding a green career. In Getting a green job isn’t so easy, McClelland has some good advice for narrowing down your career search instead of attacking the all encompassing “green jobs”.
Trystan L. Bass in his article, Finding the green job of your dreams, points out the following areas as good bets:
Education Energy
Health care Environmental law
Information technology Government planning
Land use Waste management
Recycling
Trystan also reminds us that the basic business functions are also necessary to support the green movement, jobs such as accounting, human resources, and project management continue to be needed within environmental organizations of all types. To get you started in the right direction the article also provides some of the best websites for job listings and other resources for a new green career.
Green jobs do exist but it will require all your best networking and sleuthing skills to uncover them and position yourself as a viable candidate.
Good luck!
Some resources for your job search:
GreenBiz.com: “State of Green Business 2010″, ClimateBiz, GreenerBuildings, GreenerComputing, and GreenerDesign.
Green Drinks International, an informal network of green-minded businesspeople
Hello,I love reading through your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wishing you the best of luck for all your blogging efforts.
Thanks for this super blog.