If you're undecided about the particular direction your career should take, consider these suggestions:
Talk to your department head and your school's career services office. Ask them about what jobs recent graduates have been placed in, or, if they went on to get advanced degrees.
Attend career fairs and recruiting sessions, even if you're not looking for a permanent job just yet. Ask the recruiters about what jobs are in demand and what the qualifications are.
Look for internships and co-op jobs. These opportunities provide you with at least three advantages:
You gain experience before you graduate, putting you ahead of other graduates.
You can try one or more jobs to find out if you really want to be in the environmental field.
You might be hired by your internship or co-op employer after graduation.
Most of the sections listed in EcoEmploySM (especially government agencies and non-profits) include internships.
Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, is probably the leading institution when it comes to co-op programs. Northeastern's program involves alternating periods of full-time work and full-time study.
Use EcoEmploySM to look at job openings in your preferred geographic region for career planning ideas. What positions come up most often? These are probably the "hot" jobs. What kinds of jobs look really interesting to you? What are the qualifications for those jobs, especially the required degrees and subjects?
Send e-mail to contacts you find in the Web pages of employers that interest you. Introduce yourself and ask them what jobs they think will be in demand in a few years, when you graduate. Where do they think their portions of the environmental industry are going? Don't be shy; the worst that could happen is that they don't respond to your e-mail.
DO take courses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)! GIS is the use of computers to generate sophisticated maps for water resources, wildlife distribution, land use planning, etc.; it is rapidly becoming an extremely important factor in just about all areas of the environmental sector. If possible, try to find internships or co-op jobs that include GIS, just to get at least some experience with it -- in addition to your academic training.
Visit the career information pages in the Web sites of professional societies and major government agencies.
Thinking about transferring or going to graduate school? A good resource is The College Blue Book, available in your local library. It lists colleges and universities by degrees and subjects offered. Another source is the Friendly Links section of EcoEmploySM; many educational institutions that have linked to this site are listed there.
Visit Nick D'Amato's site, Ubiquity Environmental Careers Page.
The site provides a wide array of advice and resources for environmental careers, covering job descriptions, job searching, résumé writing (Nick screened résumés for a previous environmental employer), etc. The site also features an internship page and a forum in which you can ask and answer questions. Nick works for the State of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Look at Jean Saffell's site, Cyber-Sierra's
Natural Resources Job Search.
This site organizes environmental job search information by categories, such as GIS, forestry, water resources, etc. An internship page is also included. Jean is "heavily involved in Natural Resource Conservation Districts, and resource conservation in California's Sierra Nevada."
A Request
If you think EcoEmploySM is useful, it would be greatly appreciated if you could bring it to the attention of your department head and your school's career services office. More information about linking to EcoEmploySM (http://www.EcoEmploy.com) is available. Thank you!
