4. Where are the Climate Careers?

 

Most people expect a list. In fact, I suppose most people come to this blog expecting a list of jobs and employers or maybe client’s climate solutions. There is some merit to searching lists, if you have a specific job in mind. If you have done your homework and know what problems are worth solving (your choice) and have enough information on the organization and position to know you can address those concerns in the listed job. Trolling (like fishing, not internet bashing) might turn up a desirable position. The hazard is hooking a job that will pull you into deep water doing something far from the problems you wanted to solve. Use your list of major problems as an anchor so a shiny new career ends up being your opportunity and not solving someone else’s problems far from your goals.

 

ClimateBase is a job listing service just for climate careers: https://climatebase.org/. They cluster positions: Software Engineering, Internships, Data Science & Engineering, Operations and Sales. Having oversight of a job listing service for many years I know employers have their own listing agenda. The jobs will be legitimate, the employers spent effort in preparing a description to recruit new people but this is only reduced set of what is available. Over the decades the surveys indicate usually 60+% of all positions are filled without benefit of being listed. CareerXroads recent survey found only 15% came from job boards. Jobs that fill fast , often by word of mouth, don’t reach a listing service. Positions which are created as a result of a proposal by a creative person inside or from outside the organization won’t be listed or talked about anywhere. Jobs filled by headhunters and referral from trusted friends are another missing category. In other words, plum jobs are mostly missing. In my role at UCSB as head of career services helping match employers with applicants I saw that above the entry level most found positions through assertive networking.

 

I found titles on the internet that mean little to me. Categories seemed promising, like “Sustainability X”, and as I read the job descriptions I felt like I caught an old shoe while casting for salmon! Sometimes, the “job” turned out to be a hook for a training program or enticement to join a movement. A possible title became a labyrinthine process to peak at a job description, and perhaps to leave a data path I didn’t want there. In short, the browsing process is not quick! The yield is a mess to sort through and the by-catch is overwhelming.

 

So how to find a position? Personal contacts are more productive than mindless casting. Define your career objective, the problem, specifically. Describe functions (design, sales, negotiating, developing plans, public relations, etc.) you imagine doing and the skills you bring with you. Titles may not help. The more creatively you bring this process the more handles your contacts can spin for your benefit through stimulating their thoughts and encouraging sharing of contacts broadly. If you do specify too early (I want to sell solar solutions. Do you know anyone?) your mentors will add little and have few contacts for you. “I want to represent solutions for alternatives to the fossil fuel industry. I have been in sales and I have experience in public relations. What ideas do you have about organizations to research? Who else should I talk to?” The more open-ended your request, the more creative and wide ranging your catch of ideas and next moves.

 

What Organizations?

 

You will recognize some relevant organizations, but others, like The Solutions Project, will have great opportunities hidden behind names you could hardly guess are climate related. Recently Jeff Bezos of Amazon had granted the first of his $10B commitment for climate solutions. Another $4B+ is going into new endeavors through the philanthropy of McKenzie Scott the ex of Bezos and while it is not earmarked for climate work there maybe some interesting new opportunities arise from the benefactors.This is a ripe collection of innovators to consider as they have new money and proposed far-reaching solutions. Federal, state, county contracts will yield other possibilities. Bezos’ recipients for climate grants are here: The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, Eden Reforestation Projects, Energy Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NDN Collective, Rocky Mountain Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Solutions Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund.

 

Another $4B+ is going into new endeavors through the philanthropy of MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’ex, and while it is not earmarked for climate work there maybe some interesting new opportunities arise from the benefactors.

 

The Biden administration is already listing positions See ClimateBase: https://climatebase.org/ for listings but also dig into news stories to find new climate projects and contracts. As with Bezos’ operation and government offices, there are decision makers considering proposals and letting contracts. If that is a function you’re ready for, step in by making inquiries with your contacts. Oh! You don’t know anyone in Biden’s or Bezos’ circles? Time to ask everyone you know who might know someone, or be a step or two away. Don’t give up, look for names in the news and aim at them by pushing those names to your contacts as someone you want meet. Yes, you can contact people directly and it really helps to have that introduction first. I’ve only used Biden and Bezos as these names are breaking now, and you will find others through active networking and reading. Networking in Covid times is going to take more effort and time, put in your time, tell the people you know what you are looking for and give it some time.

 

Let’s do an interactive sharing here. Let’s together share all the ideas for organizations you know of who are making contributions to solving the Climate Crisis. Let’s do it without regard to how large or what country or whether you think they will ever hire anyone. Even among the ones I included above I wonder what they each contribute and that may be the case for what we put together, some of the organizations may have us wonder about their role and to think more broadly than we would have otherwise. I want to have us see the greatest scope of organizations we know with a role to play. I realize this is a beginning, small blog so this will be a beginning effort. (It will have it’s own page as it grows.) Your help growing this list will create more opportunities for you and like-minded climate folks.

 

I’ll repeat the names from above in the comments section and I would love to have you add comments with names as well. I will gather those together into a blog page of it’s own that we can keep adding to.

 

Thanks to Robert Ehrmann for his insightful feedback on the