I Like My Summer Job, But!

This post will begin to address the "I Like My Summer Job, But I Don't Want To Do It For the rest of my life" issue. Now, for those of you who are satisfied with your summer jobs, and do want to do them for the rest of your lives (or some portion at least) - congratulations. However, for myself, and most of the people I know, summer jobs rarely turn out to be that inspirational. For one thing, few internships are filled with opportunities for the creativity and learning that we college students are used to.

From time to time I begin to worry whether my summer experiences are adequately preparing me for whatever it is that I want to do. Part of the problem is that my career interests have fluctuated widely over time. Once, a few years ago, I even fancied becoming an environmental activist. Now, the idea of that lifestyle fills me with a special kind of dread (largely due to a summer internship experience). I mean, spending hours chained to fellow activists in the hot, hot sun is just not my idea of a manageable career. Currently, I'm most interested in environmental consulting, green business, environmental and energy-related investing, environmental management, science policy, ect. ect. The problem is that I need to start making the first of my career decisions within the next year. This is incredibly exciting, but also a bit intimidating and scary. So, tonight I thought I would research job opportunities within green business. I know that this is not necessarily something that everyone who reads this blog is interested in - but if you have never considered it, give it a listen. I believe that our environmental practices will become increasingly central to how we do business so even if you want to join oil and utilities, you may want to think about putting an environmental spin on your objectives.

First, check out the following web sites:

1)

This one is the homepage of Green Biz - they have lots of good career ideas and advice, as well as some job openings.

2)

This is just a general list of the types of jobs available in the field.

3)

This is a site called Green Career Tracks, which is a sub-par web site. However, they seem to offer a variety of green-career services, which is interesting and perhaps useful.

Some examples of job openings I found included:

Research Associate at McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in Charlottesville, VA.
- McDonough Braungart began the "Cradle to Cradle" design - eco-effective design principles.
- Primary role is to assist Project Manager with research tasks for Cradle to Cradle Certification and Consulting
- Conduct research on a wide variety of topics to support consulting services, including material chemistry, innovative
materials, sustainability issues, corporate reporting
- Salary range - $30,000 (ummm, thats pretty low...)

Environmental Consultant at the Green Restaurant Association in Boston, MA
- Green Restaurant Association is a national non-profit organization with a mission of creating environmental
sustainability in the industry.
- Help GRA's restaurant clients implement four new environmental steps per year. Find new environmental solutions for
the restaurant industry.

Renewable Energy Analyst at D&R International, Ltd. in Silver Spring, MD.
- D&R International is an energy and environmental consulting firm in SDilver Spring.
- Responsibilities include gathering technical and market information about energy-efficient and renewable energy
products
- Working with industry stakeholders and clinets to develop new Energy Star programs.
- Performing quantitative analysis to estimate the energy savings and market saturation of planned programs.
- Requirements: Bachelors degree in a related field and 3-5 years of experience.

The last one is particularly interesting to me, because it is located near my home town of DC. Anyways, the point is that environmental jobs are currently available in a large number of areas, not just environmental activism. Well, I gotta get up at 7am tomorrow to water the plants. Oh geez.

Best, Emily