9.2.3 Finding a Job

 

 

The eventual aim of anyone wanting to work in sustainability is to ideally find a job that matches their competencies, ideals and pays enough to cover the bills. Achieving a perfect balance of all three will be difficult to find, but it may be the case that each are addressed at different times in your career.  As is explained in the following blog post, there is no set path to obtaining a perfect job, and in the field of sustainability there is less of a linear career path.  Flexibility, a diverse skill set and strong convictions are useful tools to have.

 
5 Strategies to Finding a Sustainability Job, Bob Willard [3]

We all seek the holy grail of a position that matches our convictions, needs, and competencies. People who want to make a difference sometimes ask me for advice on how to find a job in thesustainability sector.The bad news is that there is no such sector, any more than there is aquality sector.The good news is that there are roles in organizations that include varying degrees of responsibility for sustainability: in the organization, with its suppliers, and/or helping its clients become more sustainable enterprises. Here are five strategies to help find one of those great jobs.

 
1. Decide where you would be most energized

Sector: Public sector? Private sector? Not-for-profit sector? Academia? Consulting?
Organization
Size: Large? Small? Solo?
Sustainability
Focus: Environmental? Social?
Industry
Sector: Which industry sector attracts you?
Location:
Which city or country attracts you?
Financial
Security Needs: How important are salary and benefits?

Use your excitement level as a barometer for each choice. Does the possibility excite you? Why? Why not? To help confirm your options, consider volunteering or doing a small contract at a potential organization of interest. It will give you first-hand knowledge of what its like to work there; it shows tangible evidence of your interest; it gives you a chance to acquire new experience and skills; and it adds new contacts to your professional network.

 
2. Work your existing network

As Richard Bolles explains in "What Colour is Your Parachute?" 80% of jobs are found through existing professional acquaintances, friends, and family. These known folks usually provide the most fruitful leads. Bolles advises job-seekers to devote most of their search-time to tapping intoor rebuildingtheir existing networks, and to developing new contacts. People are the ones who provide a real-time pipeline of information about where the jobs areideally before they are posted. Alumni and professional associations are strong resources, as are social media, such as LinkedIn.  If your qualifications warrant a senior role in a large company, you might consider using an executive recruiting agency.

 
3. Shop your non-sustainability skills, match your values

There are not manysustainabilityjobs out there yet. However, there are a growing number of organizations that espouse sustainability and which are undertaking exciting initiatives for environmental and social responsibility. If you opt for the corporate sector, seek organizations whose values match yours. Sell them on your transferable and technical skills, and your experience. That is, use the Trojan Horse approach: enter the company gates by starting in anormaljob. Then, assess how you can legitimately support sustainability initiatives from that position, or from a subsequent position within the company that you later discover is a better fit.

 
4. Talk their language

This is a pet theme of mine. As you apply to various organizations, re-tune your CV and your interview vocabulary so that it relates to their context, values, and challenges. Sell them on how you can add value to their current prioritiesalways being careful to avoidsustainability-speakif the interviewer is not comfortable with that lens on the companys business concerns.

 
5. Embrace a Non-Linear Career Path

In the past, our paths towards careers were much more linear. We graduated from school, college, or university; we got an entry level position in a company; and in cases like mine, we slowly climbed through the ranks in that company. Today, in a job market that is constantly shifting and presenting new types of jobs we need to embrace a non-linear career path. That means being open to taking a mechanical engineering job designing a well in a foreign country, then coming back and using that experience to get a job in another corporation designing their broader sustainability plans.

I expect that these strategies reinforce your instincts and experience when finding a good job. Just because sustainability is a good thing, that doesnt mean that organizations are waiting with open arms for you to help them become more responsible enterprises. It takes real effort and patience to find a good fit, and it may require a few interim positions to get there, but it is worth it.

The following are job portals in the UK listing engineering jobs related to sustainability.  Again web searching with specific keyword to areas of interest will produce more fruitful results.

 
Learning for Sustainability

This page provides some key links for using the Internet to track down job vacancies and volunteering programmes in the fields of environment and development.
http://learningforsustainability.net/jobs/

 
Environmentjob.co.uk
Environmental jobs from conservation through recycling to environmental education.
www.environmentjob.co.uk

 
Ethical Jobs
Solar engineering to sustainable development and care work.
www.ethical-jobs.co.uk

 
GradCracker
General site for graduate engineers (search for a relevant keyword)
www.gradcracker.co.uk

 
Amida
A specialist recruitment business dedicated to global Sustainable Development, recruiting for Buildings, Transport, Energy, Water, Environment and Corporate Sustainability.
http://www.amida-recruit.com/home.aspx

 
Acre

An international recruitment and executive search firm specialising in the corporate responsibility, energy efficiency, carbon, environmental and health & safety market
http://acre-resources.com/