He's Lost When It Comes to Career

To help avoid another mistake, let me first have you analyze why you are looking at an environmental career. I actually want you to start back six years ago and examine why you chose your major and minors. You know you don’t ever want to do retail again, but now examine your interests and passions. What interests you about an environmental career? What kind of research have you done? What kind of further education or skills do you need to acquire for the type of job you are seeking? Can you combine your interest in the environment with your educational background and skills?

Besides conducting research online or in your local library, I would suggest you conduct some informational interviews with local (or national) environmental professionals. Contact your college’s career and alumni offices to find alums who have environmental jobs. Informational interviews are great ways to build a network of contacts in a new career field, to learn more about a specific career, and to gain valuable information about the training, education, and skills required. And don’t forget about volunteering as a way of breaking into a new career field.

Depending upon the types of jobs you are seeking, you may need to go back to school. Changing careers is never easy, but with the proper planning and research, you can do it.

Please read my article, The 10-Step Plan to Career Change, which should help get you focused on what you need to do.

There are also quite a few good environmental career and job sites on the Web, such as the Environmental Careers Organization and Cyber-Sierra’s Natural Resources Job Search. You can find descriptions and links to these and others in our Jobs in Agriculture, Zoology, and the Environment section of Quintessential Careers.