Please help me find a job that I can do with my environmental/renewable energy degree.

November 22, 2011 4:14 AM

Please help me find a job that I can do with my environmental/renewable energy degree.

So... I live in the UK and finished my degree last June. I now have a Foundation degree in Renewable Energy and an honours degree in Environmental Resource Management.

I've been looking for solar surveying jobs because I did solar surveying as a full time job for a month last year and really enjoyed it. However, there's a sizeable chance that the amount of solar jobs will plummet within the next month.

I'm not good at the engineering part of my degree and struggle a lot with mathematical engineering. I did a piece on producing energy from waste for my dissertation and would love to do some work with that, but I'm not sure what job I should look for as a graduate with almost no experience in the industry.

Can you please help me with some job/job titles I could look for and/or suggest some jobs that I could do/get into.

posted by sockpim to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Environmental consulting companies may be looking for your skillset, and they're known for hiring people out of college. (Note: It's a high burnout field and will eat your free time. But as a way to get an entry level job that will qualify you for new things and give you a foothold in the environmental industry, it can't be beat.)

I'm actually in the US, but I work with my UK/European counterparts on a regular basis and it seems like although the details are different, the general job duties are the same. We'd hire someone with your background as an entry level engineer/scientist. The actual engineering/math is usually minimal. Surveying experience may actually be a bigger benefit -- I know it would be at my company.

From looking at the website of our UK partner (who I'm not naming here because it would identify my company), it looks like the terms you want are "environmental consulting" or "environmental consultancy."

If you were applying at my company, I'd tell you to send in resumes even if there are no jobs posted. Consulting workloads are unpredictable and you want your resume already on the pile when they suddenly need an entry level hire who can do the fieldwork on some huge project they just landed and who also brings knowledge in ERM and waste-to-energy.
posted by pie ninja at 5:45 AM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There are a lot of RE companies that are short of trained staff and who would be happy to take you on. If you google for a UK RE company directory and start applying on the offchance that will work, eventually it probably will. DO NOT be put off because a job description asks for a few things you are short on, few people are ever perect fits for jobs.

Get yourself on LinkedIn and find the RE jobs pages.

Find job pages linked to RE: bwea.com ; environmentjob.co.uk for RE and there are a few more. Quite a few recruitment agencies specific to energy ad with an ainterest in RE have sprung up in the last three years. Track them down and get yourself registered with them.

Consider taking a one week course (for example with CAT) that give you practical skills in a particular technology. Apply for jobs with companies relating to that technology. This will give you a practical skill but you can also use it to emphasise your enthusiasm.

Consider a renewable heat technology, there is a good chance that we will have a new tariff for renewable hear sources in the UK pretty soon, that will throw up job opportunities, some with the companies who will be losing out from the PV market shrinking.
posted by biffa at 9:17 AM on November 22, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for both of your comments.
posted by sockpim at 1:34 AM on November 23, 2011