No, You don’t need a new degree.
You Want to Make Climate Change Your Career? Here’s How to Get Started is by Maria Leis and was published in Climate Conscious by Medium
We spend much of our lifetime working. Did you ever feel like you rather want to spend your time working on something purposeful?
The climate crisis is a massive challenge with a huge impact on our generation. Yet, avoiding it offers numerous interesting, purposeful career paths. Many professionals and students are aware of the enormous challenge and want to devote their knowledge and creativity to solve it.
I’ve never taken a single course on climate change at university. Nevertheless, I’ve been working on climate change and sustainability ever since I graduated.
In this article, I share five specific steps that helped me to pursue a climate change career. By following the advice below, you’ll set the foundation to make climate your career.
Know your starting point
When you enter a new area, it often feels like starting from zero.
For working on climate change, you don’t need to start from zero. Climate change has a huge impact on our lives and affects societies in many different ways. Hence, many different skill sets are needed.
What is your starting point? What are your skills and what is your experience? Can you build bridges to climate change? Think about career paths fitting your profile. Here are some examples:
- Marketing — building marketing strategies for sustainable products.
- Finance — look at the growing sustainable finance trend.
- Teaching — support or start projects related to climate change that raise awareness in children and young adults.
- Tourism — how can we travel with a lower impact on the planet?
I have a Political Science background. In the beginning, I did not see the connection. Now, I’ve specialized in advocating and monitoring cleantech regulation.
Often, you can start from where you are. Analyze how your organization is affected by climate change and the sustainability trend. Which departments are already working on it? Which departments should be working on it? Which projects can you suggest to management?
Figuring out a career path is personal. Some want a complete turn-around, others may start in their current organization. Some aim to be self-employed. Be clear about your own motivation.
Learn more about climate change
Read books.
Books are always a good starting point when you want to learn more about any chosen topic.
I keep a Goodreads reading list with books on climate change and the environment. Great books to start are among others:
- The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells. This book will fear you. It gives an overview of global warming with all its devasting consequences on our earth today and how these will accelerate in the near future. After reading it, you will want to be part of the solution rather than the problem.
- A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough. You know Attenborough as a broadcaster of BBC’s great natural history documentaries. In his book, he summarizes his life lessons, focusing on how the human species is destroying biodiversity and warming the climate.
- How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates. Sector by sector, Gates explains the pathway to bring down emissions to net-zero by 2050. I first stumbled upon my employer’s name, Breakthrough Energy, when I read this book.
- Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth. Raworth identifies critical ways in which mainstream economics has led us astray, and sets out a roadmap for bringing humanity into a sweet spot meeting the needs of all within the means of the planet. The book gives you an idea of how jobs will transform and which skills are needed in the future.
If you already know your angle of interest, I recommend you to search for area or sector-specific books as well.
Take courses.
Sustainability writer Eszter Brhlik recently published an overview of free online courses on sustainability and the climate.
Having access to these lectures gives you the possibility to upgrade your career by acquiring new expertise. The courses Eszter recommends range from climate change science to sustainable finance to sustainable tourism and many more.
Connect
If one recommendation stands out, it is this one.
Connecting to other people is brilliant both to learn more about climate change and to build a network to benefit from in the future. This often happens in the most unexpected ways.
Reach out to local groups and NGOs.
The environmental group’s network is growing and growing. They advocate for various issues such as car-free cities, garbage collection, and climate awareness in a broader sense.
Some global groups like Greenpeace, the WWF, or Friends of the Earth have local groups in most cities. You can also join a Fridays for Future (FFF) climate strike. Possibilities are endless.
The most important step is starting to connect with people, which will then point you to other interesting opportunities. Once you start joining the groups more regularly, you can add it as a volunteering experience to your CV as well.
Ask people about their jobs. A great number of people like to talk about their professions. Especially when they work on something purposeful like climate change. You can learn from them and understand how they landed their position.
You can ask your new contacts from volunteering or just reach out to interesting people on LinkedIn. Invite them for a coffee or a 15-minute online exchange. You have nothing to lose and will be surprised how many people will actually reply.
Ask what a typical workday looks like, and what they recommend to enter the field. Try to understand if the area is interesting to you.
Here is where to search
Seeking a climate change job feels like a jungle. It’s hard to know where to start searching and popular job portals like LinkedIn may feel too wide, especially when you don’t know exactly what you are looking for.
But there is guidance: job portals specialized in climate careers. They give you inspiration and often show jobs that are not listed on broader portals.
Three portals I find incredibly helpful are Climatebase, IISD Community, and the Understory. In my recent article on climate change job portals, I explain how to use them in the most efficient way to land a job in climate change.
Extra tip
Once you figured out what’s your motivation and dug deeper into a certain climate change angle, start shaping your profile.
Let people know about your passion. Use professional networks like LinkedIn and post relevant content. If you don’t feel comfortable yet, you can start with liking and sharing.
You can also share your ideas on social media like Instagram or Tiktok. You can write on Medium. And of course, the real word. I repeat myself — get out and connect with people.