r/Envconsultinghell

i just got hired at a big firm. i have no consulting experience (i came from technical services) but i have lots of experience with project management and technical writing/compliance tracking/CAPA etc. and a little bit of environmental work.
how the hell do i convince people to take me on a project?
im still new but it seems impossible and everyone has told me to just be patient? but what do you do when you’ve already used up all your contacts? just wait around and edit internal stuff? also trying to hype up your skills while not trying to oversell what you can do is crazy.
idk if i’m made for this lol

Rant incoming:

Its seems so refreshing to find someone in consulting who is willing to go above mediocrity for the environment, but it's so far and few inbetween. Its always "Well, we have a permit to do X amount of damage so we won't put in any extra effort in to mitigate anymore than that", or "We're just out to make money so we'll execute this project that is obviously going to harm the environment permanently." And nobody bats an eye. I guess not everyone values the environment as much as they value getting a pat on the head from the client. Sure, there are a lot of projects that are doing a lot of good for the environment and that's great 👍, but even some projects that seem like they are doing a lot of good aren't doing as much as they could.

Too often i feel so alone in this feeling. Most of the people I work with just look at me like I have two heads when I say things like, "let's put grout cuttings in a bin instead of on the ground." This is a small example, but it seems like I'm constantly fighting ethical battles and no matter what I say, the corporate robots just rehearse their script in defense.

Nobody is ever taking responsibility for the decisions they are making and they are never looking at the full picture. They're never thinking, "how is this going to affect this community in the future (whether that be people or animals or whatever)." Or if they do, they justify it by saying it won't cause THAT MUCH harm. Why don't we strive to cause as little harm as possible? We should strive to have a nice clean environment to live in and enjoy. Why would we just let our responsibilty as humans to steward the environment slip through the cracks until there's nothing left to enjoy?

Even though it's so draining and oftentimes leaves me feeling defeated, I am going to keep doing this work so I can try to lead by example and challenge others to step up and do the same. I may also start blocking off my calendar quarterly (maybe weekly?) for one day to just have a cry (on company time) to grieve our little habitat here on earth which is the most special place in the universe for us.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

I’ve been saying that I want to get out of consulting basically since I started, and that was almost 8 years ago.

I recently started seriously applying to other jobs, and from what I can tell, my options are to either go regulatory (tough competition, not a lot of job openings), environmental compliance (not an exact 1:1 qualifications match which makes interviewing difficult), or just stay in consulting and find a new company and deal with the same bull 💩.

I’ve had a few phone screenings for some environmental compliance positions, but never made it further than that. I also interviewed for a regulatory position and didn’t get it.

My question is, are there any other job titles out there that someone with 8 years of environmental consulting experience (sampling/drilling, project management, writing reports, etc.) could be applying for? Not sure how I feel about going the environmental health & safety (EHS) route, but definitely have submitted some applications.

Just desperate to get out and want to make sure I’m not missing any key job titles that I could be applying for!

is there anyone in here from Aus that can share their experience on moving from consulting to government/ regulator role?

do you find it enjoyable and not boring? my main concern is that it could be repetitive and boring and potentially less pay.

let me know please!! :)