r/Environmental_Careers

hey everyone, I have been looking to get my masters but I feel like I need a little advice to streamline the process. I have my BS in biology and I have about 2 years working in fisheries research at universities post-graduation. ideally I hope to one day be a state fisheries biologist, or something extremely similar. I’m just intimidated by the enormous amounts of time I’ve heard other people had to spend sending email after email to professors asking if they were taking students, just to either get ignored or told no every single time. does anyone have any other tricks to find available masters programs? I check the texas a&m job board all the time and I’ll see a masters posting here and there, but none that are a good fit. are there any other tools people have used to find grad school opportunities?? anything is helpful, thanks guys!!!

I am in the UK and appreciate that most here are in the US and jobs don’t always translate, I’ve never seen an environmental technician job posted here for instance but that’s a common recommended entry level job on here. Regardless, I would appreciate any insight or advice from those working in anything environmental.

I’m studying an engineering degree currently, I was originally studying environmental science but paid conservation and restoration jobs are so rarely posted and so hyper competitive, and they’re always low paid and fixed contracts so in the interest of establishing financial stability and having more career options I switched to engineering. Luckily I am interested in engineering as well, although the maths is more difficult to wrap my head around.

Job wise I would still like to be as field based as possible, I already have a full time job where I sit on a computer all day and it’s miserable, I hate it. I would love to be outside most of the time, summer excluded I cannot stand warm weather, and I want to be active and not sitting for hours at a time. So I’m just wondering if anyone here has any suggestions for me to look into that might meet these preferences. So far I’m thinking of focusing on renewable energy engineering, I’d love to work off shore on wind turbines for instance.

Does #EnvironmentAmerica actually hire anyone? I always see that they are hiring. I have applied multiple times with different resumes, but the same position is always open in San Antonio as well as other cities. I'm starting to wonder if it's just an employer trying to pretend like they have job growth on LinkedIn. Let me know if you actually work there or know of anyone who does.

I'm a mid-west transplant trying to move back to the east coast to be near sick family. I have 3-4 years relevant experience, a CAPM for project management, and most recently left State employment. I've been running into issues that I've never experienced before, and I'd like some insight on what I'm doing wrong, or what else could be happening.

1. I've had 0 recruiters contact me on Linkedin. That's never happened to me before. My bio is set up to be visible to those recruiters. I've been reaching out to them for certain companies, but have no leads.
2. I've had multiple calls for potential interviews for mostly lateral move State positions, and once they heard I was out-of-state (yes, that's on my application), there was an awkward silence and they never called back. What should I be doing differently? I'm willing to go there for a week or two at this point just to do as many interviews as I can.
3. I've had 1 virtual interview for a non-profit that accommodated me. I thought I had a pretty good shot at it, and it went well, but then... they ghosted me. I was kind of confused, because this organization's whole thing is about fairness and equity!! I followed up twice, then finally called them, and they then rejected me. I am aware that they outsourced HR to an external agency, and I am applying to a lot of small non-profits, so is this a thing I should be aware of...? I've applied to bigger non-profits and never had that issue.
4. Mostly, I just see positions I don't qualify for. I do have GIS and data management experience, but not to the degree that most jobs need. I have managed money, but I don't have real Quickbooks or GAAP accounting experience. I'm trying to be in the project management space, but I'm not coming from engineering or construction. I'm looking mostly for niche fin-ops roles, mostly for non-profits at this point.

I'm considering abandoning my quest entirely for an environmental role during this transition, because I just don't seem to be getting anywhere in this niche space, so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Edit: I was re-reading my post, and I'll add a few more things. My Linkedin is optimized with keywords for recruitment. I do post bi-weekly at least. I have a portfolio website that generates traffic. I have gaps in my resume, but have projects that fill those gaps. I've been skill-building since I left my position in February.

I'm looking at my options here and is renewable energy a good career option with many jobs or not?

Away from nuclear do you think the study of renewable electricity like wind and solar and hydro is a good thing to work on in the next coming years?

Hello everyone, I hope this isn’t the wrong sub but I tried asking appropriate electrician subs and nobody seems to have any advice for me so far.

I’m a 22 year old, third year electrical apprentice from Ontario, Canada. Meaning I am a construction worker, so again I hope I’m not in the wrong sub for this so please just delete this post if I am lol.

I currently work at a company that does residential builds. I have a little bit of experience in highrise condos, but most of my apprenticeship I have spent building custom homes and new build subdivisions. Like many people, climate change has been absolutely destroying my mental health in recent years. Im at the point now where I have no motivation to do anything anymore, I find it very hard to care about most things I once was passionate about. This includes my work. I remember graduating high school and being so excited to start this career and do something meaningful with my life, and now I just contribute to suburban sprawl, and one of the most wasteful industries in the world.

I can go on and on about it but I’ll spare you all. I’m just looking for advice from anyone in my area who might know something about this they could tell me, like if what I’m looking for is even possible right now, in terms of my local job market and what to look for specifically. I want to branch off into more specialized careers where I’m building stuff that’s making a positive impact, and so I can leave the destructive one I currently work in. Any help is appreciated thank you!

I’m in my final year of an environmental science undergrad and I don’t know what I should do next. I’m curious to hear what kind of jobs people got with this degree (or any adjacent ones) and how you got there

Performs as a trainee in the implementation and coordination of county-wide recycling, reuse and waste reduction programs, including demonstration projects and educational, promotional and informational activities; and performs other related duties as required.

Hi everyone, I’m an Italian undergrad student in Biology, for long I have wanted to go into medical research, but I am starting to realize that I’d be way happier working with plants and the environment, I was mostly interested in the medical field for stability and pressure from my family. I am thinking of studying plant biology and then phytoremediation and/or biomaterials, mostly with fungi and algae, but also plants, is it realistic? Is there actual funding for this kind of research in Europe? I’ve also been diving for years and if I can I would love to dive for research as well! Thanks in advance!

I’ve been an outdoorsy person since I was a child, and the moments when I feel happiest and most like myself are when I’m outdoors.

I’m predominantly a hiker and every time I’m out in the hills I feel a sense of awe looking at the landscape. My mind goes quiet, any worries disappear, and I feel genuinely peaceful. I can happily sit on a mountain eating a sandwich with an incredible view and feel like I need nothing else.

The contrast is that, during the week, I work in a fairly typical office-based corporate role in an unrelated industry. I also have some charity sector experience around art education. It pays the bills, but I feel disconnected from what energises me. At the same time, I don’t think I’d be happy doing a physically demanding outdoor job full-time either. I need something that’s a balance between desk work and something physical.

I’m looking for a life where nature isn’t just something I squeeze into weekends. I’d love to live somewhere quieter, spend much more time outdoors, and ideally have a career that’s connected to the environment but still uses my strengths in planning, organising, projects.

Has anyone here built a life like that?

- What do you do for work?
- What were you doing beforehand?
- How did you make the transition?
- Did you have any related qualifications prior?
- Was there a particular job or lifestyle change that made the biggest difference?

I’m not necessarily looking for “quit your job and become a mountain leader” answers. I’m more interested in hearing from people who’ve found a balance between meaningful work, financial stability and spending much more of their life connected to nature.

I’d love to hear your stories.

I am coming up on my one year anniversary at my first job post college. I work for a very small firm that does asbestos and lead based paint surveys, as well as a smaller amount of indoor air quality/mold inspections. We have a geologist on staff, but he works alone 99% of the time. I am really struggling to see what kind of job I can pivot to from this. Located in the southeast US. My degree is Environmental Conservation and Management.

Hi! I am 22, and wear roughly a size 18. This summer I have an internship that is field work heavy (removing insaives, prairie monitoring, etc). I am learning I was ill prepared in the pants department and do not have the clothes I need. I am being torn up by teasle and rubus daily and have cuts and poison ivy where it gets through my clothes. I hate buying fieldwork clothes due to my size so any recommendations are appreciated!

I wanted to pose this question to all of you independents consultants/accessors. From what I gather, independent consultants do a lot of Phase I ESAs, how many of you are getting request for AI reviews for implementation into due diligence work. Any of you consider that AI is going to definitely cut your bottom line? Reducing you down to only site visits in an already ultra competitive market and those of you at the usual big due diligence firms (Partner, AEI, BBG, etc.) are you not considering that AI is going to reduce down the need for so many “Senior” reviewers? I see this going sideways fast for a lot of people and I wanted to see what others input would be.

I'm getting a BS in environmental science but im considering switching to geology for the career opportunities. Unfortunately, my university doesn't have a geology program. I could add on a minor in geosciences (already minoring in GIS). Is that enough for entry level jobs? Should I suck it up and transfer schools? Is this even worth transferring over?

I work for a small (<50), employee-owned (ESOP) air quality focused consulting, testing, and monitoring company. We're seeking an experienced (5+) years environmental engineer or scientist for our consulting team, to be based out of our Tucson, AZ, Helena, MT or Billings, MT offices. Most employees are hybrid, but we're open to considering fully remote for the right person with air quality consulting experience that can jump right in.

Pay ranges from $45 - $68 per hour dependent on experience and location. We do pay hourly with 1.5X overtime.

Feel free to drop me a message if you'd like more information or to discuss. If interested, you can apply online at https://www.bison-eng.com/employment

I originally wanted to do restoration field work but I developed a physical condition unfortunately.

I was recently informed that an email went out from my head of office saying that employees could take off early before Labor Day. I did not get one. I was told by my coworker that the email said it only went out to “high performing employees.”

My head of office has never seemed to like me. He started about 2 years into my career and has just been off putting since. He will have 45 minute long conversations with other junior staff, but whenever I try to talk to him, he cuts the conversation off immediately. I have not had a convo with him that lasted longer than 3 minutes. I don’t know why and I don’t know why I would ever be considered a “low performing employee.”

Maybe I’m not always the smartest person in the room, it’s true. I don’t have the mind of an engineer. But I work very hard and I care deeply. I’m intelligent, work long hours, compete my work in good time frames, and am very utilized. This year I have really tried to expand my skills. I have been given more opportunities to grow and taken on more managerial type roles for drilling and long term sampling projects. This was a little bit of a learning curve but i think it’s a given and I got the hang of things. I am a team player and took on being in charge of our monthly meetings despite it not being in my comfort zone and is not billable. I had a piece of feedback last year about my communication and not emailing back fast enough so I have focused heavily on improving that.

I have been at this company over 3 years and I have gotten 2 standard raises, around 10% raise total. I can make proposals so I can see how much my other employees make. A woman with limited experience is at around 1.5-2 years and she is making much more than me. An employee, who was very much a horrible employee, aggressive, widely regarded as not very smart (couldn’t even do a phase 1) and was ultimately fired for his rude comments. He apparently got a big raise last year and was making more than me when employed. People that just started are not making much less than me.

I have a personal manager and I would like to have a convo with her but I don’t know how to frame this. Performance reviews are starting soon and 2 months after that is when we find out about raises. I really am looking for perhaps a title change (perhaps assistant manager) because I don’t think I’m being compensated fairly at all and I think it’s time I continued growing. But given this knowledge and email I guess I can assume that’s not happening. But I don’t know the appropriate way to talk about that. Or should I speak directly to my head of office and get down to what he thinks I can do better? I’m just genuinely very upset and confused.

Hello everyone! I’m currently working as an environmental scientist at Arcadis (I did just get promoted to scientist II) I do primarily fieldwork doing wetland delineations, threatened and endangered species work, and writing wetland reports with a tad bit of permitting experience. Here is the thing - I got a job offer at the NYC DOT being an environmental specialist 1. Seems like a lot of NEPA/SEQR work and will be fully in office. I wanted less fieldwork, but not sure I want to be in office full-time. I really am interested in moving to NYC, but the gov pay is toughhhhhh, not as good as my current consulting job. The only way this would be worth it for me is if this experience would be really good on my resume and make me a better candidate/get more experience. Any one have any advice on whether to take this position or not??

Honestly believing that a company is truly good and that it should be worth more than it is now, and communicating this to a wide audience driving the stock price up is not illegal/market manipulation. Or is it? This was the case of Game Stop back in the day.

Why has nobody ever replicated this but doing a poll online, to choose a small company that is truly sustainable and ethical, driving it’s price up?

The goal is not to be millionaires guys, we only want a better world. So we don’t want to skyrocket the price and generate market instability, only move it significantly, to show the world that good things can be done if we team up. If the stock starts skyrocketing, more stocks can be added to the poll so people can start diversifying, and in an utopic world we would push big corps to become more ethical to be part of this trend. The ones that don’t evolve will fail.

If non-sense trends can happen online like the Tim Payne one in the current 2026 Football World Cup, why can’t people create a good trend with real impact once and for all?

We’re living in a crazy world, with climate change, over-consumerism, poverty, wars and hunger, to name a few. Many of us know that the main drivers of all these issues are the poor bastards that only want power and profit in their lives, because they have nothing else than material stuff :(

Why hasn’t this happened before? What am I missing?

I’m keen to gear the thoughts of this community on philosophy, ethics, economics and environmentalism.

I graduated in May 2025 with a BS in Env. Sci and Technology, a concentration in ecology. I only have 2 internships under my belt, one collecting data on a whale watching boat that included minimal GIS mapping, and then an internship with a nature preserve (very chill), which watered native plants, maintained trails, and helped with educational programming. I've been applying for jobs, and I've had very little success. It's been a year, and I still don't have a job in my field. In the meantime, I got a Inaturalist certitifaction, and I am volunteering at an aquarium with husbandry. I love working with animals; however, the pay is too low for me to live on my own with a starting salary. I don't regret my degree, but I'm thinking of going a different route. What do ya'll recommend for someone in my position? I feel stuck, and I want to keep on improving and advancing my knowledge in this career field or another. I am a very creative person, and I also want to have a good pay since my lifestyle isn't cheap, haha. I understand entry-level jobs are not going to give you much, but I also don't want lowball pay.