You have likely found this guide because you’re motivated to pursue a sustainability-focused career. Great! Sustainability is arguably both the greatest challenge and the biggest opportunity in the world today–particularly for engineers. Although many definitions exist, this guide will frame sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We need smart, passionate people like you to develop solutions that enhance quality of life worldwide, while preserving our natural resources and our planet for generations to come!
Or… maybe you’re not yet sure that a sustainability-focused career is right for you. Or maybe you’re looking to integrate sustainability concepts into a more traditional career path. If this sounds more like you, consider reviewing part 1, “Exploring Your Personal Motivation and Career Options,” and then you can decide if you want to explore further. You may also want to tap into other resources like this UCLA video on YouTube, What is Sustainability, or this article, 10 Reasons Why an Environmental Career is For You, from Presidio Graduate School.
There are a number of unique challenges in pursuing a sustainability-focused career. The still-emerging and highly-integrated nature of the field of sustainability means that universities are taking divergent approaches to incorporating sustainability concepts into their curriculum, different industries use different titles for similar sustainability-focused jobs, and employers may not clearly describe the actual roles and responsibilities in sustainability-focused job postings. Creating the career you want will likely require you to be proactive, discerning, and a little creative. The purpose of this guide is to help you do that!
You may want to read through this entire guide once, and then hopefully you’ll return to specific sections as they become relevant in your educational and early-career journey. The guide includes interactive exercises (also available for download as a Google Doc) to give you a framework to understand and articulate your own motivation and goals, identify the necessary skills for the career you want, develop and implement a plan to grow those skills, and ultimately find and pursue jobs that align with your goals. Finally, there is a searchable list of accompanying resources to support you each step of the way.
[download the interactive worksheets | access the resource repository | contribute a resource]
This guide does not intend or claim to provide everything you need to create your career. There are many valuable resources available to you through university career offices, other sustainability-focused organizations, and, of course, the Internet. This guide includes links to other credible resources, and of course, there are many more that aren’t listed here–and new content and resources created every day!