If you’re like me and you want to work on climate change – whether through research, law, entrepreneurship or policy – you’re probably looking for the biggest lever you can personally pull to make a difference. This feeling makes sense, given the never-ending stream of climate disasters we hear about. The urgency of the problem motivates students like us to align our efforts with the most impactful initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to do it now.
However, the recent explosion in climate-related efforts is a double-edged sword. With the flourishing ecosystem of innovative climate tech startups, ESG initiatives, and government funding around climate change comes greater difficulty in finding the perfect role. Deciding to work on climate is easier than ever before, but identifying how to contribute is harder than ever. Any job could be a climate-impactful job, and the resulting analysis-paralysis can be frustrating.
While I certainly don’t have a silver bullet solution, I propose a framework to help us make progress using a modified version of the innovation process that many Wharton professors teach. I have adapted the process specifically to the climate job search, but it could also be applied to climate opportunities in general. I also try to explore various helpful resources that students can leverage at each step.
Step 1: Opportunity Exploration
The first step is diving head-first into exploring the wide range of career opportunities that exist in the climate sector.
This might sound like, well, the entire job search process, but I want to highlight the critical difference: at this stage, you want to refrain from making judgements about the positions themselves. Regardless of position or passion fit, it is helpful to first lay all the possible career options on the table. With this inclusive approach, it becomes easier to systematically explore the range of options that exist and more effectively compare roles and their opportunity costs.
It’s important not to think too hard about your individual climate impact at this stage – that is, how many tons of CO2 you will directly mitigate through your role. Judging and prioritizing each role by its climate impact limits our ability to discern the breadth of roles truly available to us. This step is about exploring the full space of options while delaying final judgment.
There are many ways to explore climate career opportunities. We have included some suggestions at the end of the article to help you get started.
Step 2: Filtering Down
Once you have generated a list of career options, the next step is to trim the list down. Easier said than done, I know, but here are some questions you should ask yourself when considering whether to keep a job on your list:
Keep in mind that your personal ability to contribute to climate change mitigation is not solely determined by the perceived impact of your employer’s mission statement. It also depends on how well you can function in a given role for a sustained period of time. And that depends on your answers to the questions above.
For example, say you discover an open position at the World Wildlife Fund – a well-known organization dedicated to saving rainforests and wildlife. The opportunity may seem too good to pass on. But if the day-to-day tasks of that specific role don’t satisfy your professional interests, then you may be limiting your own long-term happiness and productivity in pursuit of so-called climate impact. Instead, consider roles whose everyday tasks actively excite you and align with your professional interests. These types of roles will allow you to be more satisfied and more effective throughout your career in reducing climate emissions.
Step 3: Applying to Jobs and Final Selection
The final step is to apply to jobs from your newly-shortened list and ultimately select a career option from offers received. My suggestion here is that there are likely to be smaller marginal returns at this point from further personal research and contemplation (plus, you’ve probably done a lot of that already in Step 2). At this stage, it may be much more beneficial to talk to others for honest and constructive feedback. You could reach out to:
Also consider reaching out to professionals in your field through your school or university’s alumni network (you can reach Penn’s through MyPenn or LinkedIn).
When committing to a final job option, it can feel like we are forgoing the collective climate impact of all the other opportunities we will decline. But that simply isn’t a fair reference point. Keep in mind that it is going to take a concerted global effort to solve the problem of climate change. No individual person can shift the needle alone, but we can each contribute within well-aligned, fulfilling roles within the climate space.
Climate Resources
However, the recent explosion in climate-related efforts is a double-edged sword. With the flourishing ecosystem of innovative climate tech startups, ESG initiatives, and government funding around climate change comes greater difficulty in finding the perfect role. Deciding to work on climate is easier than ever before, but identifying how to contribute is harder than ever. Any job could be a climate-impactful job, and the resulting analysis-paralysis can be frustrating.
While I certainly don’t have a silver bullet solution, I propose a framework to help us make progress using a modified version of the innovation process that many Wharton professors teach. I have adapted the process specifically to the climate job search, but it could also be applied to climate opportunities in general. I also try to explore various helpful resources that students can leverage at each step.
Step 1: Opportunity Exploration
The first step is diving head-first into exploring the wide range of career opportunities that exist in the climate sector.
This might sound like, well, the entire job search process, but I want to highlight the critical difference: at this stage, you want to refrain from making judgements about the positions themselves. Regardless of position or passion fit, it is helpful to first lay all the possible career options on the table. With this inclusive approach, it becomes easier to systematically explore the range of options that exist and more effectively compare roles and their opportunity costs.
It’s important not to think too hard about your individual climate impact at this stage – that is, how many tons of CO2 you will directly mitigate through your role. Judging and prioritizing each role by its climate impact limits our ability to discern the breadth of roles truly available to us. This step is about exploring the full space of options while delaying final judgment.
There are many ways to explore climate career opportunities. We have included some suggestions at the end of the article to help you get started.
Step 2: Filtering Down
Once you have generated a list of career options, the next step is to trim the list down. Easier said than done, I know, but here are some questions you should ask yourself when considering whether to keep a job on your list:
- Would you be interested in the day-to-day tasks of the role?
- Do you align with the company’s or organization’s values?
- Does the opportunity provide room for you to grow professionally?
- Are you passionate about the product/service that the company/organization provides?
Keep in mind that your personal ability to contribute to climate change mitigation is not solely determined by the perceived impact of your employer’s mission statement. It also depends on how well you can function in a given role for a sustained period of time. And that depends on your answers to the questions above.
For example, say you discover an open position at the World Wildlife Fund – a well-known organization dedicated to saving rainforests and wildlife. The opportunity may seem too good to pass on. But if the day-to-day tasks of that specific role don’t satisfy your professional interests, then you may be limiting your own long-term happiness and productivity in pursuit of so-called climate impact. Instead, consider roles whose everyday tasks actively excite you and align with your professional interests. These types of roles will allow you to be more satisfied and more effective throughout your career in reducing climate emissions.
Step 3: Applying to Jobs and Final Selection
The final step is to apply to jobs from your newly-shortened list and ultimately select a career option from offers received. My suggestion here is that there are likely to be smaller marginal returns at this point from further personal research and contemplation (plus, you’ve probably done a lot of that already in Step 2). At this stage, it may be much more beneficial to talk to others for honest and constructive feedback. You could reach out to:
- Friends and family, who can provide personalized insight into which roles and positions you would best thrive in.
- Current employees, who can share an insider’s perspective of what working for a specific organization is like on a daily basis and how the job itself differs or aligns with your expectations.
- Career advisors, who have seen many other recruits looking for climate-related roles and can draw upon their networks, databases, and industry experience to help you weigh options and make difficult decisions.
Also consider reaching out to professionals in your field through your school or university’s alumni network (you can reach Penn’s through MyPenn or LinkedIn).
When committing to a final job option, it can feel like we are forgoing the collective climate impact of all the other opportunities we will decline. But that simply isn’t a fair reference point. Keep in mind that it is going to take a concerted global effort to solve the problem of climate change. No individual person can shift the needle alone, but we can each contribute within well-aligned, fulfilling roles within the climate space.
Climate Resources
- ClimateBase
- My Climate Journey Podcast
- Work on Climate
- Terra.do
- Climate Draft
- Lower Carbon Capital
- Acre Resources
- Climate Vine
- Ed's Clean Energy & Sustainability Jobs List
- GreenBiz: Sustainability Jobs
- Weinreb Group: Sustainability & ESG Jobs
- SustainableBusiness.com: Green Jobs
- Green Economy Media: Green Jobs Network
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Rupesh Jeyaram is a rising second year MBA student at the Wharton School of Business and was a 2022-23 CL@P Fellow. He has an undergraduate background in computer science and environmental science, and worked as a research software engineer in a climate modeling lab at Caltech for two years before joining Wharton.
He is highly passionate about the intersection of technology and sustainability. He spent the past summer working as an intern at Renovate Robotics, a startup seeking to accelerate the asphalt and solar roofing businesses through automation. He hopes to become a climate tech startup founder someday soon. |
