The First Step in Finding Your Green Career

When you look for a new career, what’s your first action?   

• Do you start doing informational interviews?
• Do you go directly to job boards looking for positions that might work for you?
• Do you talk to your contacts about their careers?
• Do you start going to networking events to learn what others are doing?

Although all of these steps are important, viable steps, none of them is actually your best first step.

This first step is so important that you will limit your possibility of success if you try to avoid or short cut around it. Without this step, your actions are the equivalent of rolling the dice or throwing a dart to find your green career.

So What Is the First Step?

If you are committed to finding a green career, your path will be much clearer and more successful if you take the time to identify your green niche.

Before you start doing informational interviews, before you scan the job boards, before you talk to your contacts, and before you start networking, focus on your own passions and interests.

• What excites you about the green arena? Even if your answer is fairly broad at this point, that's fine. Here are some examples: Energy efficiency, solar, green building, wildlife conservation. (Don't worry if the idea feels outlandish...go with what excites you!)

• Don't limit yourself to just one topic. Spell it all out. Create a list of the topics that grab your attention in conversation and the media.

• What impact do you want to have? How do you want to leave your mark? Examples: Do you want to educate? Work on finding a renewable energy source? Help people travel more sustainably?

The answers to these questions are clues to your green niche. Think of them as breadcrumbs that will take you to your green career. 

You don't have to know all the job titles within a target industries to do this exercise. Heck, you don't even need to know the industries!  At this early stage, you just want some key words that will help you explore the idea online and in conversation.

Remember, the green economy is so new, everything is still coming into focus. Job titles aren't clearly defined. Industries are shifting and evolving with new technology, policy, regulation, and funding. We are entering a new frontier where you can create opportunities IF you are clear about your passions, interests, and goals. As a result, you can't know exactly where you'll end up!

What's the Next Step?

As soon as you've identified your top two or three areas of interest, begin immersing yourself into those areas. Talk to people, read articles, explore online, attend meetings. Do whatever you can to learn as much as you can about your field of interest. The more you know about the topic, the easier it will be to find your place in the ever-evolving puzzle.

As you discover more about your target industries, look at your own skills, talents, and experience to figure out your place in the green economy. How can you leverage what you've done before to help you move into your target industry? 

(If you think you’d benefit from working through this process with some structure and checklists, take a look at our recently released What’s Your Green Niche? ebook. This ebook takes you through the entire process of discovering your target industry/profession.)