Before joining the staff of ESA, I worked for about 13 years in consulting, managing and providing technical input to (primarily) National Environmental Policy Act studies. I greatly enjoyed it, and got to work on projects all over the U.S., from a bicycle trail in DC to the breakup of the Conrail freight rail system. Consulting firms, and the companies and government agencies they work for, need good scientists who can write and who are interested in practical applications of their knowledge. I commend the field to anyone seeking a career outside of academia. And although I have PhD (Botany), a Master's degree, or a double Master's in complementary fields like policy and a scientific discipline, is excellent preparation for such a career. I also have a Master's in policy, and found it very useful. And of course, nongovernmental organizations and scientific societies are also great places to make a life in science.
-- Cliff Duke, ESA Director of Science Programs Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:33:21 -0500 From: Malcolm McCallum <[email protected]> Subject: Re: 4,362 environmental consulting jobs vs 721 academic posts I found this information to support that previous email on consulting. http://www.pmenv.com/Environmental-Consulting-Career-Advice I hope this helps out some people. On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 1:29 PM, Malcolm McCallum <[email protected]> wrote: > A few moments ago I did an indeed search "for environmental consultant." > The search returned 4,362 vacancies, compared to the 721 academic > posts listed on the ecology job wiki. Now, many of these > solicitations were older and had not been removed from the web yet. > Others, certainly are not appropriate for an ecologist. But, the same > can be said of the 721 posted on the jobs wiki. > > My point here is that if you are a doctoral ecology student, it > behooves you to take some courses in environmental > policy/environmental law/risk assessment/environmental assessment > before you graduate, maybe even a course or two in business management > or public administration. The pay is often better than what you get > in academia, and you still work on projects that can be pretty > intriguing. These will be very applied, and you will be expected to > beat the bushes for contracts I suspect. But, find me an academic who > is not expected to find $$. > > I've applied for a few of these in the past, I'm sure many others > have. I get the feeling most positions are filled by MS level > employees, but I know plenty of PHDs doing this. > > With so many people discussing employment opportunities, I felt it > might be worth mentioning this on the listserv. It would be > especially interesting to hear input form those who do this kind of > work. IT would probably be useful for the many people who are seeking > employment. > > > -- > Malcolm L. McCallum > Department of Environmental Studies > University of Illinois at Springfield >
