3 Steps To Landing Your Dream ClimateTech Job

Are you a self-proclaimed environmentalist, but your career path says otherwise? That doesn’t have to be the case.

April 11, 2022

$17 billion Was Poured Into ClimateTech Startups Last Year. Start Your Lucrative & Rewarding Career with Climate People.

Awareness

Are you a self-proclaimed environmentalist, but your career path says otherwise? That doesn’t have to be the case. With ClimateTech as an ever-evolving and emerging space, you can have the best of both worlds. As defined in our previous blog, ClimateTech is any technological service — whether that be software as a service, a web-based tool, a physical satellite, etc. — that works to eliminate/remove or reduce the harms of carbon emissions.

It’s likely that you’ve already been presented with this statistic multiple times. However, it can’t be reiterated enough. According to a report conducted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), urgent action is needed to avoid the catastrophic effects of global warming. We must limit our global temperature rise to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius or the detrimental effects could be irreversible by 2030.

According to Harvard Business Review, 9 out of 10 people are willing to earn less money to do more rewarding work. Further, that same study discovered that on average, American workers said they’d be willing to forego 23% of their entire future lifetime earnings in order to have a job that was meaningful.

Globoforce’s WorkHuman Research Institute and IBM’s Smarter Workforce Institute’s Employee Experience Index defined meaningful work as work in which employees understand the value of the work they do and the organization's shared mission. This study discovered that meaningful work was the single largest contributor to a positive employee experience.

So there you have it, the demand is there and the reward even outweighs that. Even better than that? In a ClimateTech career you don’t even have to sacrifice salary to achieve work satisfaction. An article from BloombergNEF stated that $17 billion was poured into ClimateTech startups last year, with even more investment expected in 2021 and beyond. ClimateTech work can be both lucrative and rewarding.

Similarly, the ClimateTech market is growing rapidly. As the climate crisis worsens, the demand for ClimateTech solutions continues to grow. Below is a graph from Statista showing the value of venture capital investments in climate technology from 2009 to 2020.

STATISTA: Value of Venture Capital Investments in Climate Technology

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Consideration

So now you see the apparent benefits of transitioning to a ClimateTech career. You’ve combined this blog’s insights with your own research and are now ready to embark on your next steps. Where do you start? Like any other significant life change, there’s a lot to consider.

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We also highly recommend that you research the various jobs within the industry. Are you more fascinated by mitigation, adaptation, or carbon removal? Mitigation focuses on reducing carbon emissions. Adaptation involves the technologies and steps we need to take to adapt to life with a changing climate. Carbon removal is the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away permanently.

Look deeper to research which sector you want to get involved in.

Materials and Industry: This sector works to decarbonize the entire lifecycle of the production of goods we use from raw material form, through manufacturing, disposal, repurposing, and recycling. This sector requires the use of energy-consuming machines that lead to an excess of carbon in the atmosphere. The production of cement, iron, steel, aluminum, fertilizers, paper, plastics, textiles, and processed foods contribute to emissions in this sector.

Transportation: This sector prioritizes electrifying how we move people and things: electric vehicles, micromobility, public transportation, aviation, shipping & trucking. The challenges in this sector are three fold — it’s key to find alternative forms of mobility and improve efficiency, and electrification. By reducing demand for fossil-fuel-based transportation, we can alleviate emissions, save money, reduce pollution, and improve living conditions.

Energy: This sector focuses on the switch to renewable and clean energy, long-term energy storage, distribution, DERs, and microgrids. The challenges in this sector are three fold — we must improve efficiency, change energy production methods, and improve energy systems. Massive reductions can occur through reducing demand (efficiency), shifting generation to renewable sources, and conducting improvements to the grid.

Food, Agriculture, Land Use & Water: This sector revolves around nature-based solutions and technology advancements in how we sustainably produce food, while protecting all living systems on land and in the water. The Food, Agriculture and Land Use (FALU) sector contains the solutions to some of the most complex climate and human health related problems we face. By addressing food waste, shifting our diets, and making sure we eat what is grown, we can dramatically reduce emissions and lower farm inputs and land-clearing. Additionally, by shifting our farming practices and protecting our ecosystems, we can enhance food production, improve soil health, and keep carbon in the ground.

Built Environment: This sector focuses on transforming the built environment through carbon-negative construction, making our buildings more energy efficient and supporting more equitable and healthier communities. The materials we use in our buildings, the process of constructing the structures, and the eventual demolition of the infrastructure all release harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, we release even more emissions from heating and cooling our buildings. The challenges in this sector are three fold — we must address refrigerants, shift our energy sources, and create more energy-efficient solutions. We can significantly reduce building emissions through improvements to energy optimization, retrofits to existing buildings, replacing fossil fuel energy sources, and replacing polluting refrigerants.

Carbon Solutions: This sector revolves around capturing carbon to reduce the harmful CO2 that is already in the atmosphere. Accurate carbon measurement, monitoring and accounting are important tools to track progress. Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is an important emissions reduction technology that can be applied across the energy system. CCUS technologies capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel combustion or industrial processes. This CO2 is then transported and used as a resource to create valuable products, is permanently stored deep underground in geological formations, or is used in regenerative agriculture.

Climate, Risk, and Earth Data: Lastly, this sector prioritizes the data, tools and observations of the earth, ocean, and atmosphere to help drive environmental policymaking as well as business and financial decisions based on timely, accurate data and predictive tools. The Climate, Risk and Earth Data sector helps drive environmental policy making and business decisions that are based on accurate data and predictive tools. Earth and climate observation provides data related to land, ocean, and the atmosphere. This timely data is crucial to protect the environment, support businesses, preserve insurance rates, and safeguard financial markets.

Decision

You’ve done your research, you see the perks, and you’ve made up your mind. So, it’s time to put yourself out there, network, and eventually land your ideal job. Like any other job search, it’s essential to update your resume, cover letter, portfolio, and LinkedIn profile. Ensure that you're optimizing your LinkedIn profile so that recruiters in the ClimateTech space can find you.

Before you start applying for jobs, hone in on your hard skills, narrow down your search, and update all of your important documents. Leaders in Energy provides some tangible steps for applying to sustainable companies.

The three steps to landing a ClimateTech job are: learning, networking, and staying up to date in the ever-evolving field. These steps are essential to establishing your credibility during the interview process. Not only do you want to show your passion for the environment, you want to back that excitement with concrete knowledge and experience.

Working with a recruiter can be helpful to aid your networking initiatives. Climate People is a laser-focused ClimateTech recruitment firm with market experience across all of the sectors. Our team of sustainability-driven professionals can help you get your foot in the door in this niche community. Feel free to review our current openings, submit your resume, or reach out to us with any questions.