Expand your horizons, work abroad!
One of the biggest hurdles for people looking to break into an environmental career is skills gap. It doesn't matter if you are a recent grad or looking to change careers, skill gaps are a plague nearly everyone looking for a job faces. It's important as it always is to see challenges as opportunities. Regardless if you believe that your skill gap is because your university program didn't prepare you or if you spent too long being comfortable in the first era of your career, or if you just woke up one morning and decided it was time for a change. Having the need to fill a skill is an opportunity. Here's what I mean.
You see the skill gap as a hindrance, and it is, for now. It will only continue to be an obstacle if you don't do anything proactive about it. It's only when you decide to do something about it that it becomes an opportunity. The opportunity can come in many forms such as:
- An excuse to network - you'll now have a valid reason to seek persons of influence for information and guidance (see the webinar How to Network Without Feeling Stalkery for more info)
- A reason to volunteer - volunteering is a wonderful way to not only gain experience but find out whether you like doing something before you're on someone else's payroll.
- A reason to explore careers you might never have considered before - here's where the work abroad options come into play. You can explore local jobs to fill a gap but you're likely going to have to take a step back in pay and ability. Some people can afford this others can't.
Here are some starting points for your search:
