Environmental Science

be an engineer.... most needed job in the world.

 

Es

I majored in Adventure ED and minored in environmental science more specifically marine science. I am working in my field of AE currently. If you are interested in being on the water, NOAA and the Division of Marine Fishery's have lots of openings as At Sea Monitors. Basically you gotta like being on a commercial fishing boat and not fishing. you evaluate bycatch and try to stay out of the crews way(good personality is a plus) because the crews don't want some hippy telling them what they can and cant keep. More than that your basically big brother to them, a government spy! But if you wanna be on the water and live near surf this is a great gig for a while.

 

yeah pretty much. My buddy is an observer and they put him up in a house over by the fort. he sets out from glosta usually but some times portsmouth new bedford the cape and sometimes rhody. so one of the requirements is to own solid wheels. but the job is pretty sweet. you aint gonna be a millionare but you will have some fun doin it.

 

hey man im a sop****re, they're gonna blank this out because it says h.o.m.o haha, an earth and environmental sciences major bachelor of science, with a minor in environmental studies and marine biology. it's gonna be a lot of work but i hope i can travel, do research, and surf at the same time.

 

I graduated with a bachelors in environmental science in 2008 and got a job right out of college working for a large environmental consulting firm. The job prospects in my area are great in this field, as my company is almost always hiring entry level grads right out of college, and there are other companies in the area doing the same. It's not spectacular work by any means, we work mostly for large oil companies cleaning up and dealing with their spills, but the pay is decent and job security is pretty good once you have a couple years experience under your belt.

 

i work with some environmental guys and they do a lot of permitting (putting together documents for NJDEP and Army Core of Engineer compliance) just doing a lot of unnecessary b.s. that the DEP thinks of. you could also work for the DEP in one of their many departments making sh!t up in order to cost the taxpayers and developers all kinds of unnecessary hassles and $. but theres definitely opportunites for field work around streams, wetlands, beaches, construction sites etc. there are quite a few ways you can go with an environmental degree.

 

Natural Resource Conservation

I have worked in natural resource conservation for the last 35 years. It has been a very rewarding career. I have gotten to do some amazing work in some amazing places and gotten paid for it. I've also gotten a sence of accomplishment for having made a difference. Pay was not great but the job satisfaction was.

 

lol SJerzSrfr right on man... waste of money for the majority of it, especially in an economy where money is so tight and in debt.

 

I majored in Environmental Science. I went to the University of Delaware. I like the program a lot, but it was very broad in its scope, and thus doesn't really guide you towards any specific career field. I chose to go on to get my master degree in climate, which set me up for a lot better paying and higher up jobs. Other's that I know that chose to go in the work field with their Environmental Science degree got jobs working for government and private sector businesses that mostly dealt with environmental testing and regulations.

 

I work on a comercial fishing boat and deal with a lot of marine observers. If you get sea sick at all stay away. The companys do most of there training on inshore boats in the calm summer months. In the winter you could be working in 10-20 foot seas for more than a week at a time. If you dont get sea sick its not a bad gig most companies starting pay is around $300 a day and your usually on land for most noreaster and hurricane swells.

 

I know one of the observer companies in the north east you only need a highschool diploma or ged. There are three different companies that are contracted by noaa for the north east. not sure which company it was one of the observers we took out mentioned it, I forget what company it was.

 

For the OP,

I'm actually on the opposite end of the spectrum that SJerzsurfr's coworkers are on. I do the environmental permitting on the state end, reviewing the documents that the applicants/consultants submit for their permits and make sure they are compliant with state rules and requirements. Needless to say I'm not a popular guy with certain sectors. I also have a degree in Natural Resource Management. Without getting into the specifics and the various trails and tribulations of the two sides of the regulatory fence, I enjoy what I do, it's great work, decent pay and benefits (for now at anyrate), and I get out into the field for site inspections when the need arises, and I'm off on the weekends and don't typically have to bring work home with me.

There are a wide range of areas one could work on, anywhere from Coastal permitting (which as a surfer you might be interested i) to wetland and Flood hazard work (which is what I prefer most of the time). That said, Government work is hard to come by right now and it's the private sector that's hiring. If you've got math skills and the time, I would definitely recommend the environmental engineering side of things, they are always busy, both the state guys and the private sector guys.

The only really downside to the gig is you occasionally come across projects that have a real negative impact to the protected resources, and there is not much you can do to convince the applicant/client (depending on which side your coming from) to scale down the scope of the project. Money talks and sometimes you have to eat a sh*t sandwich. For me dealing with agents that are constantly providing the wrong information even after walking them through what you want is the worst. I'm sure the agents feel the same way about having to deal with perceived arbitrary demands of the department.

Hope that helps in the decision making process OP.

Rez

 

You said it, money & greed has ruined everything in this country.

 

Agreed with some caveats, nothing sucks more then dealing with a private individual who has scrimped and saved to purchase and subdivide a property with some environmental constraints, hired a crappy consultant who sold him a false sense of what can be accomplished on the property within the regs (customer is always right mentality, even when they are wrong), submitted a ****ty permit, and then having to basically tell the client that no...your guy screwed up royally, and then the client has to spend more and more money trying to fix the original mistakes. His money that he worked hard for and saved for, is getting pissed away by an irresponsible firm, and the the state agency gets blamed. Everyone fails. A little greed and drive to make some money is a good thing...it's how things get done...but sometime the proportion goes way overboard.

 

The problem is is that's the way this whole country is run. Agreed a little greed and drive to make some money is a good thing, but as far as I'm concerned too much of it is to attain material possessions. We are so spoiled in this country, the thought that I was brought up this way makes me sick. I have been working on changing my outlook on life, and surfing definitely helped, I don't want for anything, but shelter, food, water, surf gear and beer.