You might be the kid who loved being outdoors, exploring the nearby woods and collecting bugs in a jar or taking samples from the local pond to look at under your most prized possession: a microscope (you know, the one you’d never let your little brother so much as breathe near). Or maybe you were that, umm, let’s say spirited, high school volunteer who led an effort to clean up a state park after you realized what all that litter was doing to the poor animals. Perhaps you watched in horror—in person or on TV—as a wildfire consumed a West Coast town or as Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico, killing so many that we still don’t have an exact death toll.
Whatever drove you to study—or consider studying—environmental science, you’re well aware that the world needs you right now. Environmental science majors are prepared to take on our climate crisis, conserve natural resources and environments, lead the charge on renewable energy, and—not to be dramatic—literally save the planet.
But as you’re sitting in class, doing your labs, and trying to imagine your next steps, you might start to feel overwhelmed. “Can I really make a difference in a world that’s burning and melting and only getting worse?” you might wonder. “There’s so much to do, where would I even start?” The great thing is: There are so many options open to environmental science majors. But the problem is: There are so many options open to environmental science majors.
You don’t need a list of 734 possible jobs. But what you probably could use is a tailored list that digs into a few particularly promising career options—and maybe a quick look at some of the skills you’ve gained that will help you thrive in the workplace and what types of organizations and industries are looking to hire former amateur pond sleuths like you.
Skills Environmental Science Grads Already Have
Anybody who’s completed college already has valuable skills for the workplace. And “environmental science degrees specifically provide an abundance of transferable skills,” says Alaina G. Levine, a STEM career coach, writer covering environmental science topics, and president of Quantum Success Solutions, LLC, a career consultancy focused on engineering and the sciences. Your degree has prepared you to work in basically any field you’d like, Levine says, whether you want to pursue a career related to environmental science or go in another direction.
Here are a few of the transferable skills you likely gained:
- Communication and storytelling: Throughout your coursework, you learned to communicate by writing research proposals and reports, essays, and emails; discussing information with others in classes or group projects; and giving presentations. Environmental science majors often need to take complex topics and translate them into a compelling story that convinces people they need to care about something and take action, Levine says. You learn how to “mine data and distill it in a way your ‘constituents’ will understand,” whether your constituents are your classmates, teachers, colleagues, managers, executives, policymakers, or the public.
- Marketing: Most environmental science programs won’t mention that you’re learning marketing skills, Levine says, but any time you’re explaining the value of a project or even a natural resource, you’re using marketing skills. “Marketing” might feel like a dirty word in the context of our planet, but it simply means crafting a message that convinces someone to take action. In environmental science, you might be persuading a company to put money or time into a new process that’s more sustainable or writing a grant proposal where you’re communicating the value of your research.
- Leadership: Many employers are looking for leadership skills in employees at all levels. Leadership “isn’t just being appointed or anointed a leader,” Levine says. It’s any time you take ownership or initiative. Individuals have to lead “a team of one every day,” and decide how to do their work productively and efficiently, Levine says. You’ll also have to lead your own initiatives, programs, and/or research even as an early-career employee. You already got practice with these skills whenever you led a group project, coordinated resources to meet deadlines or budgets, or made decisions based on new information or data.
- Research: “Environmental science programs turn out students who are excellent in conducting research,” says Sara Hutchison, a career coach who’s advised environmental science majors and has a degree in sustainable development herself. Students often have to study primary sources, read through compliance and legal documentation, collect their own data in the field, employ the scientific method, and write about their findings, all of which teach them strong research practices, such as how to select reliable sources and data. Even if you’re not working in a research setting, these skills help you collect the information you need to solve problems. Speaking of which...
- Problem-solving: In addition to gathering the data they need and making autonomous decisions, environmental science students learn how to look at a problem from multiple perspectives, which “is an extremely valuable asset, both in scientific careers and less ‘traditional’ careers,” says Dr. Gemma Cassidy, who’s hired and advised environmental science majors and is currently Senior Journals Publishing Manager for Wiley, a large scientific-publishing company. For example, they may need to look at how an issue with air quality might be affecting different parts of an ecosystem and evaluate the economic costs of various solutions. Or in a very different context, they might consider how proposed upgrades to a software product might affect users.
- Risk assessment/management: Since environmental science students often need to conduct field research, they’re practiced in risk assessment and management, Levine says. They may have to shift priorities or adjust plans either before going out in the field or on the fly due to risks like weather, wildlife, environmental conditions, or even other humans. For example, a dangerous storm may compromise your ability to safely collect water samples, so maybe you have to analyze the nearby soil instead or adjust your research timelines. You may also specifically study the possible risks to a certain population of frogs as the climate changes, for example. Risk assessment and management is useful whenever you’re evaluating the best course of action for a given project or initiative.
- Computer skills: Like most fields, environmental science is increasingly relying on technology. During your coursework, you likely learned the computing skills needed to analyze and visualize data, build models or projections to predict outcomes, and possibly utilize AI and machine learning. These computer skills are highly sought after both inside and outside of the environmental science field.
“As a final point, graduates from an environmental sciences background likely have a passion for our planet, and how best to protect it,” Cassidy says. Employers are always looking for workers who care deeply and are knowledgeable about what they’ll be doing—and many organizations are hiring workers to help fight the climate crisis in particular.
Where Can Environmental Science Majors Work?
When you’re deciding where you’d like to work—whether that’s a type of organization or a certain industry—Levine suggests thinking about your values and what drives you. “Do you want to protect the coastlines because you grew up in a seaside area?” Levine asks. Or would you like to help decrease the negative effects big companies have on our environment? Are there certain animals or plant life you want to protect? Are you interested in maintaining and improving public health? Do you want to directly affect policy?
Here are some of the common industries and types of organizations where environmental science majors work:
- Local, city, state, and federal government
- Municipalities and utilities
- Nonprofit organizations
- Education
- Museums
- Energy (both renewable energy companies and traditional fossil fuels companies looking to decrease their environmental impact)
- Manufacturing and safety
- Food production
- Real estate development
- Publishing and media
- Public health
- Zoos, aquariums, national parks, and other conservation centers
But this list is far from exhaustive. More and more organizations are prioritizing sustainability in their day-to-day operations, Cassidy says. As a result, those with environmental science degrees are needed “across the board.” Many environmental science careers might feel “hidden,” Levine says, but you can find them through networking and environmental professional organizations such as the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP).
Even if you don’t want a career in environmental science, “The degree you pick to complete in college does not define the career you will pursue,” Hutchison says. So don’t feel boxed in.
13 Jobs and Careers for Environmental Science Majors
Below you’ll find 13 jobs and careers you can pursue with an environmental science degree (and you can click on the links to search for current openings on The Muse). Many of these jobs can be found in multiple or all of the above industries or types of organizations and you can specialize according to your area of focus or interest. For example, you can be an environmental science technician for a real estate company that studies the effects different developments may have on the water in a local ecosystem or you might be an environmental consultant who specializes in helping manufacturers decrease the air pollutants produced by their work.
Unless otherwise noted, all salary information is from PayScale.com. (Note that PayScale’s database is updated nightly; the numbers below reflect the latest figures as of November 2021.)
