OSPE Career Planning Session: Green Jobs

Yesterday, the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) put on a career-planning session for P.Eng’s who want to get into the new Green Economy.

It was interesting.  The three panelists were a career counselor, a LEED buiding professional, and the executive director of the Ontario Environment Industry Association (ONEIA).

Things that I learned:

• every industry has environmental issues now; be open-minded about where to work
• there’s a skills shortage, not a labour shortage; get the hard skills that are in demand!  ”you probably need a skills upgrade, but not as much as you think.”
• beyond qualifications: demonstrate your interest by being active with associations, reading industry publications
• use job search engines (e.g. wowjobs.ca, eluta.ca, simplyhired.ca), not job boards (workopolis.ca, etc);
  in technical fields, the rule “most jobs never get posted” doesn’t apply!  Don’t ignore the posted job market!
• PMP: OSPE provides discounts with 2 companies that offer PMP prep courses

Jobs to look into:

• LEED Consultant (they’re in demand)
• LEED facilitator (like a Jr. PM…)
• LEED AP (?)
• Energy modeler for LEED (they’re in demand)
• Energy Auditor (NRC has info on getting certified)
• CEM – Certified Energy Manager
• Energy Management Verification professional
• Greenhouse Gas professional
• check out multidisciplinary engineering firms, they have some interesting roles.