Career Exploration
Tips for career exploration
- Get experience: The best way to explore possible career pathways is to start getting experience in different areas of environmental work. Internships, field courses, and volunteer work are a few of the ways to get experience.
- Conduct informational interviews: Conduct informational interviews with people who work in career industries of interest to you in order to gain insights into a career field or company and build your network. You can find folks to reach out to on the Career Advice Network or LinkedIn.
- Talk to ENVS faculty: Visit office hours with ENVS faculty or lecturers, and ask them if they have advice for you. Tell them about your interests, your passions, your experience (and if you don't have experience yet, that's ok). You can ask them about grad school, too!
- Discover where ENVS alumni have worked: Look at what kinds of jobs ENVS alumni have done. This might give you ideas of possible careers or positions you could consider.
- Reflect: Take some time each quarter to think about what classes, internships, or other experiences you enjoy -- and what you don't enjoy. Sometimes we speed through life and don't stop to think about whether our activities are a good fit for our strengths and interests. Keeping track of these reflections will help guide you toward a career that works for you!
- Meet with a career coach: The UCSC Career Success office has career coaches on staff who are available to meet one-on-one with students.
Types of careers our graduates have pursued:
(We also have a list of specific jobs held by ENVS alumni!)
Environmental Consulting |
Wildlife Ecology |
International construction and development |
Department of the Interior |
Coastal zone planning |
State and National Parks |
Urban, regional and land-use planning | Bureau of Land Management |
Environmental law | Department of Fish and Game |
Natural history museums |
Private aid organizations |
Environmental mediation | Farm advising |
Peace Corps | Plant ecology |
Freelance writing/media production | County Agricultural Commissioner's Office |
Resource policy analysis | Integrated pest management research/consulting |
Environmental Protection Agency |
Small scale agriculture-farm management |
Environmental health monitoring | Horticulture-arboretum management |
Waste management | Landscape design/maintenance |
Recycling management | Environmental organizer |
Teaching - all levels | Special interest groups |
Outdoor education - all levels | United Nations specialized agencies |
Science education through school gardens |
Agency of International Development |
Jobs held by ENVS alumni:
Legislative advocate
Environmental dispute resolution
Practicing environmental law in San Francisco
Environmental organizerconsultant and activist
Consultant to World Wildlife Fund
Enterprise zone coordinator
Director of public land trust
California Legislature Budget Committee
Own environmental consulting firm
Environmental assessment for university
Teaching junior high science
Executive director county resource conservation district
Statewide planner State of California
Program analyst
Cross-cultural environmental mediation
Bay/river management plan project director
Owns building energy consulting firm
Teaching in college outdoor education center
Agricultural researcher & project planner
Science writer
Director elementary school Life Labs
Bilingual elementary school teacher
Director of new product development for grower/packer
Partner/farmer farming collective
Organizing the California Organic Growers Association
Agricultural researcher and project planner
Botany curator
Resource Center for International Agrarian Development
Restoration ecologist U.S. Forest Service
Coordinator of stewardship program
Freelance scientific illustrator
Director of species conservation
Nest attendant UCSC Predatory Bird Research Program
Set up San Francisco's curbside recycling program
Program director of a regional housing organization
Transit/parking director
Works in multimedia education program
Landscape architect
Coastal engineer and GIS coordinator
Economist/Planner, environmental planning services firm
Facilities analyst for university
Park Ranger California State Parks