Career Reinvention and
Personal Brand Strategist
rbussin@AspireForSuccess.com
About Aspire! | Career Resources | Blog
Blog Articles
Todays post is the third of four posts this month by guest author Carol McClelland on green careers. Carol will also appear live on our blog on March 18th to answer your questions about green careers. Stay tuned!!
Discovering your green niche or green focus is the first step in understanding where your skills fit in the green economy. Now your goal is to understand as much as you can about your target green industry (or green industries if you’ve got a couple of potential green career ideas).
Although you are excited about your idea, keep in mind that you’ve identified your green niche based on what you currently know about the green economy. Unless you’ve already done extensive research on your target industry, it’s likely that your choice of niche has been based on a combination of your knowledge, assumptions, hopes, and fears.
To make a solid assessment of your green niche idea, you’ll need to spend some time understanding your target industry. Use online research and networking to piece together your assessment of your target green industry.
(1) How is the industry organized? Is the industry categorized by different product categories or by different parts of a process?
(2) What opportunities is the industry facing? Where is the industry heading?
(3) What challenges are showing up for the industry? What are possible red flags?
(4) How are companies in this industry structured? What departments does the typical company have?
As you develop your overall picture of the green industry, explore where someone with your skills and interests is likely to be needed. How can you use your unique combination of skills, interests, education, and experience to make a contribution in your target industry?
Keep an open mind as you do your research. Don’t push or rush your process. You need to invest the time to get inside the industry to determine how to position yourself in your job search. Your knowledge will pay off when you begin building your resume and doing your interviews. You will stand out from the other applicants with your depth of knowledge.
While you are in research mode, be sure to do some due diligence to:
· Verify that your picture of your target green career is accurate.
· Confirm that your target green career is a good fit for you and your life.
Beware: If you leap into your job search before deepening what you know about your target industry, you may sabotage your journey by targeting a career that’s not possible or not a good fit for you.
In my next post, I’ll give you tips to use as you reach out to your contacts to learn more about your target industry.
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/184
This week, the WSJ is doing a series of articles and coverage on the green economy. On Monday, the newspaper published its first survey of venture-backed clean technology companies. The Top Ten list includes three solar-power firms, two eco-friendly car makers and several other firms providing technology and services in this market.
To read more about these companies, visit:
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/183
Since Carol McClelland will be joining us on the blog on March 18th, I thought I would share my opinion of her recent book Green Careers for Dummies. When Carol sent me book, I was really eager to review it, not only to increase my own knowledge, but to also provide information and tools to my clients.
In the book, Carol does an excellent job setting the reader’s expectations about employment within this sector. She reminds readers that the sector is in its infancy, that it is growing quickly and that job titles, job descriptions and career resources are still in flux. I found this expectation setting to be very helpful.
For individuals just starting out their exploration in this green economy, Carol provides numerous exercises and assessment tools to help the job seeker narrow down their green focus and interest in the green economy. (Check out the related article on our blog http://bit.ly/bsKChq.
The book has a vast overview of the sub sectors within the green economy, including environmental science, natural resources, alternative energy, green building, green manufacturing, smart grid, transportation etc. For each sub industry, she includes industry trends, websites, and resources for further exploration. Even though there is a lot of information, it is well organized so it can serve as your “green encyclopedia” for future reference.
At the end of the book, Carol offers advice on how to move forward with your job search once your green goal has been narrowed down. This section includes information on training and education, networking and volunteer opportunities.
In summary, this book provides one-stop shopping on how to explore a green career and is a must have for anyone considering a career in this sector.
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/182
Todays post is the second of four posts this month by guest author Carol McClelland on green careers. Carol will also appear live on our blog on March 18th to answer your questions about green careers. Stay tuned!!
In my last post, I helped you expand how you think about the green economy. Now that you have a better sense of what industries and sectors are taking actions to become greener, cleaner, and more sustainable, it’s time to identify where you will focus your intentions and attentions.
Your green niche is the place in the green economy where you are perfectly suited to thrive based on your unique combination of skills, interests, talents, education, and experience.
To identify your green niche, it’s important to take a broad look at your skills and interests. Take some time to brainstorm your favorite skills and interests from your professional life as well as your personal life. Then see how your favorites weave together to give you a unique competitive advantage within an industry or sector within the green economy. If you are drawn to two or three career ideas, carry them all forward in the process I’ll describe in my next post.
As you explore your options, avoid the temptation to latch onto the current hot industry or just one of your signature skills or interests. Either strategy limits your options and keeps you from seeing how you can leverage your uniqueness during your job search.
It takes focus, commitment, and perseverance to take yourself through the process of identifying your green niche, but the payoff is worth the effort! When you know where you are heading, you’ll have a much easier time determining which resources to explore, what meetings to attend, who to talk to, and what training programs to pursue.
As special note to those who need to find a job right now: You may be tempted to skip this step because it feels like it will take too much time. In reality, however, the time you invest getting clear on your green career focus will pay off in making your job search activities more focused, productive, and effective. Rather than going after any and every job that sounds possible, having a clear green focus will allow you to pursue the positions that are the best fit for you and your goals.
In my next post I’ll share how important it is to understand your target green industry to determine where your skills are most important.
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/181
By Carol McClelland, Author of "Green Careers for Dummies" and Founder of www.greencareercentral.com.
Todays post is the first of four posts this month by guest author Carol McClelland on green careers. Carol will also appear live on our blog on March 18th to answer your questions about green careers. Stay tuned!!
Before you can decide on your green career, you must take a little time to get a sense of the green economy from a big picture point of view.
Just relying on what you hear in the mainstream media isn’t enough because the media tends to focus on a subset of emerging green industries. Furthermore, the media is trying to highlight immediate opportunities, while missing some of the larger opportunities out on the horizon.
Use these key points to get a sense of how the green economy is evolving.
- In researching my book, Green Careers For Dummies, I discovered over 50 industries and sectors that are rethinking and reworking their business practices to reduce their impact on the environment and enhance their impact on their community.
- The green economy is not static. It’s constantly evolving, being shaped by a complex combination of a number of factors including policy, funding, partnerships, rebates and tax credits, innovation, and science.
- Significant, game changing announcements are being made in many of these industries on a regular basis. Watch for announcements through industry/trade associations can keep you up to date.
- Although it’s important to be realistic about short-term opportunities in this emerging economy, keep an eye on projections for long term growth as well. This new economy will be unfolding over time. Don’t turn away from an interesting career direction because the short-term opportunities are limited. Use this time to prepare yourself to be ready to jump into your target career when that industry is ready to open up.
- Industries and sectors going green fall into several distinct categories.
- Traditionally focused on environmental issues-environmental sciences, natural resource management.
- Traditional industries going green-building, transportation, manufacturing.
- Emerging industries that are creating new jobs-smart grid, information technology, clean tech industries.
- Functions that focus on stimulating demand for greener actions, purchases, and decisions. Think policy, finance, environmental education, marketing and sales.
In my next post, I’ll talk about how identifying your green focus speeds up your search for a green career.
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/180
This month on my blog, I am going to be focusing on the green sector, including posting numerous articles that have been written by Carol McClelland, author of Green Careers for Dummies. As I was thinking about content for this month, I thought it would be a good idea to begin the month, with an overview of the investment flows into this sector.
My preferred resource for venture capital investments is the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Money Tree Survey, which I have monitored for years. The survey is a vast resource of investment dollars, by region and also by industry sector. Another good resource to monitor for the green sector is the Cleantech Group.
Regardless of the resource you visit, it is clear that cleantech or the green sector is receiving a good portion of venture capital investment. In Q3 of 2009, clean energy received 19% of the total investments, just behind the biotech sector. In Q4, the sector was in fourth place, behind biotech and medical devices (Pwc Money Tree Survey). The two largest regions receiving investments are Silicon Valley and New England.
The green sector or economy is huge, so where is the money going? The hot deals and subsectors are the following:
§ Energy Efficiency-any firms that have products or technologies that reduce energy consumption.
§ Smart Grid-firms seeking to improve outmoded electricity delivery systems and firms providing equipment to enable smart meters to communicate with utilities.
§ Green Transportation-makers of more efficient cars.
§ Renewable Energies- such as wind and solar.
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/179
According to the latest ExecuNet Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI) data, from the October survey of 172 executive recruiters, 56 percent are "confident" or "very confident" the executive employment market will improve during the next six months - which is essentially unchanged from last month. Those who are not confident that executive employment market conditions will improve during this period of time dropped from 8 percent in September to 6 percent in October, which marks the lowest "not confident" reading since May 2008.
The industries recruiters expect will generate the greatest growth in executive-level job opportunities through the end of 2009 include:
1. Healthcare
2. Clean/Green Technology
3. Energy/Utilities
4. Pharmaceuticals/Medical Devices/ Biotech
5. Environmental Products/Services
Source: ExecuNet Executive Insider newsletter
Use the following address when linking to this page: http://www.aspireforsuccess.com/weblog/167
Showing page 1 of 27 pages [Next] [Last Page]
- Gaining an Understanding of Your Target Green Industry
- WSJ Publishes List of Top Ten VC-Backed Clean-Tech Firms
- Book Review-Green Careers for Dummies
- Finding Your Green Niche: Claiming Your Piece of the Green Economy
- Creating a Green Focus: Understanding the Full Scope of the Green Economy
- Investment Dollars are Flowing into the Green Sector
- Job satisfaction in the U.S. falls to an all time low
