Environmental sciences

Just wondering if there is anyone I can ask about advice for going down this route? I’m a climate change activist and eco friendly enthusiast and would really love to have a career in environmental sciences. Is there anyone that does?

Just wondering if there is anyone I can ask about advice for going down this route? I’m a climate change activist and eco friendly enthusiast and would really love to have a career in environmental sciences. Is there anyone that does?

Hi, I’m only currently 16 but I want to hopefully take on jobs in this industry when I’m older. But I’m not sure what jobs there are I’ve tried googling but I don’t understand. I’m just looking for someone to kind of explain the types of jobs I could go into if I take this course in a few years time. Thank you!

There are lots of different kinds of jobs available! If you enjoy research, you can stay within academia and go into some aspect of environmental research that interests you. This is probably the single biggest destination for environmental science graduates. Another major sector that employs environmental science (and related subjects) graduates is environmental consultancy, where you're employed to help companies ensure that their projects comply to environmental regulations, are carried out in a sustainable manner, etc. Environmental NGOs will also employ environmental scientists if that's a route you'd like to go down. And then of course, like any science degree, you'll learn a lot of transferable skills that will be applicable to a broad suite of careers. Perhaps also look at this page from prospects.

Basically, there are a lots of options open to you. The important thing is that you choose a university and degree that (1) you think you'll enjoy, and (2) will challenge you. It's also really important that you do your best to do internships and related things whilst you're at university, which is probably as important as the degree itself. This is true regardless of what you want to do post-degree but particularly if you want to go into research or the non-profit sector because both of these sectors are unfortunately very competitive!

Hi @Plagioclase

I'm starting Environmental Science this year.
I've been looking for internship(s) opportunity.

I hardly found any.

Can you give me some advice please? Everything helps.

Is this an internship for this summer before you start uni or an internship next summer after you've started? I'm going to assume it's the latter because if it's the former, you're unfortunately probably not going to get very far!

Firstly, most internships aren't published until the academic year starts at the absolute earliest, and from what I've seen it's mainly only the large corporate schemes that recruit early in the year, a lot of the science internships aren't open until December or often even later, so I'm not surprised that you've not found anything. Secondly, you unfortunately are going to have to accept that many internships target (or are exclusively) for second-years and above, so it is more difficult to get an internship as a first-year (which is not to say that it's impossible, because it isn't).

In terms of where to look, it depends on what you're looking for, you can do research internships or you can do internships at consultancies, NGOs, etc. For research internships (which in my experience tend to get advertised pretty late), I'd start asking around your department around Dec-Jan for suggestions, either within your uni or elsewhere. I'm unfortunately not aware of any unified list of opportunities around the country, so you're just going to have to do some searching. For what it's worth, I've done internships at my uni, at a uni in Germany (funded by a programme at my uni), and currently an internship in Japan (funded by my host university in Japan) so there is a diversity of opportunities available, you've just got to look for them.

For non-research internships, there are lots of them available but I don't know much about them. A good idea would be to make an appointment with your careers office at your university and to ask them for suggestions because they'll probably know a lot more than me (I learned about several of my internships from my uni's careers office).

Thank you @Plagioclase

I would like to get into research.
I start Open University, but I wish to transfer after the first year.
Is it hard to get into research jobs?