How To Become An Environmental Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is an environmental assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Aaron Haines Ph.D., Certified Wildlife Biologist ®

If you are keen to help mitigate environmental pollution and make a difference on Earth, start your career as an environmental assistant. Under the supervision of an environmental scientist, you will learn to identify and eliminate various factors that pollute the earth's environment as you assist scientists with their everyday job tasks.

Your role will include data collection, sample analysis, and report writing that you conduct alongside and in relationship to the environmental scientist's research. Based off of the results, you will help the scientist to recommend new techniques that help the environment flourish. Moreover, you will accompany the environmental scientist to conduct fieldwork, perform program research, and present recommendations to the public and other entities regarding environment pollution and how to curb the problem. Essential skills required for this position are communication, analytical, self-discipline, and flexibility.

To qualify for this position, you will need a bachelor's degree in environmental science or a similar discipline. Moreover, certain certifications provided by institutions such as OSHA are also given preference. The average hourly pay for this position is $13.09, which amounts to more than $27,000 annually.

What general advice would you give to an environmental assistant?

Aaron Haines Ph.D., Certified Wildlife Biologist ®

Professor of Biology, Website

Having more technical skill sets can help you get entry level positions that can lead to higher pay positions. These include the ability to extract DNA from biological samples and understand the process of DNA sequencing, be familiar with geographical information systems (GIS) software such as ArcPro, ArcGIS, QGIS, be familiar with programming language such as Phyton and R statical programming, and government policies that impact your field of study.

Be a member of a professional organization and attend their conferences. This will allow you the opportunity to learn from others, network, and meet potential future employers.

ScoreEnvironmental AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,901

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.98%

Asian 10.41%

Black or African American 9.73%

Hispanic or Latino 17.18%

Unknown 5.72%

White 55.98%

Gender

female 50.44%

male 49.56%

Age - 35

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 35

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an environmental assistant

Explore environmental assistant education requirements

Most common environmental assistant degrees

Bachelor's

47.6 %

High School Diploma

20.9 %

Associate

17.1 %

Start to develop specific environmental assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	31.85%
Patient Rooms	18.09%
Cleanliness	11.01%
Patient Care	6.63%
OSHA	5.71%

Complete relevant environmental assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New environmental assistants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an environmental assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real environmental assistant resumes.

Research environmental assistant duties and responsibilities

Manage daily RCRA inspections and mechanical, electrical, and electronic equipment preventive/corrective maintenance procedures.
Support and enforce all policies, university and governmental such as OSHA rules and safety regulations and guidelines.
Use electric and battery operate floor machines, carpet extractors, automatic floor scrubbers, power washers and wide area vacuums.
Maintain and evaluate environmental records and documentation for OSHA compliance.

Prepare your environmental assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your environmental assistant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an environmental assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable environmental assistant resume templates

Build a professional environmental assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your environmental assistant resume.

Apply for environmental assistant jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an environmental assistant job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do environmental assistants rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Environmental assistant reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2021

Pros

Firstly, the most important is to protect our planet for us and the future generations. Secondly our planet is not going to support the pressure and negative impacts because of the big Increased human population . Finally our planet needs more and more environmental specialists to regulate and control all human activities, especially the ilegal ones.

Cons

I don’t like when big companies they know what’s wrong and what’s right, but still the destroy, like cutting trees in Brazil and the other side big companies even knowing those trees are ilegal, but still they continuing to porches. There for I can’t understand and I don’t like.