Environmental Specialists are responsible for monitoring the effects of pollution on our environment. They conduct research primarily in industrial areas and create reports on their findings, striving to advise stakeholders on creating a balance between industrial activities and sustainable living conditions.
Carrying out field investigations and analyzing test samples will be your primary duties. You might experiment with dying various materials to track areas potentially affected by toxic waste. You might create reports such as graphs and maps displaying various pollutants to inform key decision-makers.
Monitoring water quality and understanding the various ways in which human populations and activities affect wildlife may also be on your plate. If you are considering this position, you will need to obtain appropriate education and experience in the field. But rest assured, you will be heading towards a deeply meaningful career.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an environmental specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.09 an hour? That's $52,189 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 7,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many environmental specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and problem-solving skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an environmental specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 11.7% of environmental specialists included procedures, while 11.2% of resumes included hazardous materials, and 6.8% of resumes included environmental compliance. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the environmental specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most environmental specialists actually find jobs in the health care and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming an environmental specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.4% of environmental specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.9% of environmental specialists have master's degrees. Even though most environmental specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an environmental specialist. When we researched the most common majors for an environmental specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on environmental specialist resumes include high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an environmental specialist. In fact, many environmental specialist jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many environmental specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or environmental scientist.