Can you get work combining environmental studies and engineering to work in environmental solutions?

Question

I'm thinking about changing my career and going back to study environmental studies and engineering. I was really strong in chemistry, but I took a different career. If I knew finding work would be easy, I'd happily undergo a major investment in re-educating and re-training for this. But I wonder what a company that works on inventing solutions would even look like, i.e. how it would be funded and who its customers would be. I want to be part of the effort to help engineer solutions to growing global environment problems. But if I undertake this change, could I find work? Preliminary searches on the internet are not hopeful. If you are in this field, please say something.

I'm thinking it may even be possible to work as a facilitator between governments and engineering firms, in a business discipline, to better coordinate more business between the two.

Answer 1

There is plenty of work in the environmental field. From environmental scientists to environmental engineers, many people make a decent living in the arenas of environmental consulting (soft engineering) to R&D for firms that develop technologies to clean and remediate spills and releases.

Air Permitting, EPA compliance, Groundwater remediation, assessments, etc... are many activities that you can submerge yourself into.

Once you decide on the area of work, then try to find a job in that field. If you are smart and can conduct Research, try to get on at a university and conduct research.

Good Luck.

The bottom line: There is an abundance of opportunity. You should not have to go back to re-educate, unless you want to.