Sponsored by Duke Kunshan University
In a world where plastic pollution, air pollution and climate change are all on the rise, so is the popularity of environmental degree programs. With a predicted job growth of 11 percent for environmental specialists between 2016 and 2026, the demand for those who have a well-rounded skillset and interdisciplinary knowledge to help combat the world’s most pressing challenges is also intensifying. But what job roles can you expect to find?
Getting your foot on the environmental career ladder
There’s an affinity of diverse environmental job roles out there which can be matched to both your interests and academic experience. Taking up an internship may even be the key to helping you get one step closer to figuring out exactly what it is that you would like to do – as two Master in Environmental Policy students at Duke Kunshan University in China discovered.
“The internships showed me how to apply the knowledge I learnt in class to the real world. They also enlightened my research; I got the idea for my master project from my internship in a corporate social responsibility consulting company,” said Xiaolin Xie, who interned at Syntao in Shanghai China.
“I also learned how to communicate and perform in business, how to solve problems efficiently and how to organize work when facing multiple tasks,” she said.
Whilst US student, Julie Mao, who undertook an internship at the US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Quality Management recognized the importance of soft skills within the workplace: “I think the soft skills which I learned during my internship will benefit me in my future career more than the technical skills, such as learning how to effectively communicate my ideas to upper management and how to work with various stakeholders on certain projects.
At BLM, I learned to manage various stakeholder's conflicting interests on a project to provide a solution that best benefited each party. This opportunity allowed me to work with the public, private and social sectors, which will benefit my future career as I’ll be working with a myriad of individuals, companies, and organizations.”
A worthwhile experience then!
Five possible career paths
Green degrees such as the master’s in environmental policy are here to stay, and careers within the sector even more so. Although the opportunity to pursue one of the following careers may vary depending on your experience, the area you work in and your specialized skillset, the career outlook in environmental rights and public policy is both promising and rewarding.








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