Green Careers and Green Jobs that Match Your Personality

What are green careers? How can I match my interests and personality to green jobs? In this article, we answer those questions. You will explore lists of green careers organized by Holland personality types and end with tips for learning more about green careers. First, we look at what "green" means in the world of work.

Our Planet Earth, the Green Economy and Jobs
Most scientists in the world agree that,

• The world climate is warming,
  
• Human activity is a significant cause, and
  
• It will have a catastrophic effect on the environment, unless major corrective steps are taken quickly.

The “green economy” is created as people and governments take actions to,

• Reduce the use of fossil fuels,
  
• Decrease pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,
  
• Increase the efficiency of energy use, recycling materials, and
  
• Develop and adopt renewable sources of energy.

These activities affect jobs in three ways. They,

1. Increase the demand for certain jobs that already exist. These jobs are unchanged; more of them are being created; and more people are being hired to fill them. A good example is Weatherization Installer. Government experts call this group of jobs Green Increased Demand Occupations.
   
   
2. Require workers to learn new skills to do existing jobs. The green economy has changed these jobs. New tasks, skills, and knowledge are needed. Civil Engineer is an example.  There may or may not be an increased demand for these jobs.  You need to research them to find out.   These are known as Green Enhanced Skills Occupations.
   
   
3. Create new occupations. These are entirely new jobs. Energy Broker and Energy Engineer are two examples. These are called Green New and Emerging Occupations.

The jobs in these three groups are called “green” because they have been affected by the “green economy” not because they, in fact, help the environment. To find out if they help reduce global warming or create a more sustainable world, you need to research them. We will give you tips on how to do this later.

Match Your Personality to Green Occupations, Careers, Jobs

It is important to choose an occupation that interests you, that matches your interests. This “match” will affect your future job satisfaction and success. Common sense tells you this and research studies demonstrate it. The same is true in choosing a program of study, like a career pathway, college major or training program.

Most of the research investigating this “match” has been done with Dr. John Holland’s theory of career choice. We recommend that you match your interests using his six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.

The First step, then, is to measure how much you resemble these six Holland types. To do this, it is important to use a scientifically valid test, one that actually measures what is claimed -- like the Career Key career test. It is one of the few valid measures of the Holland types on the Internet."

Second, you want to explore the occupations listed under the personality type(s) that are most like you. Begin by clicking the type below that best fits you: