Global Environmental Careers. Justin Taberham

      1 Continuous Learning of the World of Work and How you fit inNew environmental careers are emerging rapidly due to the global shift to a low‐carbon economy. Other sectors influence changes in environmental careers as well. New opportunities that might arise from this intersectional influence. To get the most updated picture of emerging environmental careers, check career database websites to see the latest updates on Green Economy (for example: www.onetonline.org/find/green). There are often jobs that you never even considered on the list. Never assume you already know all the possible job options that are available to you. Do the groundwork and your chance of succeeding will greatly increase.Other than job databases, it is also important to understand industry trends such as job availability, growth, salary, education and skills needed. The technical knowledge of the world of work will give you some initial ideas on what is possible and what you might pursue. There are also numerous career assessments that can help you decide what is a good fit for you.The other aspect of this tip is how you, as a whole person, fit into the world of work. Essentially, this comes down to understanding yourself, including things like your personality, your interests, your strengths, your expertise, your values, your likes and dislikes, your weaknesses and anything else that makes you the unique person that you are. All this information will inform you about what you want, but more importantly, what you don’t want. Incorporating a thorough understanding of yourself into your career planning helps to ensure that you are an integral part of your career development, which has an astonishing effect on your long‐term well‐being and happiness in your career.Most climate activists and environmental professionals I have spoken to suggest that education is key to understanding what to do about climate change. Without the necessary knowledge, it is nearly impossible to take actions that are coherent with your goals. The ability to learn autonomously and independently ensures that you will always be able to find the necessary knowledge to move forward.Once you dive into learning all about the environment, though, it is easy to become overwhelmed with information. A great way to not be overwhelmed is to be able to effectively organise the useful information based on your goals. Identifying a big‐picture goal will help you anchor both your learning and organisation.Identifying your big‐picture goal requires a sound understanding of both yourself and the world of work. Figuring out which is missing will help you move forward with ease.

      2 Maintaining Well‐being, Hope and Resilience with NatureUnderstanding yourself ties in strongly with your career well‐being, which ties into your overall well‐being and happiness. Well‐being, in my opinion, is more important than pretty much anything else I will talk about. This is because if you are not happy, it is very hard to implement the knowledge and execute the steps necessary to develop your career in the way that you truly want. Well‐being includes aspects of our lives such as sleep, exercise, nutrition and finances. Problems in any of these areas can get in the way of your career development and take you further away from your goal, which can cause further discouragement.This negative cycle has a significant impact on our hope for our future. Hope is ‘the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways’ (Snyder 2002). Without hope, it is easy to think nothing matters and subsequently not take necessary actions towards your goals. A lack of hope might make you give up pursuing a career prematurely or settle in under‐employment or a position that you’re not happy with.One way to stay hopeful when facing challenges is to develop your resilience. A resilient person exhibits the ability to quickly recover from adversity and adapt to new situations with positive actions (Block and Kremen 1996). In the case of environmental careers, hope and resiliency not only influence our thinking regarding our career goals but also our goals and dreams for the planet. With the larger goal of protecting our planet, we can’t afford to lose hope in our pursuit of environmental careers. It is important to stay resilient when times get hard.One easy way to restore our resilience is spending time in nature. Research has shown that nature has restorative effects on our attention capacity for the elderly (Ottosson and Grahn 2005), aggressive behaviours in young adults (Kuo and Sullivan 2001), and mental fatigue (Berto 2005). It also makes sense that if you want to work to protect nature, you should spend time to really immerse yourself in it. Connect yourself deeply to it. We already live in an age of separation, where humans formed such a deep cavern between our built and natural environments. It’s not a narrative that is easy to unlearn and overcome. Take your time to understand all parts of nature, a massive and intricately connected system with millions of inhabitants. What is your relationship with nature? What does nature mean to you? What have you learned from nature? How is nature connected to your work and life? What is your mission?Working on something bigger than yourself can feel daunting. A deep, personal connection to nature will inspire empowering and intrinsic motivation for you to stay resilient in the face of challenges. Gratitude and love of nature will provide genuine drive to protect it. Nature will also revive you when you feel the stress from our human‐built environment. Nurture nature and it will nurture you back.

      3 Thinking Outside of the Box and Prototyping your IdeasAs we shift towards the low‐carbon economy, the way we work now will shift as well. This means new sectors, new methods, new leadership,

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