It can be tough standing out in a sea of applicants to get that green career you want. Read this article for six ways to shine bright for employers.
With the economy as tight as it is, one of the best ways to ensure you get the job is to outshine your competition.
These days it is not unusual to hear that hundreds of people are applying for a single position.
You may be accustomed to thinking about this scene from the job seekers side. How can you ever hope to win a job with those numbers?
To get a perspective on this question, it may be helpful to put yourself in the shoes of the recruiters, hiring managers, and Human Resource specialists who must wade through hundreds of resumes to determine who the best candidates are. Imagine how you'd feel after looking at your 90th, 199th, 299th resume of the day!
Or think of the people standing at a job fair booth. It's the 6th hour of the fair, you've talked to hundreds of people and there are still more people standing in front of your booth. Clearly, you'd be in some phase of feeling overwhelmed.
As a job seeker, your goal is to stand out from the crowded terrain.
Six Ways to Outshine Your Competition
1) You Must Be Able to Clearly, Confidently, and Enthusiastically Describe Your Green Niche. Identifying your green niche is one of the most important steps you can take to enter the green economy. But beyond identifying your direction, you must also be able to articulate your green niche in a way that engages everyone who hears you talk about your passion.
Demonstrating your passion is contagious. As you speak about what interests you, your contacts will pick up on your excitement and pass your name on to those who may know companies that are hiring.
Being able to describe your green career goals in an interview or job fair situation will feel like a breath of fresh air for the hiring managers, recruiters, or Human Resource specialists you encounter. You can't imagine how many people they talk to who can't give a precise statement about their passions. After talking to people with muddy perceptions of their future, the hiring personnel will recognize that you aren't like the others in the queue. Your clarity will command their full attention, which is exactly what you want.
2) You Must Have Activities on Your Resume that Demonstrate Your Values
Don't even think you can greenwash your way into a sustainable company or green industry. Hiring managers are looking for job candidate who walk their talk when it comes to environmental beliefs and sustainable actions. What activities demonstrate your commitment to helping the planet?
Can you integrate greener actions into your daily life? Changing how you commute to work, modifying how you recycle at home, or retrofitting your home to be more energy efficient are just a few ideas. If you choose this method to demonstrate your values, be sure to choose actions that are in alignment with your target industry in some way. When you include these actions on your resume or in your interview, you want the hiring manager to take notice and be impressed.
Another option is to become active in your community, by volunteering for a community green team or for an environmental organization. When possible, volunteer in a way that builds your case for your target position. If you want to get into organic agriculture, volunteering at the community garden might be a great idea. The same volunteer gig may not be as powerful if you want to get into the energy efficiency field. Be strategic as you choose your volunteer activities.
A side benefit of engaging in your community is that you have the opportunity to build a network of people who are passionate about making a difference. (See #5 below for more details on this.)
3) You Must Be a Company Builder
Employers are looking for people who will jump in to help the company reach its goals. For companies that are striving to grab more market share or to develop a new technology, it's not enough to be willing to do the job you were hired to do. You must be willing and able to do what it takes to get the job at hand done.
This characteristic is especially important if you want to work in an emerging industry. You must be comfortable with change, constant change. You must be confident enough that when you hit a snag you can find your own way around it without waiting for someone else to bail you out. You must go with the flow when the business direction changes to match to evolving business climate.
Not everyone is meant to work in this kind of hyper-charged environment. If you prefer to have a stable work environment, you'd be best suited for an industry that is more established. Although every industry is going through some degree of transition, an established industry will be a bit more stable during the move to a sustainable way of doing business.
4) You Must Be Able to Demonstrate Your Expertise
Although it's always been true that professionals must be able to demonstrate their expertise in their profession, this way of establishing your edge has morphed a bit. Employers are looking to hire people who know their industry of choice and have a good understanding of sustainability and the green economy.
I recently read a post on the Environmental Leader blog (
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/04/20/adapting-skills-for-the-green-tech-revolution/) by Mark Hanny, Vice President of IBM's Academic Initiative and Preeta Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Strategy at Brandeis' International Business School that talked about "T" shaped professionals. According to the authors, "The shape of the "T" in this instance describes one who is "deep" in a subject such as computer science, engineering or finance but who also possesses "broad" knowledge across many subjects, including business and public policy."
By developing a hybrid set of skills, you'll be better prepared to look beyond the silo associated with your industry or profession. You'll be able to evaluate how changes will impact other parts of the company or the economy. With the green economy evolving at a rapid pace, highly sought after job candidates must be able to think through technical, political, and business changes that impact the company.
5) You Must Connect with Your Local Green Network and Your Profession/Industry
Although you may think you'll need to compete with large numbers of applicants for every single job opening, that's just not the case. Jobs advertised on job boards are only a portion of the job openings that exist at any one time.
The best way to learn about unadvertised jobs or jobs that are about to be advertised is through your network. Being in a position to contact the company early in the job search process allows you to make an impression they'll remember.
To be in a good position to hear of leads from your network, you must begin connecting with people now. Don't wait. If you are switching careers, this is one of the best ways you can prepare for the time when you will be looking for a job.
Look for local green groups through your community and local environmental groups. Attend a few meetings. Find a way to get involved. If you network online, search for green groups through whatever social network you are on.
6) You Must Be Able to Articulate How You Are the Solution
A company is going to hire you because you are able to solve a problem they are facing. The more you know about the problems your target industry/profession/company is facing, the more attractive you will be to hiring managers.
If you can demonstrate that you know their language and have innovative ideas to solve their problem you'll definitely get their attention! Don't try to wing this strategy. Do your homework. Read as much as you can about relevant issues. Talk to people in the field so you don't sound like an outsider. Practice talking about the issues you can solve so when you are faced with a question in an interview, you can respond effortlessly and passionately.
Your Next Steps
If you are searching for a job right now, your goal is to stand out from the crowd and make a great impression whether they see your resume, meet you at a networking event, hear about you from a colleague, or find you at a job fair. Since you have a short time horizon, you need to think about which of these strategies is going to give you the best results quickly. Review your history to see if you can highlight things you've already done.
If you are shifting careers from a traditional industry into a green industry, you have a bit more time to build your brand and sculpt how others perceive you and your expertise. You might want to focus on three initiatives in the short term and then create a strategy for building in a few more of these ideas as you get clearer about your ultimate green niche.
Green Career Expert Carol McClelland, PhD, is the author of the forthcoming book, Green Careers For Dummies and founder of
Green Career Central, a membership website with useful programs, 400+ pages of effective, targeted information to help you identify your green niche, find a green job, start a business or further your education. Visit http://www.GreenCareerCentral.com to request our free report - "Six Strategies to Find Your Green Career"
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