Looking at a green career: I should be fine right? by Tony Green

At a choice of career paths

Here I am between positions again. This time I am going to fight to begin a career in something I am passionate about instead of slithering back to work on the first lousy employment offer I can get.

Assuming the cash reserves do not run out my goal of landing a green job which everyone is saying is going to drive the new economy is still alive.

Am I fooling myself? The writings of the research professionals reiterate I am not. In the just released Clean Tech job trends for 2010 the authors report the top five sectors for Clean Job activity are in no particular order: Solar, Biofuel, Smart Grid, Wind, and finally Advanced transportation/vehicles.

I looked at my resume and reflected on my work with epoxy resins used in wind turbine blades and advanced vehicles i.e. Electric vehicles, Hybrid Vehicles, and Plug-in vehicles.I also observed many of the folks in the solar industry came from the semiconductor sector as the technology to manufacture a Photo-Voltaic (PV) cell is very similar to producing an integrated chip. Another review of my work history includes over 5 years experience working as a Product engineer/Application engineer with Semiconductor OEM's manufacturers.    

Biofuel is the only one which is not covered. Though I do not claim experience in biofuel I do hold an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering. Would you think that would provide enough training to figure it out?

Furthermore, when the area where clean tech are predicted to be in the most demand not to my surprise the San Francisco Bay area was at the top of the list. I have heard there are times where you need to move where the jobs are. In my case, I have lived here for over 10 years.    

So since I can work in all five top Clean Job growth areas and live in an area which boosts the most clean job opportunities what I worried about?  In short I am concerned about everything. All of "resume bullets" are wonderful. But without something which makes money to pay bills it does not do much good. I hope things pick up like everyone says they will. The optimist in me tells me with some marketing, networking and a modest recovery I can make the world see what an asset I would be to any organization.

Professionally I should be fine, right? If not, please let me know because I'll need to derive another plan and fast.