Although undergraduate interest in jobs in environmental fields has increased in recent years, the availability of jobs in this sector has not mirrored its growing popularity, according to personnel at several Ivy League colleges and universities.
"We are still trying to catch up to the media hype about green jobs," Skip Sturman, director of Career Services at Dartmouth, said. "I think that the jobs are out there, but still forming, at least at the entry level."
Many students become interested in environment-related jobs while at Dartmouth, Sturman said. The number of students who arrive at the College with an interest in sustainability, however, is also growing, he said.
"One of the main reasons I came to Dartmouth was for its environmental studies program," Marissa Knodel '09, an environmental studies major, said. "I knew it was something I wanted to go into right away."
Career services personnel at some of Dartmouth's peer institutions noted similar growth in interest in environmental jobs.
The number of students interested in jobs related to sustainable energy has seen a significant increase over the past three years, according to Louise Rosen, director of the Office of Academic and Research Programs at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. More than 800 students from around the Ivy League, for example, attended the All-Ivy Environmental and Sustainable Development Career Fair at Columbia on March 6, up from around 600 students last year, Rosen said.
Dartmouth sent a record 46 students to the fair this year, Sturman said.
Despite this increased demand for jobs, however, Cornell's Career Services office has not seen an increase in the number of employers coming to campus to offer energy and sustainability-related jobs, Rebecca Sparrow, Cornell's director of Career Services, said.
Sturman stressed that the types of "green jobs" available to recent college graduates may differ from those that these individuals expect.
"There's a lot more jobs that involve actual hands-on work than perhaps more managerial jobs, or the ones that students may have been used to pursuing in other fields," he said.
Students are more likely to find positions open for solar panel installers than for solar energy analysts, for example, Sturman said.
Although Sturman recognized that the job market may not be able to accommodate the increased student interest in this field, several Dartmouth students said they are optimistic about obtaining jobs within the energy and sustainability fields.
"The economic recession hasn't changed my career path," Nick Devonshire '11, who is interested in pursuing a career in environmental finance, said. "It is something I have been interested in for years."
Brandon Cohen '11, an engineering major modified with environmental studies, said that the current recession has in fact only reinforced his desire to find employment in an environmental sector.
"Environmental engineering is a field that's going to grow," Cohen said. "It really made sense as a career path, given the economic situation."
