Mag: ‘How to quit your job to work on climate’ – ‘Climate concerns are driving career shifts. Here’s how to make one yourself’

A few years ago, software engineer Eugene Kirpichov left his job at Google to work on climate change. He had a good job in machine learning. But the climate crisis was so urgent, he wrote to colleagues, “that I can no longer justify working on anything else, no matter how interesting or lucrative, until it’s fixed.” A coworker, Cassandra Xia, left at the same time. They quickly heard from a growing number of people who wanted to do the same thing, and started a Slack group to talk about the transition. That group, called Work on Climate, now has 20,000 members.

One in six Gen Z and millennial workers have switched jobs because of climate concerns, according to a Deloitte survey in 2023, and another 25% said they were planning to make the switch. Green jobs are growing, though there’s a shortage of green skills. If you’re ready to ditch your current job for something more meaningful, here’s where to begin.

JOIN A CLIMATE GROUP

On the Work on Climate platform, it’s possible to sign up for office hours with someone already working in a climate job to ask for advice, attend Zoom events to hear how others have transitioned to a climate-focused role, or chat on Slack with others who are farther along in their search for a new job. My Climate Journey, a platform with a paid community, also helps connect people looking for climate jobs or founders launching new climate startups. Some groups focus on specific types of climate jobs, like Climate Designers, which has both a Slack community and local chapters that run in-person events.

When Work on Climate surveyed its members, several thousand people said that they credited the community with helping them find a job. Having the support of others in the job search was critical. “They say that they basically didn’t give up because they had the community,” Kirpichov says. “It is not an easy process, so you don’t want to do it alone.”

It’s challenging to begin to understand the science of climate change and the hundreds of climate solutions that are emerging. But online platforms like Terra.Do can help, with a general climate bootcamp and specific classes on topics like carbon accounting. Another site called Climatebase offers a 12-week online fellowship where climate startup founders, investors, researchers, and other experts help introduce the class to a range of climate solutions. Several books also help provide an overview of the challenge and solutions, including Speed and Scale and Drawdown. MIT has a series of short guides to specific technology and concepts, from enhanced rock weathering to what “net zero emissions” means.

“If you’re just beginning your climate job search, it’s important to be comfortable with what the solutions are,” says Kirpichov. “Otherwise, it’s likely that you will look at a job that maybe actually is a great fit and is impactful and you just won’t recognize that it is a great fit and impactful because a lot of things might look niche to you. Like, ‘I don’t know if food waste is really my thing,’ or, ‘I don’t know about methane leaks on abandoned oil wells.’ And then when you learn more about this thing, you’re like, ‘Oh man, why isn’t everybody working on abandoned oil wells?’”

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Fast Company Mag: A few years ago, software engineer Eugene Kirpichov left his job at Google to work on climate change. He had a good job in machine learning. But the climate crisis was so urgent, he wrote to colleagues, “that I can no longer justify working on anything else, no matter how interesting or lucrative, until it’s fixed.”

Climate Change Consulting Market to Surpass USD 7.7 Bn by 2033, with Rising Demand for Green Products & Services