- We need to help each other get over the 5 Key Obstacles for working in climate tech. (by
Joshua Stehr
for
Work on Climate
)
- Book: The 20 Minute Networking Meeting (
Nathan A. Perez
) - don't try and get a job when you network. Go for 2 intros instead. Always give more than you ask!
- Lots of unconventional ways to get into climate tech - like a government job (Water District) or synthetic biology (algae does amazing things that can replace petroleum).
- Amazon has a Climate Pledge Fund.
- If you like green buildings, the new Founders Hall is showing off the latest.
- The famous "required experience without experience" catch-22 is especially prevalent in climate tech.
- A great example is the "war for ESG talent" (
Joel Makower
). Companies are only seeking top talent instead of taking a chance on broader candidates.
- Don't just look at tech startups. We need to be really good at government and policy. Public dollars need to be spent right.
- There are transferable skills that will get you into climate tech - Project Management, Business Development, Procurement. Here's an example job from
Gabriel Scheer
with
Elemental Impact
for a "Senior Partnerships Operations Analyst".
- Procurement is an interesting one. Big companies make big decisions about purchasing. Things that are overlooked, like buying tires, add up when you procure the right products.
- Technical solutions are going to take a long time to scale. We won't make it on tech alone, we need nature based solutions.
- Seattle is a home for the AgTech sector (note to self).
- We all have something valuable to add. Even if it's not in climate. Find your story and the common thread that any company would want (like being scrappy and resourceful).
Carbon Removal (CDR) at Microsoft | Prev. Strategy & Product at Tesla | Technical Program Management at Masdar
1 年Thanks for the write-up! Great to see the passion for climate tech in Seattle. Seattle's ClimateTech scene is as great as Seattle's Tech scene. I was pleasantly surprised to see mention of LCOE, but the critical thing to note is that drivers of reduction of LCOE often come from the hard tech/deep tech side, and many bets need to be placed on this hard tech before we can commercialize this.
Gallup Certified Strengths Coach | Presentation, speaking and career coaching MBAs @ UW Foster | Podcaster.
1 年Here is the other article by Mike Hower I referenced in my introduction https://www.greenbiz.com/article/solving-sustainability-careers-and-connection-crisis
Gallup Certified Strengths Coach | Presentation, speaking and career coaching MBAs @ UW Foster | Podcaster.
1 年Great write up Jacob! I'll add a few resource, I didn't get to mention the The 2-Hour Job Search, by Steve Dalton. It offers an amazing recipe for networking your way to job opportunities, similar to the 20 Minute Networking. AgTech: check out GeekWire for coverage of companies like Carbon Robotics, TerraClear Inc, RipeLocker, LLC, CODA Farm Technologies, among them. Someone adjacent: Beta Hatch (insects!) Don't forget the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and utilities like Seattle City Light, as well as transit agencies like Sound Transit, King County Metro., Washington State Department of Ecology, and Department of Commerce... there are opportunities within these entities for policy, and implementation. Batteries aren't just about chemistry, kinetic batteries, gravity, pumped hydro, compressed gasses, are also interesting areas of grid storage. Speaking of nature based solutions, while we talked about algae in terms of synthetic biology, we didn't talk about seaweed! Washington Sea Grant has been doing interesting work with Kelp. (https://crosscut.com/environment/2022/03/wa-seaweed-farming-could-boom-permitting-remains-difficult)