An Open Letter To the Last Two Years, And To the Next Twenty
February 22, 2011
When my engineering position at a research manufacturing company was eliminated a few years ago, I took it as an opportunity to explore the possibility of doing something in a field about which I am passionate. One need only glance at the projects on which I’ve volunteered my time to see an environmental thread: restoring it, preserving it, protecting it. The word that kept rattling around in my head was sustainability. This led to thoughts about energy, and the rattling vocab increased immediately to include generation, storage, distribution, and conservation.
So I found myself in a pickle. I realized I was passionate about doing something in a field in which I have zero experience, paid or otherwise. I looked for a few careers supporting the environment (BLM, Parks & Forests, etc) but I never felt so exhilarated as when I considered working with energy. But what to do? That’s a question I’m still trying to answer 104 weeks later. I’ve applied for countless hundreds of jobs that I wasn’t even close to qualified for, and several dozens of jobs for which I should’ve been a shoe-in. I guess, like any good bird in the oven, I’m just not done cookin’ yet.
I realized pretty quickly that I’d eventually like to help craft & guide energy policy at the state or federal level. Admittedly, this realization was largely based on my love of Aaron Sorkin’s “The West Wing” (insert pause for laughter & pointing). There are no entry-level policy jobs, and I wasn’t selected for a competitive unpaid legislative internship with my Governor’s Energy Office, so 
I figured I’d use my physics & math degree to find an analyst position in order to learn about how energy works, from societal and commercial perspectives. The thinking was that I’d start with a narrow vision of the industry, and expand my vision over time until I could grasp the big, overall ideas and then start policy-making. No analyst jobs yet.
In another attempt to get my foot in the door I enrolled in a Home Energy Auditor certification prep course. You know these folks: they come to your house, set up a blower door, find the holes where your windows are installed, make sure that your combustion appliances won’t kill you in your sleep, and provide you with tax credit forms for any work that you have done. Turns out that my knees won’t allow me to crawl around in attics checking for insulation depths. An upshot is that my CAZ Testing Procedure (link) has been read over 1800 times, so I feel pretty good about that.
I started this weblog a few days after being laid off as a way to identify that (or those) aspect(s) of this energy issue that interest me the most. With no experience I’ve had to teach myself what’s out there, what’s relevant, and what’s doable. I’ve read books, informationally interviewed folks in the sector, and continued to volunteer my time where I could. I’ve been able to narrow my focus to the following statement:
I want to be part of the discussion – the one we have as a society, as a people. My position is that economic viability, personal comfort, conservation, and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive goals.
It may end up that this blog is my best way to engage in the conversation about conservation. I don’t think that’s true, though. I’ve been looking & learning for two years now, and have made significant progress in my understanding of what’s important. I have a lot to learn, and a lot to give. Interestingly it’s cyclical: more of one leads to more of the other.
If you know anyone who is looking to fill an entry-level position in the energy industry with a degreed, experienced professional please pass along my contact info to them & their contact info to me.
Next time: backwards thinking in a forward-thinking community.
