Climate Change Career Opportunities: Why Job Boards Will Only Make You Sad
Imagine this.
You are staring at LinkedIn Jobs, scrolling endlessly. You tell yourself: “If I just find the right role, everything else will click into place.”
Or worse, you have sent 100 applications to 100 jobs you thought you could probably do. Silence.
Sound familiar? Time to give yourself permission to stop.
Scrolling job boards will only make you feel sad.
Because job descriptions are a terrible way to communicate what a company actually needs. (And I should know, I have written hundreds of them.)
They are usually written by committee, everyone adding in a bit of what they want.
Or the role is so new that no one is exactly sure what is needed, so it gets padded with buzzwords.
Then HR step in. They don’t want to sift through 1,000s of applicants, so they add arbitrary hurdles like “must have 8 years’ experience and a PhD.”
Finally, finance take a look and chop 30 per cent off the budget.
What you are left with is an unrealistic ask, a dispiriting hurdle, and a role that is not justified by the pay.
And yet most people use lists like these to judge their self-worth, the state of the job market, and as fuel for imposter syndrome.
So stop that. Take the smarter route.
Applications Should Be the Easy Bit
The mistake: starting with jobs.
When you start by looking for jobs you waste a huge amount of time trying to figure out your new direction by leaping from one idea to another, as presented through the warped lens of the job description.
Before you go looking, you need to know how you will know when you have found what you are looking for.
In other words, you need to know your criteria.
Then you can work in the right order:
Criteria: Define what “good” looks like for you (life fit, values, strengths, identity)
Fill the Funnel: Invite ideas based on your criteria
Focus: Learn by doing. Find the people, not the jobs. Pivot or persevere
Proof: Create visible, credible evidence that you can do the work
Apply: Opportunities come from your community. The application becomes an extension of your conversations (a little job board time is allowed here)
Flip the order and you waste energy applying for roles that do not align.
Follow the order and suddenly opportunities feel obvious.
The Psychology Behind It
Psychologists call this the Paradox of Choice. Though I prefer “The Tyranny of Choice.”
Take the famous jam experiment by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper.
When offered 24 types of jam, only about 3 per cent of shoppers bought.
When offered 6, nearly 30 per cent bought. Ten times more.
The point: more choice is not more progress. The constant hunt for the “right role” is actually counter productive.
Creative constraints are the key.
Finding your dream role is not about picking one. It is about learning how to say no to the others.
The biggest return on investment in a career pivot is the work you do on your criteria first.
Four Ways to Make Use of the Hours You Have Already Wasted
If you have already sunk hours into job boards, do not worry. That effort is not wasted. Here is how to mine it for signals.
1. Job Description Autopsy
Pick one job description you nearly applied for.
Highlight what appeals
Circle the nonsense
Note what puts you off
Do this a few times. Patterns emerge. The signal in the noise becomes clear.
2. The Saved Tab Safari
Open the pile of jobs, articles or posts you have bookmarked.
Sort them into three piles: roles, problems, people.
Which pile is biggest? Which makes you curious? Which makes you sigh?
Your direction is hiding in your own tabs.
3. The Inbox Insight Lever
Search your inbox for “job alert” or “vacancy.”
Skim the last ten subject lines. Gut-check each one: exciting, draining, confusing?
Tally your scores. The words that spark energy show you where to lean in, and where to stop wasting effort.
4. Calendar Forensic
Look back at your last month of meetings.
Mark the ones that gave you energy in green.
Mark the ones that drained you in red.
Notice the patterns. That is clarity: what to take forward, what to leave behind.
None of these is the full answer. But each one is a signal. Together, they give you a picture of what sparks energy, what drags you down, what you want more of, and what you are done with.
How I Can Help
If you are ready to stop circling and actually move forward in your career shift into climate or sustainability, here is what working together can give you:
Clarity you can act on: Instead of a swirl of options, you will leave with a clear shortlist of roles and organisations that fit your skills, lifestyle and values
A story that gets noticed: Together we will craft a positioning narrative and LinkedIn profile that make it obvious what you bring
Confidence to step up: We will tackle the imposter syndrome and self-doubt that keep so many mid-career professionals stuck, so you can show up with the assurance you already deserve
This is a structured, supportive process that has helped hundreds of people like you find meaningful careers in climate and sustainability.
If that sounds like the partner you have been missing, let’s do this.
