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Welcome to the Green Career Tip of the Week
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Online Version of this Issue Green Career Tips Archive
Green Career Central is celebrating Earth Day with an incredible discount for new members joining between April 22nd and May 4th! Read this week's Highlight for more details.
Identifying which companies are green can make your green career search that much more difficult. Let this week's tip ease your burden with several great sources of information.
Save the Date – Carol will be facilitating a Green Career Panel sponsored by Acterra on May 19th in Mountain View. More details soon.
Did you get a f.r.e.e month on the Green Career Central site this week? Scroll down to see if the beginning of your email is next to the treasure chest. We do this every week!
Highlight: Last Chance for Earth Day Special – New Members Join Green Career Central for Half Price
Last Chance for Earth Day Special – New Members Join Green Career Central for Half Price
Our Earth Day Half-Price Special is about to come to a close – don’t miss out!
To celebrate Earth Day we are offering a special half-price discount for all new members who join GreenCareerCentral.com between April 22nd and May 4th. We’ve extended this offer through the weekend for you!
Green Career Central is a powerful, content-rich resource to help you:
- Switch to a green career
- Start your green job search
- Get a green education
- Green your resume for a future career change
- Launch a green business
- Advance your current green career
As a member of Green Career Central you will receive:
- Full access to organized, content-rich information, helpful tools, and targeted resources all designed to make you the ideal candidate for your target green career.
- A step-by-step plan to reach your green career goal.
- Preferred ranking of your resume on the Green Career Central Job Board.
- Easy-to-access, current resources you can use to achieve your green career goal. (Including green job boards, green recruiters, green schools, green industry profiles, and a green business center)
- Personalized support, through our discussion forums, teleclasses, and workshops, to help you keep moving when you feel stuck.
- A variety of articles and interviews with our team of career/business experts.
Take a look at these savings:
Regular membership: $19/mo. or $49 for 3 mos.
Earth Day Special: Only $99 for an entire year!
For all the details and to take advantage of this great half-price special rate
When you get to the site, click on the Earth Day Special button!
Tip of the Week: Eight Creative Ways to Identify Green Companies
Note from Carol: This is one of our most popular articles and one of our earliest newsletters. Thought it was worth updating and publishing again. Enjoy.
One of the challenges of the new Green Economy is figuring out which companies are green. How you approach this question will depend on where you are in your search for a green career or green job
If you are in one of the following phases of your green career search, you’ll do best to keep your search for green companies rather broad.
Phase 1) Are you in the process of determining where you fit into the green economy?
Phase 2) Are you trying to learn what careers exist in a certain field or industry?
Phase 3) Are you figuring out if a particular career is a good fit for you?
At this stage of your journey, you don't really care where the company is located; you just want to learn what they do and how they do it. You might be interested in the technology they use, the associations they belong to, the vendors they work with, and the customers they service. During this broad research you may discover that you really belong in one of the companies that interacts with the company you originally started researching.
If you are in either of these phases of your job search, you’ll be more interested in a very specific search for green companies.
Phase 4) Are you looking for the companies in your area that match your needs?
Phase 5) Are you searching for a job opening?
Your requirements for a green company become much more specific because you are looking for a company within a certain commute, with a certain culture, with a certain focus...and...oh yes... with a job opening!
Where Do You Find Green Companies?
When I began researching for the Green Career Central site, I had a tough time finding lists of green companies. As I prepared to write this newsletter it's apparent that more and more lists are now available. I have no doubt that such lists will become easier and easier to come by.
Rather than point you to a specific list of green companies, I want to show you eight ways you can find lists of green careers. With this knowledge you'll be able to continue your search even as the green career terrain changes and evolves.
1) Major Media Sources - More and more magazines are including lists of hot green companies in their editorial copy. Inc. and Fast Company, Fortune are several media outlets that come to mind.
As you look at their lists you may find the companies they profile are right out there on the cutting edge. Keep in mind that they may be in a research and development stage rather than full production. Use these lists to spot trends and take a fascinating look into the future.
If you are looking for local companies, check your local media sources to see if they've profiled green businesses or compiled a list of green companies in your area. Here’s an example of an announcement made in the St. Louis Business Journal.
2) Niche Media - Websites that cater to a particular demographic (working mothers) or geographic region (Britain) may also provide interesting lists of green careers.
3) Press Releases - Companies that have just been included on a top green companies list are bound to distribute a press release to celebrate their achievement. IBM is a recent example. Just put green company press release into your search engine. If you know the industry you’d like, add that to your search.
4) Green Energy/Power Lists - Several organizations (such as the EPA) are reporting companies that are purchasing the most green energy. This is actually a fairly good objective measure of a company's "greenness." World Wildlife Fund is developing partnerships with large companies to reduce their carbon footprint significantly.
5) Green Investor Information - Companies that help green investors make good financial decisions provide valuable information about companies that qualify for their lists. Some organizations will show you stock quotes while others will tell you what companies are included in their fund. Here’s a blog post about a great renewable energy company.
6) Green Business Organizations - Another intriguing way to discover green or socially responsible companies is to identify organizations where green businesses are members. Often these organizations, such as the Social Venture Network, include a list of their members on their website.
7) Green Business Directories - Although some directories are like the typical phone directory where green businesses are included if they've paid for advertising, there's also a green directory where companies are screened to ensure they meet the directory's standard. The Green Pages Directory is a good example of the latter method of inclusion.
8) Job Boards - Although most people use job boards to find job openings, you can also use green job boards to research green/sustainable companies in a particular profession, industry, or geographic area. Most of the larger green/sustainable job boards include a search function that allows you to pull up positions based on your research goals. Take a look at the Green Career Central Job Board for starters and then branch out to other job boards.
Green Career Tip - One sure-fire way to derail your quest for a green career is to focus too soon on which green companies are in your local area.
Although you may be in job hunt mode, take some time to understand the entire industry and its possibilities and trends, before you start your local search. Staying open to the larger picture will give you a better sense of where you fit in. Furthermore, your more thorough understanding of the industry is a great way to differentiate yourself from other job candidates.
Copyright © 2009 Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc.
Follow Carol and GreenCareerCentral.com
We are connecting with people through a variety of social networking tools…are you?
It’s never too late to get started or to deepen your list of connections.
So far we’ve covered
Next up is LinkedIn.
If you already have a LinkedIn profile, be sure to sign up to be part of the Green Career Central LinkedIn Group.
If you aren’t already on LinkedIn, use this opportunity to build your profile and join the group.
LinkedIn Tip:
The key to connecting on LinkedIn is that you want to build a network of people you know, respect and trust.
You invite people to join your network by sending them an invitation. If you just enter their email address and use the default invitation text this is the message they will receive.
Sam,
I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
- Your Name
If you and Sam know each other well, this message may be all it takes to get him to click to approve the connection.
If you just met Sam at a networking event or a conference, Sam may need more information to remember who you are and why he should want to connect with you via LinkedIn. To solve this problem,
- Click on Add Connections
- Click on the Invite Contacts Tab
- Enter the person’s name and email address.
- Click on the link Edit/preview invitation text
- Customize your message to your contact to increase the likelihood that Sam will become one of your connections.
Here’s a template you can use for your customized message.
Sam,
I enjoyed our conversation about _____ at the _______ conference.
Here’s the link I promised you.
I look forward to connecting with you.
- Your Name
If you are trying to connect with someone you’ve heard speak or you met at an exhibit booth, be sure to mention the event name, date, and location. As a speaker and an exhibitor I can tell you it’s nearly impossible to recognize names of people I met after a talk or at a booth unless we had an extended, memorable exchange. Even then, I appreciate a few comments about the context so I can make the connection.
If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, find me here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/carolmcclelland. Please let me know if you are a Green Career Tip of the Week subscriber or a Green Career Central member. If we’ve met…let me know!! (If I receive the default message from you, I probably won’t approve the connection…you may know who I am, but I don’t necessarily know who you are!)
Green Career Central Blog:
Green Career Trends: Discover which telecommunications are teaming up on smart meters, how gribbles may transform the production of biofuels, and how Solar Trees could create a charging network for electric cars.
Follow the Green Money: Department of Energy Funding Smart-Grid Grants, Miami, FL. Wants to Install 1 Million Meters, EPS Corp. Raises $30 Million.
Membership Has Its Advantages!
The discussion forum topic, audios, ebook, and articles listed below are available to members of GreenCareerCentral.com as a part of their membership. If you're not a member and would like to have immediate access, we'd love to have you join us now!
Green Career Central is a membership site with a comprehensive set of easy-to-use programs, resources, and events to help people achieve their green career dreams whether they want to find a green job, start a green business, or get a green education.
  
"My New Business Startup: It's a hard to find an investment these days that pays for itself many times over but the annual fee for joining Green Career Central is certainly worth every penny. The process laid out is structured and easy to follow. It takes you through the steps to get a truer understanding what your interests and skills are and makes you excited about researching your career options, while giving you a sense of progress and accomplishment. The weekly tips and "how to" resources on the website are time saving and are in of themselves an invaluable resource. Thanks Carol."
~WG Becoming an Energy Systems Consultant
Read what other members are saying about Green Career Central here....
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This Week's Drawing for a
30-Day Trial Membership: wshxq
If this is the beginning of your email address, contact us with a subject line of "Trial Membership" and we'll tell you how to get signed up for your 30-day trial membership to GreenCareerCentral.com. You must reply within 2 weeks of the date of this newsletter.
Current Members...you didn't think we'd leave you out, did you? If you see the beginning of your email address, we'll add one more month to your membership.
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What's New at GreenCareerCentral.com
New Industry Profile
Emerging Industries – Smart Grid
A Smart Grid is a system for efficiently managing the generation, transmission, distribution, and use of energy in real time, being able to quickly respond to shifting and fluctuating energy needs. At its core, a Smart Grid is about taking the electricity distribution system and adding an “information overlay” using billions of smart, connected devices such as sensors, controllers and displays as well as the myriad of connectivity components. Read the industry profile to learn more about the careers in this field.
Smart Grid
Scan Our Green Job Board Reviews
If you are looking for additional sources of job opportunities, you might want to check out our 80 job board reviews. We’ve written reviews of general job boards, profession specific job boards, governmental job boards, regional job boards, non-profit job boards and international job boards.
Feeling Stuck? Learn How to Move Forward
It’s not a matter of if you will get stuck during your search for your green career; it’s a matter of when. When you are feeling stuck, visit this section of our site to read articles that will help you find new ways to look at your situation. It’s likely you’ll find something to shift you focus.
Did You Know...
...if you missed a Tip of the Week, you can read the archived publications?
Green Career Tips Archive
About Us
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Green Career CentralTM is a virtual career center for motivated professionals who are ready to find a green career that fully expresses their passions, skills, values, and talents.
Carol McClelland, PhD, founder and Executive Director of Green Career Central, has helped thousands of people discover their dream career through her book Your Dream Career For Dummies and her work with individuals, groups, and students. Together with her team of experts, researchers and writers, Carol has pulled together sixteen years of experience into a broad collection of how-to articles, resources, support, and teleclasses to help you find your way to make a difference and prosper.
Why not have the green career you've been dreaming of? You can struggle on your own or gain support throughout your journey. The decision is obvious ... Join Us Now!
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Copyright (c) 2007-2009. Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Green Career CentralTM is a trademark of Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc
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650 322 8661 | Contact
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