Green Drinks and Talk of the Future
So if anyone reading this is younger than me, let me repeat some advice I've heard: networking and contacts are everything when you're trying to get a job. Okay, not everything, but really, really important.
So I leapt at the opportunity to do some networking amongst people in various environmental industries in Western Mass. CET organizes a monthly get-together called Green Drinks at the Northampton Brewery, where professionals from all sorts of environmental fields get together and chat and network. Great fun, greatly useful. Especially for a young buck like me, just starting out. More after the jump.
So I went with John Majercak (MY-er-chek), the office head-honcho, who organizes these gatherings, to the place. Some people started arriving, and there was some preliminary chit-chat. I was really nervous, because I'd never been to one of these things before, nor am I totally comfortable in an alcoholic atmosphere. But John assured me that most people at these events don't order alcoholic beverages anyways, so I was a little more comfortable on that front, but still extremely nervous.
There was one woman who was a banker who was pushing sustainable practices in her company, and another who worked in the organic industry. I talked with them only briefly at the beginning.
There were two people I talked to the most. One was of an age with me; she just graduated from UMass in English and Sustainable Agriculture, doesn't really know what she wants to do with herself, and is currently doing something at UMass about veggies or whatnot. She was very nice, gave me a ride back to my car in the CET parking lot, but she's about as clueless as I am.
The main person of interest, though, was a woman who works at this solar company down in Springfield. The company's called Kosmo Solar and her name is Pam. She's young too, late 20s, but dresses like a dorky-yet-cool college student. She went to Hampshire, and volunteered and networked her way to this awesome administrative job at this solar company. She said there are basically two types of jobs in the solar industry: on the roof installing, and not on the roof. She's in the latter, and that's where I'd like to be too, if I were in that industry. I wager it's more complex than that, but it's a good conceptual starting point.
Pam advised me to volunteer at events a lot, meet lots of people, and network a lot. Basically, I got the impression that a lot of passion and standardly high capability also helped get her the job she has.
Afterwards, I got to thinking. Do I really want to go into the solar industry? I certainly want to do something environmental with myself, occupationally speaking, but solar? It's one possibility. But I'm also really interested in green building, which is what I'm primarily doing at my internship. And what education would I need for these things? Pam said that you don't really need a specific degree to do what she does (she has an engineering degree from Hampshire). I've heard people say that engineering degrees are very useful for this sort of thing, but they're also very prescriptive and pretty intense, I hear. Then there's architecture. I'd love to do that, but the word is architecture degrees are also pretty grueling. And several people have said to me that every architect wants to build a green home. So, if I became an architect and wanted to build green buildings, would I not be able to? It's so confusing.
Anyways, basically, I don't know what I want to do with my life, but networking like this is useful regardless. See how much it got me thinking?
Also, after Green Drinks I was going to go to a workshop sponsored by CET about solar energy. I didn't make it for various reasons, but I got my hands on the printout of the powerpoint slides, and learned a lot. Basically, it seems that a 1 KW installation = 1200 KWh output, assuming optimum orientation and NO shading. Also, solar panels cost about $10,000 per KW installed. Optimum orientation is due south at a tilt of about 40 degrees. If you want to know more, let me know.
Okay, that's it for this week! I'll post more as things happen! Huzzah for being caught up!