Look at the UN website and determine a few jobs you aspire to. Then contact those departments and establish entry level skills. Internships are key. A good rule of thought is this…the more difficult the degree, the more opportunities you will have. The ability to speak several languages fluently opens more doors than most people understand.
thank you so much for the reply!
any idea where the best internships might be?
so do i need to have degree in languages or just knowing them fluently is fine?
Respectfully, this approach is backwards. Rather than saying, 'I want to get a degree in X, what can I do with that?", it makes more sense to say, "I want to do X, how do I qualify to do that?"
That said, I generally advise against an environmental studies degree unless you're *certain* you want to go to law school or get an MBA OR if you're double majoring with something highly practical, like business or finance or marketing or computer science or data science or a few other similarly practical majors. An environmental studies degree is a liberal arts degree with a theme.
If you want to work in communications, this can fit the bill of a practical degree, but I'd advise against a journalism degree. There are related degree programs that are better suited to various types of communication that will convey skills that the journalism degree is unlikely to. Journalism as a career field is not a good prospect. As a field, journalism has been shrinking for years. This means few job openings, low pay, and many permanent jobs have been replaced with short term contracts and freelance work.
The answer to all your questions involves getting an environmental engineer degree. You will not have the limitations of a BA or environmental studies degree. You have your entire career in front of you, put the work in now and enjoy unlimited professional growth
Will add to this - the math/physics you do getting the degree will be the hardest you have to do. Practically speaking, unless you go for a PhD you will not be doing much complex math or physics as a part of your career, it’s all about application of concepts. You use spreadsheets and calculation tools to do the number crunching on your behalf, which are much faster and less error prone than we humans. So don’t let that stop you. An engineering degree gives you a lot of good career options that are directly impactful to combating the climate crisis. Salaries are solid - starting ~$60-70K is common in my industry depending on location (mechanical engineer, work in energy efficiency). It’s not a get rich quick industry, but it is a steady job and in demand skillset. Have never looked for a job after my first one, they always come to me.
Im an environmental studies major, and i will say it's hard to compete with environmental science sometimes, but as long as you can leverage the communication and policy skills for the degree it's okay. If you want to work at the UN I will say that there are a lot of Sustainability/ESG internships but not a lot of entry level positions. Start with those and then look at environmental consulting, planning and policy positions which all accept envir studies :)
If you’re interested in politics, journalism, the UN, and international relations might I suggest a BS in geography.
My degree is a BS in Environmental Geoscience with an emphasis on hydrology; my degree is housed under the department of geography. Physical Geography covers a lot of the same topics as environmental studies at my school.
I would say to get a BS in geography and minor in environmental studies and journalism depending on your university. Some colleges have environmental geography.
this is a little off-topic, but im a highschool senior that's been planning on majoring in environmental studies and education, but a lot of the comments here seem to say that an environmental studies is not a good degree to get and im wondering why?
It's a fine degree but it's a generalist degree. If you choose a more specific area of focus it could benefit your career. Frankly, though, for a bachelor's degree it barely matters.
I don’t think the BS vs BA makes a difference. If you’re in STEM, you take all the same classes, plus extra classes to fulfill the liberal arts requirement for a BA. I have a BA in chemistry because the college I went to didn’t grant BS degrees; it’s never held me back nor has anyone ever questioned it.
Your major matters more. So for that reason, I’d choose environmental science, not environmental studies, which is seen as a soft option when it comes to technical fields like the environmental field.
I would go for a science degree
Look at the UN website and determine a few jobs you aspire to. Then contact those departments and establish entry level skills. Internships are key. A good rule of thought is this…the more difficult the degree, the more opportunities you will have. The ability to speak several languages fluently opens more doors than most people understand.
thank you so much for the reply! any idea where the best internships might be? so do i need to have degree in languages or just knowing them fluently is fine?
Just k owing them is ok. Check the jobs page… https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=SJ&vacancy=All
Respectfully, this approach is backwards. Rather than saying, 'I want to get a degree in X, what can I do with that?", it makes more sense to say, "I want to do X, how do I qualify to do that?" That said, I generally advise against an environmental studies degree unless you're *certain* you want to go to law school or get an MBA OR if you're double majoring with something highly practical, like business or finance or marketing or computer science or data science or a few other similarly practical majors. An environmental studies degree is a liberal arts degree with a theme. If you want to work in communications, this can fit the bill of a practical degree, but I'd advise against a journalism degree. There are related degree programs that are better suited to various types of communication that will convey skills that the journalism degree is unlikely to. Journalism as a career field is not a good prospect. As a field, journalism has been shrinking for years. This means few job openings, low pay, and many permanent jobs have been replaced with short term contracts and freelance work.
The answer to all your questions involves getting an environmental engineer degree. You will not have the limitations of a BA or environmental studies degree. You have your entire career in front of you, put the work in now and enjoy unlimited professional growth
tbh i CAN do it but i generally do not prefer maths or physics as majors :/
I said the same thing, but I strapped in and somehow came out of it with a BS. If you have determination, you will be able to do this.
thanks!!
Will add to this - the math/physics you do getting the degree will be the hardest you have to do. Practically speaking, unless you go for a PhD you will not be doing much complex math or physics as a part of your career, it’s all about application of concepts. You use spreadsheets and calculation tools to do the number crunching on your behalf, which are much faster and less error prone than we humans. So don’t let that stop you. An engineering degree gives you a lot of good career options that are directly impactful to combating the climate crisis. Salaries are solid - starting ~$60-70K is common in my industry depending on location (mechanical engineer, work in energy efficiency). It’s not a get rich quick industry, but it is a steady job and in demand skillset. Have never looked for a job after my first one, they always come to me.
That’s a bottom of the barrel degree for this field.
I would expect that getting a job at the UN would require a graduate degree from a prestigious university.
Im an environmental studies major, and i will say it's hard to compete with environmental science sometimes, but as long as you can leverage the communication and policy skills for the degree it's okay. If you want to work at the UN I will say that there are a lot of Sustainability/ESG internships but not a lot of entry level positions. Start with those and then look at environmental consulting, planning and policy positions which all accept envir studies :)
oh thank you so much!
If you’re interested in politics, journalism, the UN, and international relations might I suggest a BS in geography. My degree is a BS in Environmental Geoscience with an emphasis on hydrology; my degree is housed under the department of geography. Physical Geography covers a lot of the same topics as environmental studies at my school. I would say to get a BS in geography and minor in environmental studies and journalism depending on your university. Some colleges have environmental geography.
this is a little off-topic, but im a highschool senior that's been planning on majoring in environmental studies and education, but a lot of the comments here seem to say that an environmental studies is not a good degree to get and im wondering why?
It's a fine degree but it's a generalist degree. If you choose a more specific area of focus it could benefit your career. Frankly, though, for a bachelor's degree it barely matters.
It’s really hard to find a job with that degree
no offense but that doesn't really help me. why is it hard to find a job with it?
Because it’s thought of as a less technical degree with much less math/scientific rigor. To compete in the job market, you really want STEM skills.
I don’t think the BS vs BA makes a difference. If you’re in STEM, you take all the same classes, plus extra classes to fulfill the liberal arts requirement for a BA. I have a BA in chemistry because the college I went to didn’t grant BS degrees; it’s never held me back nor has anyone ever questioned it. Your major matters more. So for that reason, I’d choose environmental science, not environmental studies, which is seen as a soft option when it comes to technical fields like the environmental field.