Land and environment
What does an Environmental Scientist do?
Working outdoors on growing things, ground and habitats.
What the day is like
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- No two days alike.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $82,220 a year, median
- Environmental Scientists and Specialists, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
- Several years, and usually a formal qualification.
- Jobs
- +6% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
What is good about it
- No two days are the same, if that is what you want from a week.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Reports nobody reads
- Fieldwork in poor weather
- Findings that get overruled
Much of the job is writing; the outdoor part is smaller than people expect.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Machinery has replaced muscle in places, but outdoor work that changes by the day has resisted automation.
How to find out whether it suits you
Ask a consultancy what a week of fieldwork and a week of reporting look like.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.