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With the holidays coming up, I wanted to remind everyone that now is the time to start preparing yourself for 2013 and recall the approach that I gave regarding the preparation for the new year.   Remember, while everyone is focused on figuring out how to please families in different cities, this is your time to develop the game plan for the coming year.  This plan can include developing a list of people you want to meet/interview/help, certifications you want to earn, etc. If you haven't found your place in the green industry yet, ease some of the self-inflicted tension by reminding yourself this is a growth process and that the energy you choose to spend is better applied to emotions that move you forward, through recognition of small accomplishments, appreciation of those that have supported you along the way, and excitement about your vision of how great your journey will turn out.   The latter is something that has to get you up in the morning.  If your visio...

Making a career change is no easy feat by any means.  Whether it was voluntary or a move under pressure, changing course from the path that you've grown accustomed to can leave you grasping for direction.  What if you're not going through a career change and just happen to be faced with an unknown?  How about a "known" and the details just plain freak you out?  To make  matters worse, you may be bombarded with the constant pressure to "blaze your own trail", or "make a difference" or "control your destiny". I've even talked about bringing yourself to the point of discovery here , but what I want to circle back to and acknowledge is that through every step of my life, there was always....and I mean ALWAYS someone who I can turn to (whether I knew it or not) when faced with a challenge.   If you're like me, you may seem to continuously find yourself up against challenges that seem bigger than the goals beyond them and if those cha...

‎For any person or organization that directly provides training to those that are new to the industry: "Remember, the measurement of success is based not on the number of students that go through your program, but rather the experience that you and your company delivers that help them confirm that they are in the right industry." ~Michael

I recently received interesting feedback about the whole idea of green as an over stretched issue exaggerated by the government and that an industry that revolves around the sciences leaves one at the mercy of other people to determine what the problems are or are not.  What I appreciate the most about this response is that it was genuine.  The sentiment is shared by many people and it serves a purpose in creating a certain degree of resilience in society.  It also came from a very good friend who I can count on to tell it to me straight. I like this perspective because I can go into many industries and apply the challenge.  In telecom, how does the customer know he or she is really getting four gigs of data when the tools that measure bandwidth are driven by engineering-manipulated software?  Do they know the value of spectrum purchased from the government, let alone the reason for pages of additional charges on their bill?  In medicine can a patient arg...

There's something beautiful about a green internship. At the start of my Photovoltaics class, an assessment of the class was made to determine who is serious about "going solar".   For me, any time I'm enrolled in a class, there's some degree of seriousness otherwise, why go?  From the initial assessment, I was fortunate to be given the chance to take a position as a solar installation intern prior to completing my campus training.  Tip: Any of you who have done the same now have a bullet item for your resume to highlight adaptability .   When I was interning for the solar company (one which will be covered soon), I had come to realize just how important the opportunity was. While on the roof, my coworkers and I came up with many ideas for green companies to not only support solar, but ideas for other focuses such as electricity. Here are several things to take away from this: 1.  We are solution-driven .  Being part of an internship progr...

Every so often, I will share some of my dialogue between my classmates. It’s better to get a third perspective from my audience than to rely on who typed the last period. A classmate had asked, “Do you think society takes environmental matters seriously?” So, here is the argument behind their question. If society actually cared enough about the environment, there wouldn’t be so many challenges to get all the players to agree on at least moving towards the use of renewables and the application of sustainability. My response: “I would say that society and the current generations may not take the environmental matters seriously (or at least at levels necessary to make a drastic difference). Fortunately, as long as education exists, we have the opportunity to pass down knowledge to generations that may have no choice but to make a difference.” I compared this thought to the baby boomer’s adoption of the Internet. When the concept first became mainstream, many of the boomers rem...