Seeking a Green Job? Broaden Your Search

Looking for a green job and wondering where they are? Well, as job hunters flood the usual suspects — such as solar and wind companies — with mountains of applications, you might have better luck finding your dream job in a more unexpected sector.

That’s the advice from Amy Vernetti, a managing director at headhunting firm Taylor Winfield. She says many of the green jobs are coming from areas that probably don’t leap to mind when you think of cleantech, such as companies developing fuel additives and air-filtration technologies. “These are hidden gems in the market,” she says, adding that some of them are “hiring like crazy.”

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Vernetti pointed to Accsys Technologies as one example. The company, a North American subsidiary of European-based Titan Wood, has developed a nontoxic chemical process — using an acidic anhydride, or “very strong vinegar” — to harden fast-growing pine wood so it can be used in place of more expensive hardwoods or steel. Titan Wood won some attention when the first traffic bridge made of its Accoya wood opened in the Netherlands in November.

“We’re hiring every day of the year,” says Starla Middlebrooks, global public relations manager for Accsys Technologies. “We’re growing very rapidly. Despite the fact that the economy is down, our sales are up.” While engineers and chemists are most in demand, hiring is happening across the board, she says. “Engineers, purchasing, human resources — it pretty much runs the gamut.”

Photo courtesy of mtsofan via a Flickr Creative Commons license.

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