*** 20th Anniversary: 2003 to 2023 ***


Weather or air quality jobs

by Holly
(Canada)

Consulting the weather chart

Consulting the weather chart

How should I decide between weather or air quality jobs? I was wondering about your consulting job. HOw did you get into that, and did you enjoy it? I am deciding between being a weather girl or consultant myself. Any advice would be appreciated, as i am not sure who even to ask about this. I have been talking to the Josh Classen of CFRN CTV Edmonton news, he is the main weather man there. Again, any advice or knowledge would be apprciated.


Barry's Response - I take it you are a student in meteorology or some similar field, coming at a crossroads of some sort and not sure what to go with.

When I finished my studies in the early '90's, jobs of any kind were scarce enough that I worked in completly non-scientific fields (such as 7-Eleven) for a couple of years and jumped at the very first relevant job that came my way.

This was with a consulting company named Jacques Whitford who has a large air quality group in their Calgary office. It meant moving down from Edmonton myself and setting up here. I guess you could say I sort of fell into it. This company is quite good for the fresh graduate as they get plenty of varied experience needed to make intelligent career decisions. I understand they are hiring again.

Expect to work long hours at times.

I eventually left this position to pursue an operational career in meteorology with Environment Canada, after their 10-year hiring freeze was lifted. It turned out not my bag.

There have been times when I wished I had gone the TV weather person route. Any established station will want you to have credentials such as a degree in communications, with meteorology coming in second, so it seems. I found this out from Claire Martin, a former classmate of mine who has been doing weather on Global.

She and I were "fans" of Bill Matheson, who had the post way back then.

I guess what I'm really saying is, nobody but you can find your direction, but you probably knew that already. It took me several air quality jobs and such, and I still don't know if I'm there yet.

Reassuring? I doubt it, but good luck anyway. The adventure is worth it.

Search this site for more information now.

Comments for Weather or air quality jobs

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Thanks
by: Jacob

I have given it a thought about becoming a meteorologist, but later on when I came to understand about the complications that prevailed in this field, I had to revise my decisions. But still, I do have a soft corner for this sector.
Rating
starstarstarstar 		Weather
by: Anonymous

I have a huge interest in becoming a Meteorologist. It has been my dream since I was a child. I really enjoyed hearing about this article. It was very interesting. Yes I would like to explore this site more because I like finding information on the weather. I would search things on Meteorology.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		quite interesting
by: doglover

i thought it was good. sometimes it is hard to make a decision and sometimes you don't make the right one then later on in life you figure out that you should of went the other way. ya i'd like to find out more about what makes people think and why they go the ways they do. a good metoroligist is a great job and we need more that know what they are doing at their profession
Rating
starstarstarstar 		good advice overall
by: Anonymous

I have no interest in being a meteorologist but I like barry's advice about how to go about deciding on a career and making a career change. Excellent advice in today's iffy economy.
Rating
starstarstarstar 		solid advice
by: Anonymous

while i'm not incredibly interested in weather or clean air, in general (well, i mean, i'd like to breathe clean air, and i like good weather, but have little interest in doing much about either), i liked the advice in this article as it applies to almost any career changing situation.

and while it's not my bread and butter, i enjoyed reading the story - it's always good to hear about someone else's journey.

:D
Rating
starstarstar 		I can relate it to myself
by: khushe

I am also a kind of person who is not able to take the decisions confidently. I get into a dilemma in many situations. By reading about you I was able to relate it to myself.

Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Very helpful
by: lisa

Very informative, its great hearing about your life story also, very interesting!

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to The Environment.


Do you have concerns about air pollution in your area??

Perhaps modelling air pollution will provide the answers to your question.

That is what I do on a full-time basis.  Find out if it is necessary for your project.


Have your Say...

on the StuffintheAir         facebook page

Other topics listed in these guides:

The Stuff in the Air Site Map

And, 

See the newsletter chronicle. 

Thank you to my research and writing assistants, ChatGPT and WordTune, as well as Wombo and others for the images.

GPT-4, OpenAI's large-scale language generation model, helped generate this text.  As soon as draft language is generated, the author reviews, edits, and revises it to their own liking and is responsible for the content.