Why climate experience isn't necessary

- Demand for green talent is expected to outnumber supply within five years. The first takeaway from our barriers to working on climate survey is that climate experience is not required. Here's why. By 2028, we will have more climate jobs than we'll have people to fill them. Calling attention to the stat I provided earlier about needing 100 million people working in this space by 2030. Statistically, it is impossible to require climate experience. Hiring will be the driving limiting factor for companies scaling their climate solution. Terra.do predicts this bottleneck will be a direct result of being slow to adapt, having significant coverage gaps, unscalable solutions and not being outcome oriented. Further, LinkedIn's 2022 Global Green Skills Report found that green talent increased from 9.6% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2021, a cumulative growth rate of 38.5%, while job postings requiring green skills grew at roughly 8% annually since 2015. Particularly in 2021, approximately 10% of job postings explicitly required at least one green skill. Despite the reality that climate jobs will soon far outweigh the talent pipeline, our survey results showed the number one thing preventing people from taking a job in climate is their lack of experience in the space. The root of this is many job seekers come from years long careers in specific industries and have a hard time visualizing what their career would look like in climate. I want to reiterate one more time that climate is not a sector, it's a re-imagining of the entire global economy. There will be climate jobs in every industry. It's all about finding ways to transfer your skills from one role to another. That being said, many climate companies still prioritize candidates with climate experience. We'll dive into this later on in more depth but job descriptions are simply wish lists. As we discussed, climate is a young space and few job seekers have these skills. If you're curious about a climate job now, you're ahead of many. Companies are looking for quality talent that can mold themselves into climate professionals. Many hiring managers often won't compromise on climate mission alignment. However, they will likely be flexible about previous climate experience. Here are my top three tips for compensating for a lack of climate experience. First, brush up on your hard skills. Dive into climate tech head first and learn as much as possible. If the company is expecting climate mission alignment you should be able to convey this. Be prepared to effectively communicate your transferrable skills. Again, climate is simply a repositioning of the traditional ways that we do everything. Practice taking your background and communicating it through a climate lens. My third suggestion if feasible for you is to take on pro bono projects and build up your direct climate experience while creating a network. Whatever your technique, do not disqualify yourself. There is space for you in this industry. I've included a link to a YouTube playlist of testimonials from people in various industries who've transitioned their careers to climate in the climate jobs toolkit. Before moving to the next video, take a moment to watch some of them and write down some of your current skills and how they're transferrable to the climate industry.