GETTING A JOB After four or more years of sweating through gut-wrenching exams, perhaps slaving into the wee hours of the morning to complete theses and term papers, and reading yourself red-eyed in seemingly unintelligible texts, you should be well prepared for your next challenge: getting a job.
It has often been said that in selecting a piece of real estate the three most important considerations are location, location, and location. A corollary to that when searching for a job might be this: the three most important things you can do are network, network, and network. Networking simply means staying in touch with people in the business--friends, co-workers, and acquaintances--to keep yourself apprised of what's going on in the job market. Basically, you need your own informal intelligence web to keep track of who's hiring, who isn't, where the action is, and what the word on the street is about new enterprises. Your network is something you should cultivate even when you aren't actively searching for a job. You never know when it will come in handy.
One of the best places to start your network is with recent graduates who have found jobs. Another very good way is by attending local AMS (or National Weather Association [NWA]) chapter meetings, and joining the AMS as a student member. As a student member you may have the opportunity to expand your network into the professional world by volunteering to act as a student assistant at AMS conferences and meetings. You also will be eligible to receive AMS technical journals at half price.
A unique form of networking is the "informational interview." If you are lucky enough to have a meteorological organization near you, even if it isn't hiring, you can request an interview with someone in the organization merely to get "advice and counsel." Perhaps that individual can tell you who is or might be hiring, the names of people to contact (an opportunity to expand your network), and what kind of background and education certain firms might be looking for.
In addition to networking, you should attend any seminars or workshops your school may offer dealing with endeavors such as resume writing and interviewing. Many community organizations also sponsor such workshops. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has an excellent publication available that may help in your job search, called To Boldly Go: A Practical Career Guide for Scientists by Peter S. Fiske. For more information on this guide, go to its companion Web site (http://www.agu.org/careerguide).
One thing is for sure: you will have to be persistent in your job search. Networking may not bear immediate fruit, and if you are mailing out resumes you might get discouraged by rejection letter after rejection letter or by receiving no responses at all. But that is not unique to the profession of atmospheric science. (By the way, mailing out resumes blindly is a much less efficient way of finding employment than is networking.) If you're trying for a job with the NWS, or any other government agency, it probably would work to your advantage to fill out the application form, known as SF171, with a typewriter rather than by handwriting it. Whatever happens in your job search, don't give up. Finding a job, the one you want, takes time and effort--sometimes a lot of time and effort.
An obvious method of finding out who's hiring is to review the monthly AMS Employment Announcements. Many of the job openings also can be found on the AMS Web page. The NWA lists job opportunities as well. Check the organization's periodic newsletter and its Web site (http://www.nwas.org).
The AMS also furnishes a list of summer student opportunities each year. These are summer jobs or internships at corporations and broadcast facilities. The corporate jobs typically pay from $5 to $12 per hour, while most of the television and radio opportunities are unpaid internships. Still, the experience gained in such positions is absolutely invaluable when it comes to landing a job upon graduation. Internships also offer you the opportunity to expand your professional contacts--your network--as well as giving you a chance to determine if the particular type of work you have chosen is something you wish to continue to pursue. In addition to internships in the corporate and broadcast worlds, the NWS also offers an intern program; more information on it can be found on the Internet.
The Bulletin of the AMS provides a wealth of useful information for job seekers. For instance, using BAMS, you can discover who many of the corporate and institutional players are in the world of atmospheric science. Each BAMS carries a list of corporation and institutional members of the AMS, as well as a professional directory. The corporate/institutional roster lists only names, but the professional directory is stuffed with valuable information, including addresses, phone numbers, and brief descriptions of corporate or individual areas of meteorological specialization. You should be aware, though, that many of the businesses in the directory are quite small; a number are one- or two-person operations. To regularly obtain the Bulletin, join the AMS as a student member. You are then entitled to AMS publications at half price.
The Bulletin of the AMS also provides program synopses for upcoming meetings, workshops, and seminars. By perusing these synopses you can obtain corporate, institutional, and individuals' names, along with overviews of the types of work or studies being carried out. It's an easy way to expand your catalog of potential employers.
Many jobs, in reality, require prior experience. If you're going into operational meteorology and have little or no work experience, one of your better bets may be to try to hook up with one of the larger private firms that hires recent graduates. Similarly, if you're targeting broadcast meteorology, television in particular, you probably would be better off focusing on small-market television stations. After gaining on-air experience at such a station, you may find yourself ready to move into a larger market. A number of small-market stations, understanding they are part of what essentially amounts to a farm system for the big leagues, will hire weathercasters directly out of school. Remember, when applying for a television job your resume will need to be accompanied by a videotape of you actually presenting the weather. Keep in mind, too, that station news directors usually do the hiring and may be quite subjective in their evaluation of broadcast applicants.
Before you leap into broadcast meteorology, there are many things to consider. For one thing, your initial broadcast job likely will be in a small market--perhaps far away from those you know and love--at a low salary and requiring long/odd hours and work on holidays. As is true for many other jobs in meteorology, weather forecasts are created for public consumption and use. Weather takes no vacation, so forecasts need to be generated on weekends and holidays, as well as during the normal work week. Your aim, in working in a small market, is to develop your skills as a weather communicator and eventually jump to a bigger market where there is more money and more exposure. Once you begin to establish yourself as a broadcast meteorologist, you may want to consider retaining an agent who can help market your skills and act as a third party in contract negotiations. Broadcast meteorologists are, in effect, "contract workers" who sign deals for certain periods of time, for a specific salary, to cover a certain schedule.
Wherever you end up in your first job as a degreed meteorologist, you will have taken your first step into an exciting, rapidly changing, and diverse career field. As a new century dawns, so do new opportunities and new challenges. Some of the challenges, as you have seen, are as ancient as the Biblical narrative of Job, yet some are as fresh as today's headlines: global warming, ozone depletion, air pollution--and, oh yes, tomorrow's weather. They are challenges waiting for you . . . to study, to analyze, to predict, to solve.
Bon voyage!
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