The energy industry is crucial for powering our day-to-day lives, a major contributor to the economy and if we’re talking about the renewable energy sector specifically, critical to a major global effort aiming to deliver sustainability and innovation.
If you’re operating in the energy space already or considering a move to a new role, there’s never been a better time. New career avenues and employment opportunities appear every day and the pace of change is rapid. Below we offer five reasons why people may want to work in the energy industry and how the sector can bring you new success.
Why is now the best time to find a job in the energy sector?
At the time of writing, the energy sector is at the heart of a critical issue. Climate change continues to be headline news globally and a major factor in the ongoing cost-of-living crises we’re seeing across Europe.
It should be no surprise then that we’re seeing major changes across the energy sector.
Renewables cannot currently meet our demands and as we shift to green energy, there’s still work to do in decommissioning and repurposing old sites while also establishing and recruiting for new roles.
With this in mind, below we look at the future of the energy sector and why the industry offers a high ceiling for professionals.
1. Job Security
Job security is always a major factor for professionals and the renewable energy sector currently offers exceptional stability.
Even before the global shift to green energy, the industry was well-known for offering a relatively stable career path thanks to long-term investment, the nature of the role in terms of ongoing maintenance and how essential it is to daily life.
Even now, employers across the sector also continue to invest in their professionals, ensuring they’re up-to-date in terms of training and safety protocols.
As green energy continues to grow in importance for meeting global power demands, this job security is set to rise even higher whilst experiencing fewer fluctuations.
2. High-demand role
The energy sector – renewable energy in particular – is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. As the need for renewable energy sources and sustainability grows, so does the need for employees that can make these plans come to fruition.
It’s expected that by 2030, the number of jobs making up the renewable energy sector could increase to 24 million – triple the number it is today.
This provides an opportunity to learn, specialise and invest in a career path that will only grow in both size and value. For early adopters, this is the chance to start carving out a niche that benefits from a rising number of professionals in the sector.
Aside from providing job security, this incredible demand also ensures that there’s plenty of variety to choose from in terms of employers or clients.
How to Get a Job in the Energy Sector
3. Varied work environment
While the work environment you operate in largely depends on your role and skill set, the energy sector is able to offer a range of different working environments for employees. Technicians, for example, may find themselves outdoors for the majority of the time, working on various pieces of equipment across the country.
Research-led roles, on the other hand, may operate in labs or other academic settings that allow them to experiment and think creatively in terms of energy solutions.
It’s this diversity and variance that makes the sector so interesting for many people – you never really know where you might be working from one day to the next. For people that crave variety and want a role that isn’t based in the same office 24/7, this can be a blessing.
In most cases, employees within the sector work full-time, with the addition of evenings and weekends depending on your role. This may suit some people who seek something outside of the standard 9 – 5, although it may be a consideration for individuals that have external considerations. As you’d imagine, the demands of running the energy supply for a large proportion of the country can have an effect on working times.
4. Higher salaries
Salary is a critical part of why someone might choose to specialise in a niche field such as energy. If we consider that the median average salary in the UK – this being the line between the highest and lowest paid workers – is £25,971, jobs in the energy sector command a higher wage.
Median wages is often used to provide a more accurate representation of the average wage of a larger demographic, as it removes the outliers at both ends of the scale – this being the extremely well-paid and those being under-paid.
When we look at the kind of salaries you can expect within the energy sector, we find some interesting results. A wind turbine technician, for example, can expect to earn higher than £31,000 as a baseline, whereas a maintenance engineer working in anaerobic digestion may command upwards of £60,000.
While this type of work is typically much more specialised, there’s often the compensation to go alongside that increased responsibility and requisite knowledge.
You can view the roles we have available in the energy sector here.
5. Job satisfaction
Not many other industries can say they have the potential impact that the energy sector does. The work that the industry does today may have long-lasting repercussions on the future, helping pave the way for a healthier, more sustainable way of living.
For many people, this offers a higher degree of job satisfaction that they might not find elsewhere. This in itself is often a massive reason for why people choose to work in the energy industry and represents a key element of why people join the industry and remain there for a long time.