I welcome opportunities to advise people who are pursuing careers in the environmental field (as evidenced here, here, and here). I remember with genuine gratitude how many people kindly advised me when I was trying to figure out how to transition from a career on Wall Street to the environmental world. So when I have a chance to help like this, I always try to do my best.
These days, when I speak to people—both young and old—about careers, I hear a constant refrain. “What about AI? How will AI change the environmental field and my opportunity? How should AI influence my career planning?”1
Here are my thoughts on the matter.
On Predicting the Future:
I’m definitely not an AI expert. But neither is anyone else really. At least not yet. Of course, there are many smart, accomplished individuals leading the charge on AI development. Paying attention to them is worthwhile. They have a wide range of opinions on what a fully AI-enabled world will look like. But one thing most of these folks agree on is that they don’t really know now exactly how this is all going to play out. Translation for careers: Pay close attention to the world of AI, but don’t expect to be able to predict the future.
Strategic thinkers among us sometimes like to game out the future. Perhaps there is a particular area of environmental work that will be more or less impacted by AI, they prompt me. They might be right. But it's not really possible to know right now. Don’t overthink this. There are too many variables to “outgame” AI. And planning like this contradicts my main piece of career advice (below), which I base on direct experience and that of many people I know who have built fulfilling and happy careers.
My General Career Principles
My main advice on the career front continues to be: Try to identify what will be most fulfilling for you. This can be tricky. No one can give you the answer, and it often takes much trial and error to figure out. It certainly did in my case. It’s also likely that the answer will change over time for you. No matter the stage of life you’re in, my advice is to get out there and talk to people, network, volunteer, take on part-time roles, stay humble, and try to figure this out. It’s fun to do. It usually works. Don’t look for shortcuts. Instead, do the work to figure out what kind of career will be best for you.
My other core tenet is that you should pursue work that, in one way or another, seeks to make the world a better place. The underpinning idea here is one of purpose. You don’t need to be grandiose or self-righteous about this. There are all kinds of ways to try to make the world better. Find one that suits you. In my experience, if you set and follow world-improving goals as your north star, it leads to a much more fulfilling experience.
My Specific Guidance
My more specific career advice, especially for young people, is actually quite simple. Look for jobs where two things are true: your learning curve will be very steep and your colleagues are people you respect. If one of these two things is not true—or no longer true from when you started— that’s a signal to look for another opportunity.
My AI Guidance
So, what to do about AI? That’s easy: Use it. No matter what you do for work, try to use AI as effectively as you can in everything you do.
AI probably will be the huge change agent that folks are expecting it to be. Exactly how is less clear. But whatever you do, you’ll likely do a better job and be more valuable (and have a better career experience) if you master the tool by embracing it.2 This is much more important for your career than having interesting opinions about the future impacts of AI on the world.
At the risk of dating myself, I’ll conclude with an anecdote from my early days as a young investment banker on Wall Street. At the time, Apple and IBM were just introducing what they were calling mini computers (read: those clunky white boxes that you would wheel into your cubicle to use). And a Boston start-up had just invented VisiCalc—the first computer spreadsheet. Lotus 123 software soon followed. Excel spreadsheets weren’t around yet.
When my peers and I joined Wall Street firms, the bankers who were just a few years more experienced than us were still preparing huge and detailed spreadsheets for complex M&A transactions using HP12Cs—small handheld calculators that looked kind of like a clunky iPhone.
Imagine if we had kept on doing analysis this old-fashioned way and not embraced new technology?
We could never have imagined the degree to which technology would reshape the finance industry, but that didn’t matter. We used computer spreadsheets because to us it was obvious that the future wouldn’t be about handheld calculators. How things got done by investment bankers changed right before our eyes, and we helped to make it happen.
No matter what you do for a living, you likely have a similar opportunity now. Do what we did, is my advice. Use all of the AI tools that are available—-and rapidly improving—-and see where it takes you. Be as smart as possible about how you do this. You’ll be on the front lines of change and innovation, and you’ll be wisely investing in your career too.
Onward,
People also ask the important question: What are the likely environmental consequences of the AI boom? They will probably fall into two broad categories. On the one hand, greenhouse gas emissions will soar, and there will be significant impacts on biodiversity and water use from AI-related infrastructure buildout. On the other hand, AI will likely improve productivity, energy efficiency, and infrastructure planning, which could have hugely positive outcomes. I’m cautiously optimistic. We’ll have more to say about this in future issues.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Business Insider reported this week that Google’s CEO insists that everyone on his team use AI to the maximum extent in everything they do. He doesn’t want the company to fall behind. Likewise, a very prominent/successful VC fund founder told me this week that his organization is taking a pause on hiring any young employees. Why? He wants to force everyone on the team to use AI on a first-hand basis (versus asking a junior employee to get things done).