Career Opportunities for Green MBAs: Talking to Ellen Weinreb, Sustainability Recruiter

I’m working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show focusing on real-life career opportunities for Green MBAs. Everyone is talking about going green these days but how does the global green movement translate into GREEN $$ for business school grads? Who’s hiring and where’s the growth going to come from in the green movement? What are the longer term career prospects for Green MBA grads? I’ll be asking this of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.

Today I’m talking to Ellen Weinreb. Weinreb has been doing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consulting and recruiting for 12 years. She says the bright spots for Green MBA’s in the short term lie with sustainable brands and smaller businesses.

“The Burt’s Bees and Stonyfield Yogurts, they’ve actually been doing quite alright and they’re still hiring...One growth that I see is a lot of sustainability type jobs arising as a result of Walmart requiring their suppliers to develop their sustainability initiative.”

In the long run she expects that growth trend in sustainable brands will continue. That and the growth of two relatively new industries - clean technology and climate change risk management - will provide healthy, a wealth of opportunities for Green MBA’s.

Other guests on the show include:

• Michael Callahan, the co-founder of Powermundo, a sustainable recruiter, who will share his experiences in the job market with his sustainable MBA;
• Katie Kross, author of Profession and Purpose: A Resource Guide for MBA Careers in Sustainability, who will discuss what skills are need for new green MBA's and how to talk to companies about their specialized MBA; and
• Nicola Arcutt, the Associate Dean of the
  Presidio Graduate School, who will talk about which companies are coming to campus and what they are looking for in a Green MBA.

Stay tuned for the full show coming live in a couple of weeks and send us any questions you’d ask from these guests. Register on our site to stay tuned when new episodes become available or register for MBA Podcaster on iTunes.