How to Have a Career in Meteorology

December 18, 2014 VIPbookmarks 0 Comments

Do you love the weather?  If you love tracking the weather from your home, if you enjoy reading up on ways that the weather impacts our lifestyle and wildlife, you may be considered a weather enthusiast.

As nice as it is to hear that you can take your love for weather and meteorology and turn it into a career, you may be curious as to how you can go about doing so.  Unfortunately, loving the weather as a hobby isn’t always enough to have a career in meteorology.  That is why if you are interested in having a weather related job, you may need to prepare for doing so.

One of the first steps in having a career in meteorology is taking a few meteorology classes at a college or university.  Of course, a few classes are good, but you may also want to consider receiving a degree in meteorology.  Even if you are an adult, you can still return to college.  If you are concerned about the cost of doing so, you may want to examine scholarships, grants, and other financial aid.  What is nice about pursuing a degree in meteorology is that many colleges and universities in the United States have these degree programs.

When getting a degree in meteorology or at least the equivalent training, it is important that you start to think about the future.  Although we often associate weather related careers with meteorologists, there are many other career opportunities out there.  For example, you can be a meteorology teacher or college professor, a weather writer or photographer.  Yes, you do not have to decide right away which career path you would like to take, but it may offer you assistance.

Speaking of having an idea as to what you would like to do, you may want to consider getting your foot in the door.  When doing so, there are a number of different approaches that you can take.  For example, if you are interested in working as a television or radio meteorologist, you may want to get a part-time job at one of your local television or radio stations, even if your position isn’t related to meteorology.  Although you may be able to get a paid position, you may also find unpaid internship positions available as well.  Although unpaid, internships do have a number of benefits.

The above mentioned steps are just a few of the many that you can take to end up with a career in meteorology or another weather related field.  As a reminder, unless you already have a meteorology degree or unless you minored in it during college, you will likely have to start from scratch.  Although this can be frustrating and although it can take a lot of time, hard work, and devotion, it will pay off in the end.  

As outlined above, it can be relatively easy to acquire a job in the field of meteorology, once you have the required schooling and training.  With that in mind, you may be uninterested in doing so.  If that is the case, so be it.  You do not have to work in the field of meteorology to enjoy the weather and all that it has to offer.