Your career begins here at the UA. We strongly encourage students to register early in their academic careers with the University of Arizona's office of Career Services for career counseling, resume and interview skills workshops, leadership workshop series, job fairs, and other services. Throughout all stages of their academic careers on campus, students are encouraged to gain experience outside the classroom in a variety of settings through involvement with the University of Arizona's Office of Student Engagement. Both current students and alumni can get advice through the Bear Down Network, similar to LinkedIn but exclusive to UA Wildcats, connecting graduates through job listings, meet-ups, casual mentorship, and internships. After graduation, career opportunities await!
Where Our Students Work
Private & Consulting Industry | Government & Tribal Agencies | NGOs & NPOs | Academia & National Laboratories
Graduate School: Is a Graduate program right for me?
Atmospheric Sciences
The career outlook for atmospheric sciences is excellent, due largely to the expanding workforce dealing with the environment, energy, and climate. Our students pursue careers within the private sector, state government, federal government, and national research laboratories. As consultants and scientists, they are employed by:
- Renewable energy industry, private weather forecasting companies, and the aviation industry
- State government, e.g. Departments of Transportation, Environment
- Federal government, e.g. NASA, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of the Air Force
- National research laboratories and institutes, e.g. Desert Research Institute, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
- Academia
Hydrology and Water Resources
The career outlook for hydrologists and water resources specialists is excellent, spurred largely by increasing demands placed on the environment and water resources by population growth. Read about the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational outlook here.
Our students pursue a wide range of professional careers. As consultants and scientists, they are employed by:
- Science and engineering companies who contract their services to individuals, private companies, municipalities, and other government agencies (see Where Our Students Work)
- Agricultural and industrial companies--steel, gas, oil, coal--who use water resources, or whose industry impacts water resources, to comply with best management practices, as well as environmental quality and other environmental regulations (see Where Our Students Work)
- City, county, state, tribal, and federal government agencies in the U.S. and abroad, e.g. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Weather Service, U.S. Geological Survey
- Non-governmental environmental organizations (NGOs) and environmental non-profit and volunteer organizations (NPOs), e.g. OXFAM, The Nature Conservancy, Water for People, World Bank
With graduate or advanced education, our students pursue careers as:
- Self-employed individual contractors or as principals in their own start-up firms (see Private & Consulting Industry)
- Academia: Professors teaching at the community college- or university-levels (see Academia & National Laboratories)
- Research scientists performing high-level research in national laboratories in the U.S. or abroad
- Environmental lawyers and public health managers
Hydrometeorology
Professional careers in Hydrometeorology - content coming soon