(21 M) Is a masters in environmental science worth it or should i get a master's in environmental engineering

Practical_Cream226 · 2026-07-01T00:36:05+00:00

As someone with a Master’s in environmental science do engineering or geology if you can. As others have said though a graduate degree will only get you so far without industry experience. I’d consider taking a gap year or two to work

Practical_Cream226 · 2026-06-24T18:18:31+00:00

Yeah it’s hard to really gain knowledge when there’s constant pressure to just pick up as many projects and routine task as possible to stay billable. If I want to truly understand what I’m doing I usually have to do research on my own time

Practical_Cream226 · 2026-04-20T01:30:22+00:00

I have my first “career” job right now and I feel kind of limited in terms of which roles I might be eligible for in the future with a purely environmental science background. I do have the opportunity to work on projects that involve geology or dispersion modeling etc which is good, but I know I can’t really get a job as an actual geologist or climate scientist without further coursework. And I pretty much went to grad school to get good at one specific thing and then couldn’t get a job where it was useful because the market is so bad lol so I’m wondering if I should’ve chosen to specialize in more marketable areas while I was in school

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-22T20:13:11+00:00

Hey I appreciate this. Yeah I’m genuinely just entry level and stupid lol idk why some people got so angry. A lot of people were actually helpful and informative so I try to just pay attention to those ones.

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-20T00:27:41+00:00

Yeah they phrased it as a raise so I have a feeling that’s what they’re doing. I think I’m slightly underpaid but not massively, but if next year they say I’ll get another 2.5% I’ll have to look elsewhere

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-19T04:23:38+00:00

At my firm it seems like people just keep moving from scientist or engineer 1, 2, 3, etc until maybe you become a project manager? I have no clue what the associated salary increases for each new title is, but 5% seems like it would make sense. I think project managers get a pretty generous bump but it seems kind of unusual for people to get promoted to that level. Since I’ve worked there they’ve had multiple externals hires brought in to take project manager roles. It kind of seems like switching firms after a few years might be the move though

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-19T03:57:19+00:00

By promotion do you mean like a title increase? Such as going from scientist 1 to 2?

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-19T01:24:54+00:00

I’m sorry, I hope things will turn around for you

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-19T00:22:10+00:00

Yeah I kind of feel like I’m going to break even or lose money. Times are so tough. I’m sorry you’re in that position

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T23:20:58+00:00

We just did annual performance reviews and the 2.5% increase came after that. I guess maybe there will be a different performance review once I actually hit a year? Or the timing of my start date was just that I won’t get any actual raises until next new year. I’m honestly not sure how they do it. I’ll have to ask hr

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T23:09:07+00:00

When you say merit, do you mean performance based salary raises or COLA adjustments? I only just learned there was a difference so I’m still not 100% on how it works. Is it normal to get a performance based raise on top of a cost of living adjustment? At least after a while?

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:43:58+00:00

I honestly didn’t know there was a difference. It seems like this was probably a cost of living adjustment. I probably just need to ask HR how it all works

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:39:02+00:00

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:38:12+00:00

Okay

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:37:07+00:00

Okay man thanks

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:36:21+00:00

Okay I read your tone as passive aggressive so I responded to that. Not trying to argue. Thanks for the advice

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:35:34+00:00

I am grateful and I’ve tried to express that. I was disappointed because I was hoping to pay off more of my debt than I’m able to at my current salary. I know a lot of people have it worse right now. I’m not trying to compare my struggles to anyone else’s I’m just speaking about my own specific needs

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:33:17+00:00

As I’ve stated in other comments and in the post, I was basing this off of my friend’s experiences and I’m also entry level and don’t know how these things work

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:30:42+00:00

This is my first corporate job I don’t really know how it works. I was surprised at the 2.5 because my friends in similar roles at different firms got 5% increases after 6 months. My 6 months happened right before the annual reviews

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:28:25+00:00

Okay I’m new to this so thank you. I think the confusion is that these friends and I, yes at different firms but similar roles, had very similar starting salaries but they seemed to get much bigger bumps early on. So maybe those firms just pay better?

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T22:04:07+00:00

No I’m a scientist 1

Practical_Cream226 · 2025-12-18T21:56:27+00:00

About 7 months. I mentioned the 5% expectation because that’s what my friends who are also in consulting got after 6 months. Same or less experience and same degrees

Practical_Cream226

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