Entry level meteorology jobs are tough to come by these days.  Given that the economy is currently heading towards a double dip recession,  entry level meteorology jobs are pretty scarce.

But it’s not all doom and gloom.  There are a few sectors that are still hiring!  Keep in mind that some of the entry level jobs out there are also part time…and as I’ve mentioned in my earlier post about (You’ve got the meteorology job, now where should you start?)…working part time or interning for free is sometimes what you need to do in the beginning to build experience.

Let’s discuss:

1^st:  Solar/Wind Energy companies/Utilities:  As I discussed in my previous post, “Why are wind meteorologists so valuable?”  Wind developers/operators are hiring wind meteorologists for a variety of different reasons.   In an earlier post, I talked about Solar Energy meteorologists and the influx of solar panels in Southwestern US.   Bottom line, the renewable energy sector is always searching for top notch grads! For example,  my previous company Iberdrola Renewables has hired a lot of fresh college graduates in their wind meteorology group.

2^nd: Large Weather Companies:  Private weather companies such as Accuweather and Weather Channel will directly hire meteorologists out of college.  A lot of folks from the Penn State Meteorology school feed into Accuweather’s forecasting groups since they are in close proximity to each other.  Accuweather has a lot of meteorology groups within the company too so you can explore what you like. In terms of Energy, Earth Sat corporation hires top notch college graduates in their forecasting groups.  Weather Underground is one of the top internet weather companies based out of San Francisco…and they also have hired entry level meteorologist….but many of whom are great programmers

3^rd:  Aviation companies:  Some Aviation weather companies such as Jeppesen or Universal Aviation and Weather will hire straight out of your college.  But you have to build the relationship early with the hiring manager…because when jobs open up there are a lot of people applying!  Here’s my previous post about how I got my job as an aviation weather meteorologist (Flight lessons lead to Aviation weather meteorologist job). 

4th:  Government agencies:  NWS:  The National Weather service is one of the top employers of meteorologists in the country.   Because there are 122 forecast weather offices across the country, many weather forecasters generally start here.   It’s very important that you visit your local weather forecast offices to begin building relationships with managers and other meteorologists if you are interested in a government career.

5^th:  Small Market TV stations:  This is where I got my first entry level weather job!  However, there have been a lot of cutbacks at small market TV stations these days…due to low sales volume because of less TV ad spending from small to medium size businesses.   Plus there’s plenty of consolidation going on in the TV markets leading to fewer jobs.  Nevertheless, you can always check TV jobs and Medialine plus a host of other job boards…or you try to do what I did when I got my first TV job here (Read here).  

Bottom line: Imagine the 80+ university meteorology departments in the US that are graduating new meteorologists every year.   And so when a new entry level meteorology job shows up, hundreds of these entry level grads apply. Or even some folks with experience sometimes apply to entry level jobs to switch sectors in meteorology.   It’s a tough market out there…so do your best to stand out from the competition (Read “Don’t just press Send”).