Often times I’ll speak to someone starting their energy recruiting process who asks: “What types of opportunities should I be looking into?” After picking their brain, I realize they don’t have a good idea of what they’re actually looking for. Before you dive into the recruiting process, it’s important to answer the following questions to help narrow your company list.
What skills do I bring to the table? MBA career coaches say it’s incredible hard to be a double-switcher (i.e. changing both industries and functions). It’s possible to go from corporate finance pre-MBA to energy project finance post-MBA (industry switch, similar function), or from power trading to a product marketing role at an energy startup (function switch, similar industry), but it’s pretty hard, actually very hard, to go from corporate finance pre-MBA to energy product marketing post-MBA. If you’re moving into the energy industry for the first time, it’s crucial to know your skills to position yourself for future employers.
For example, I came from a financial services / private equity background, so I presented myself as a strong finance professional with corporate strategy experience (e.g working with portfolio companies). When I interviewed for product management roles, I highlighted my product management experience from working with a particular portfolio company. While I interviewed for project finance roles, I reiterated my strong knowledge of financial modeling. You can only demonstrate why you’re qualified if you know what skills you bring, so make sure to search through your past experiences and figure it all out!
What function do I want? What skills am I trying to develop in my next role? Getting your MBA was likely a reason to learn a new skill, so it’s important to balance what you do best (from your prior role) to what you’re seeking to learn. Personally, I was looking to develop operating experience given my more corporate level background, and I wanted to be in a role that was not purely financed focused. While I recruited for some project finance roles, I also had success with sales operations interviews and product management (for solar financial products, not software PM) roles – many of these roles utilized my background in finance but also would expose me to areas closer to the operations.
What sectors within energy am I interested in? The most important question is asking yourself whether you are interested in distributed energy or centralized utility-scale. Once you pin that down, learning about each sector can be very, very time consuming. Energy efficiency is a completely different topic than EV charging, for example, and it’s best to focus a couple of niche sectors rather than recruit across many. My advice is to learn about the biggest industries first (i.e. utilities or solar), and then pick one or two niche sectors that you can recruit. No matter what area of energy you’re looking into, having a strong grasp of the utilities sector is critical, and you will likely be required to demonstrate at least a basic understanding of FERC, the CPUC, net metering, demand response, and general industry trends. More niche industries can include fuel cells, energy storage, energy efficiency, EV/charging, IoT, grid analytics, waste-to-energy…etc. you get the point…
Ideally, the niche industries should hopefully align with your skills. For example, I’m very excited about energy storage, but it also aligns with my finance background. Deploying behind-the-meter energy storage is largely a financing proposal, and deciding how best to structure contracts and what type of agreements or products (PPA vs. loans vs. leases vs. shared savings agreements) to put in place requires a strong understanding of finance.
Am I interested in startups, utilities, mature companies…etc.? While this may seem less important, knowing your risk tolerance, financial conditions, personal/spouse preferences will definitely ensure job satisfaction down the road. If you’re married with kids and have a mortgage, maybe a corporate job at a utility company will allow you to work more predictable hours and spend more time with family. If you’re single and don’t’ have many obligations, maybe you want to take a risk and join that promising startup. My personal opinion is that if you’re in the latter group, you owe it to yourself to try that risky startup because your opportunity costs are low. This may be a post for another time…
And there you have it! Hopefully this gives you some clarity as you begin your job search process, and don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any personal questions or comments.
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