How I Fell Backwards Into a Fulfilling Career
Blindly Stumbling Into Clean Energy
This year, against all my angsty early 20’s ideals, I became a company man. I was interviewed by several major publications (including Business Insider 😲) as an “expert” on American solar and went on one of the solar industry’s biggest podcasts to tell my story.
A year ago, I couldn’t get a job interview and was almost out of money. Two weeks ago, I bought my first home.
So what changed?
I wanted to share the puzzle pieces I put together on the fly that got me here.
Hopefully, it gives anyone who’s currently stuck in job search hell or wants to switch careers some insight into how to ‘hack’ the modern market!
If you’d like to listen to the story rather than read it, I was recently interviewed on SunCast, a major solar industry podcast:
Setting the Stage
If there’s been one cohesive “theme” in my life, it’s that I’ve gotten to live very differently than other people by simply not doing what other people do.
I realize the above sentence sounds stupid. But hear me out.
I’ve:
Put myself through college without debt.
Travelled for a combined four and a half years in my 20s without having a trust fund.
Been to 30 countries without any kind of fancy six-figure job
Worked with some of the biggest brands in the solar industry as a copywriter and marketing consultant without a background in marketing
At every turn, I’ve just not done what other people have done. I did it… My Way.
So why would finding a career be any different? Of course, when it was time for me to settle into a career, I had to do it in the most convoluted (but unique, thank you very much) way possible.
It Started With Circus Girls
A few years ago, whilst still vagabonding around Ecuador, I met some women who were passionate circus freaks. They supported this lifestyle by selling solar panels door-to-door.
Their company would organize what they called “blitz trips,” where they would fly young people around and have them knock on doors to sell solar to people.
They invited me to go with them. I went on a few trips, but I was terrible at it. I couldn’t get over the sensation of bothering people in their homes. I hated the script we had to memorize and the way they encouraged us to not leave people’s doorsteps without a fight.
There’s no way around this icky truth… We were lying to people. I won’t go into specifics, but I’ve since written a blog post that addresses a lot of the lies we told and tells people how to find reputable, quality solar companies:
What Every Homeowner Should Know Before Going Solar
Then Came The Solar Training
Fast forward another year. I’m sitting in Bali, almost out of money, and I have no idea what in the damn hell I’m going to do when I get home.
Somehow, I found a paid solar installer training through GRID Alternatives in Denver and applied.
I liked this a hell of a lot more than knocking on doors. I got to be outside (love) I got to climb on random people’s roofs (also love, I’m very nosy), and use power tools (mmmmmmanly).
So the groundwork was set. What did I do next? Did I start applying for solar jobs?
I did not. I went to Alaska to run summer camps for Indigenous kids 🤣
Then The Crap Hit The Blender
After my summer in Alaska, I came home bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I was ready to hit the ground running and work in clean energy.
And no one wanted to hire me.
It was absolute crickets.
At the time, I was dating someone who was putting pressure on me to get to her income level very fast. This was a blessing in disguise in retrospect and felt like sandpaper in the eyes in the moment.
Because of that relationship, I was applying to white-collar jobs, not installer jobs (solar installing pays well, but not as well as sitting on a computer).
I went through nothing but rejections for a month and a half. Like many job seekers, I felt cast aside and ignored.
But I still knew I could compete. I‘d met too many mouthbreathing fools who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag and yet were working for Fortune 500 companies.
So I started freelancing doing the only thing I knew how to do: write.
Wordsmith for Hire
With no idea what I was doing, I branded myself as a copywriter and got on Upwork.
Turns out, I’m very good at copywriting!
I wrote blog posts and email sequences, and ghost-wrote LinkedIn posts for founders.
I started posting on LinkedIn about the solar industry, and all of a sudden I had well-paying clients in a niche I understood.
People couldn’t believe that I’d gotten an installer certification as a copywriter, and I started getting yeses left and right from potential clients.
A major solar podcaster found me and added me to a WhatsApp group of returned Peace Corps Volunteers who work in climate tech. I became his editor of content and he interviewed me on his show.
The WhatsApp group got me a few clients and pushed me over the edge into my first five-figure earning month.
One of those clients asked me to start using a service called Qwoted to talk to the Media, and that’s how I ended up being quoted by USA Today and NerdWallet and having a Business Insider piece written about me:
Are Solar Panels Worth It? (USA Today)
Your Solar Company Went Bankrupt—What it Means and What You Can Do (NerdWallet)
Solar Installer Training Helped Me Land a Job That Lets Me Live The Life I Want (Business Insider)
THEN a Full-Time Job Came Calling
One of the clients I’d been working with, Exact Solar, saw how excited I was about one specific project I was working on.
We were putting together a ribbon-cutting event for a charter school in Philadelphia, and since I have a background in education, I was engaged and excited.
How could I not be? This school built a solar system that powers a greenhouse to grow organic produce for inner-city students who live in a food desert!
I won’t cover that here, but here’s the local NPR chapter’s article on the event:
Philly Charter School Powers Up it's Culinary Program With Solar
When they saw how excited I was about the event, they asked me to come on full-time. I said yes :)
Now I’m the Marketing and Advocacy Specialist (we’re working on the title, shut up) at a solar company! And I’m gushing about my cool job on podcasts, which I NEVER thought I’d be doing.
I used to make fun of those people. But hey, life makes hypocrites of us all…
What I’ve Learned from All This
If I was dead set on only getting a job from the beginning and never started freelancing, I’d probably still be interviewing.
When the going gets tough, the contrarians get creative.
It sucks that the modern job market is so convoluted. A lot of people turn their noses up at freelancing/consulting, but it’s a great option for anyone who doesn’t have the “right experience.”
Freelancing is like getting paid to go to business school.
It’s really sad that creative top talent is repeatedly passed over for boring people who went to boring schools and live boring lives because they make safe hiring decisions.
The problem is that when 'the rules are the same for everyone' the same boring bastards win every time.
-Rory Sutherland
Sadly, that’s just the way the world is.
But there’s hope.
If you’re a maverick like me, and you don’t fit into the mold of someone that major companies fight over, there’s still hope for you to find a well-paying job in a fulfilling field.
But the process may not look like everyone else’s.
You might have to get a little more creative.
It might suck in the beginning. But I promise you, it’ll be worth it.
So sagely, you look like Dr. Spock in the first photo.
And now you’re a capitalist like everyone else 😜