Professional development
WHAT ATTRACTS PEOPLE TO EHS CAREERS?

Job Outlook 2014

Students often find an environmental, health and safety major is the perfect mix of science and helping people – so why aren't more aware that EHS is a career option?

Worker in hard hat

KEY POINTS

  • More than 90 percent of survey respondents reported that their job is stable
  • The EHS profession was not the first career choice for three-fourths of respondents
  • Being able to help people remains a draw for EHS students

Does the environmental, health and safety profession have an image problem? Ensuring the safety and health of the workforce is important for individual workplaces and the economy, yet many students may not even know the field exists or do not consider it an attractive option.

Patrick Holden, safety manager at Eden Prairie, MN-based Cardinal Glass Industries, discovered this recently when his son enrolled in college. Holden tried talking to him about studying safety, but the teen was not interested.

His observation lines up with results from Safety+Health’s 2014 Job Outlook survey. A total of 959 subscribers took the survey in February. Of those, 75 percent said occupational safety and health was not their first career choice. Of the 718 respondents who answered a follow-up question, 74 percent indicated they were not aware in college that safety and health was a field of study.

Some of this is understandable. More than half of respondents were 50 or older. OSHA was in its infancy or non-existent when they were college age, and schools may not have had degree programs aligned with a career in safety.

Yet even now, promoting the EHS major remains a challenge for colleges and universities.

“That’s the perennial question,” said Anthony Veltri, associate professor of Environment Occupational Health & Safety at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “I think not only do we struggle with it, but most other colleges and universities do as well.”

> Next: Marketing the safety field

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Suzanne Broussard
April 24, 2014
My father was a national safety leader in the field of traffic safety and developed new degree programs for Central Missouri University in Safety and Industrial Hygiene when OSHA was in its infancy. Having listened to him discuss his career and the good that he had done, I decided to pursue my Masters in Industrial Safety. I am now the S&H Director for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations. We manage and operate the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

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Jim Leemann
April 24, 2014
So why aren't more aware that EHS is a career option? Even if students are aware of the EHS career option, I think what entices them to pursue other careers is the difficult course work in the EHS arena. Universities are graduating a significant number of liberal arts degreed students who have not been able to find a job in their chosen field of study. For decades society has been promoting the notion that simply getting a degree will lead to a job. This survey should be a wake up call for NSC, ASSE, AIHA, etc. that whatever promotion of the EHS career is being conducted, it appears from these results that it is not working as well as we would like it to.

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Jeffery Engram
April 24, 2014
I entered the Air Force to become a military HR specialist. After 14 years of doing that job the Air Force asked me to retrained into the Safety career field. I was reluctant to do so but now I always tell people that becoming an Air Force Safety Specialist was the best decision I've made in my now 19 years. Safety is a career field that I absolutely love and absolutely believe in. Upon my retirement from the Air Force on 1 August, I'm hoping that I can continue to serve a company/general public in some form of safety capacity. I wish there were more degree programs out there for Occ Safety but it is what it is. We are the cornerstone generation to make it happen.

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Lori Hersant
April 30, 2014
Sometimes safety can be a "Thankless" job and you feel like Management and the Employees do not respect what your goals are. I have been in the Safety field for 18 years and fell into it like so may others. Thanks for the short career stories. It helped re-enforce what I am so passionate about doing.

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Justin T. Ray
May 9, 2014
I've spent the last 11 years as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. I developed a passion for the training part of the job and enjoyed learning new things. The passion for training and my dad spending several years in safety at manufacturing facilities sparked my interest. When I got laid off my job in 2009 as an operator at a chemical plant I decided to finish my Bachelor's Degree in Fire Service Management. I am currently finishing my Masters in Occupational Safety Management through Indiana State University. Since my layoff, I have gone through much personal development including CPR/First Instructor, OSHA Authorized Trainer, Fall Protection Competent Person, etc. I continue to develop my passion for the safety field and finding opportunities to coach and educate people on preventing injuries. I got my first safety job as a safety coordinator at a Foundry and am currently the Environmental, Health and Safety Manager at a metal fabrication manufacturing facility.

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Donald Gagnard
August 28, 2014
Safety is kind of like the weak believers in God. When we stub the toe we immediately shout:"OH GOD" we get concerned after the finger is cut off or the first floor fell on our head.....

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Richard Grebs
August 29, 2014
After 38 yrs in Manufacturing, 28 of which have been as an EHS professional, I have had a rewarding career helping others change their behaviors. It's great to have someone approach you and say they thought about a message that I gave and they applied it outside of work. We need to "talk up safeth" at every opportunity. Encourage anyone to join our ranks - its challenging, fun, exciting....... and don't forget to keep a notepad next to the bed for those solutions that pop into your head in the middle of the night. be safe out there !

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Sandi Andresen
September 8, 2014
I wrote technical instruction manuals for the machines my company made. When an employee was seriously injured, the company owner decided we needed to take safety much more seriously with a Safety Manager who could write a comprehensive safety manual. I had already made a few safety suggestions and was running the First Responder Team, so I was chosen to fill the job. I haven't looked back since.

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Hans Haest
March 18, 2015
Hello I'm considering a career change for OHS. I'm thinking about U of Alberta. I think this can be an interesting and chellenging career. Striking the balance between safety and management. One could have a lot of fun coming with creative safety campaigns to encourage higher safety standards and keeping employees working, off disability, and save everyone the trouble of an ingury. It was pointed out to me, how much responsability rests on the shoulders of the OHS inspector, because as soon a there is an incident, everyone blames the OHS inspector for not preventing it. Where does one draw the line between, everyday minor incidents, and prevention strategies. 100% incident free isn't realistic. 1) Can anyone shed some light on this. 2) I'm looking to conduct a career interview with someone, perhaps over the phone, if you have time 3) any other tips for a junior OHS is much appriciated Thanks and keep safe Hans