Career development

Go further faster when you start your environmental career at IU

Achieve more with IU's resources and programs

Career quick guide

Career support centers
Unique professional opportunities
Accelerated degree pathways

Study the environment at IU to exponentialize your career growth. Pursuing a joint-degree unlocks even more opportunity.

When you graduate from IU, you'll be ready with the skills, network, knowledge, and credentials to excel as a sustainability professional.

IPE grads continue to secure top jobs right out of school. Recent examples include:

Sustainability and climate change resource assistant for the U.S. Forest Service
Roger Arliner Young Clean Energy Fellow at the Midwest Energy Efficiency
Alliance Arctic field research assistant at the Woodwell Climate Research Center

93% to 98%of the Class of 2022 had a successful career outcome within six months of graduation

Doublethe career support for joint-degree students

5 years, 2 degreesby combining bachelors and masters

Accelerate environmental change and personal growth

Your potential combined with IU's resources? An unstoppable force in sustainability

Students in our joint-degree programs get double the career support through two IU career centers, opening up opportunities at the O'Neill School for Public and Environmental Affairs and the College of Arts & Sciences.

At both locations:

Create and polish your resume and cover letter—and set up your LinkedIn profile
Leverage IU's networks to locate internships and jobs
Sharpen your interview skills and attend employer events
Get advice from professional staff and peer mentors
Have a professional portrait taken, reserve a quiet interview room, and more

Learn more about the Walter Career Center

Check out the O'Neill Career Hub

Join the green workforce while you're still in school

The work you do at IU can extend far beyond the classroom to boost your career opportunities.

Set yourself apart with unique work experience

Do research in service of a sustainable future

Collaborate with world-class faculty

Learn to lead on environmental issues from leading environmental thinkers. At IU, you can conduct research alongside world-class faculty as soon as your freshman year.

Through programs such as Sustainability Scholars, Sustain IU internships, and grants, IU students join renowned researchers across the university as colleagues. In the field and in the lab, these mentorship, financial support, and professional development opportunities equip you to pursue advanced degrees or work in industry.

Work as a researcher

Build your career and a more resilient Indiana

A prestigious opportunity, only for IU students

Set your career up for success through the Environmental Resilience Institute's green talent workforce pipeline focused on real-world, hands-on experience.

The McKinney Climate Fellows program places students in paid internships with local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations; trains them in GIS and other skills; and tasks them with solving meaningful, real-world resilience problems.

Every summer, students selected for this program advance climate, sustainability, and community resilience across Indiana.

Take your sustainability career further

The McKinney Climate Fellows program helped me understand more about sustainability than any other thing that I've done at my time at IU.
Mary Grace Jacko, BAESS 2025, McKinney Climate Fellow alum

Graduate with multiple degrees by 2030

Fast-track your bachelors and masters degrees

Choose from one of our accelerated degree programs, and graduate with your bachelors and a top-ranked masters degree—or two—in 5 or 5.5 years.

Enter the workforce with an advanced degree—at least a year sooner than if you were to earn a bachelor’s and master’s at the traditional pace.

Saving you time while making your education that much more financially sustainable? Just another way we think about efficiency in IU’s environmental and sustainability community.

Discover accelerated degree options