Philip Hicks ⋅ Petersburg, TN Parsons Corporation ⋅ 30 years experience

The first question is what level of education do you currently have. I am assuming you have a bachelors degree. Some of the certifications only require a high school diploma while some others require higher education. The level of education will determine which certifications you may qualify to pursue.

An additional question is what industry are you looking to go into. The Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC) industry has some different certifications which relate to their industry as opposed to working in the Energy and Power industry.

An overall great resource for you is the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) at https://cewd.org/. There are three sites they administer which can help: Get Into Energy (http://www.getintoenergy.com/), Troops to Energy Jobs (http://www.troopstoenergyjobs.com/), and Energy Industry Curriculum Center (http://www.cewd.org/curriculum/). The Troops to Energy Jobs site offers virtual coaching, job matching, apprenticeships, and available career positions.

A good resource for wind careers is at https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/wind-career-map. Education and certification requirements are listed along with the different jobs being identified by clicking on them. This also identifies the different industry areas and education identification which I discussed above.

Lets Go Solar provides some great information about education requirements and certification entities such as the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), Roof Integrated Solar Energy (RISE), UL Knowledge Services. See https://www.letsgosolar.com/consumer-education/solar-jobs-careers-certifications/.

For Oil and Gas, the Coming Training site appears to have a good listing of education and certifications for consideration. See https://coming.training/oil-and-gas-best-careers-and-certifications/

Hope this helps.

Audrie Luna ⋅ Houston, TX Oxy ⋅ 13 years experience

As others have listed, it depends on how specific you want to be in the roles you pursue. Some positions will require a certain degree, while others are more on the job learning.
The trend right now in energy is to move towards carbon neutrality, so that might be something to keep an eye on.
Data science is in demand as well and there are different certifications you can get in that discipline. If you’re interested in analytics, check out the Tibco Analytics Forum. It’s an annual forum where they host different folks from the energy industry and have presentations on how data science has impacted the company. They also offer training sessions during the forum, so it’s a good place to start learning about how analytics is used in the energy industry.
If you’re looking to get into oil and gas, check out the Society of Petroleum engineers (SPE). They’ve been hosting virtual sessions and it might give you an idea of what it would be like to go down the engineering route.
Being willing to work outside the U.S. is definitely going to broaden your opportunities.
I’ve taken some courses through PDI, Professional Development Institute through the University of North Texas (pdi.org) and they helped me understand the basics of oil and gas production operations and petroleum accounting.
Best of luck! If you have any additional questions, feel free to send me a message.

daniel fraser ⋅ Concord, NC U.S. Navy, Petty Officer Second Class ⋅ 6 years served

The Energy world is rather large so my first question would be are you looking to work at say a utility, or with a company that provides a product / service to that industry? There really are so many different ways you can go that it can be a bit daunting.

One thing I've found true is that there are a lot of ex-military in the Energy world. I run into many in the operations and services side of the business.

To try to answer your question though, what certs can you get, really depends. A CEM as someone stated previously is one way, but it aligns you with a certain job title. A PMP may be useful as well if that's the route you want to pursue. QA is another route of many.

It may be useful to read job postings for numerous companies and begin to get a feel for what you would best align with, and then pursue that role. Some companies that you may want to look at to get a feel:
Kiewit (EPC)
Dominion Energy (Utility)
NAES (Staffing for energy sites)
Emerson (product / services provider)
NUS Consulting (Nat gas consulting)
Jacobs Engineering (EPC)
ABB (Product provider)
Piedmont Nat Gas (Gas provider)
Siemens (Everything)
O2 Energies (solar utility)
DZ Atlantic (outage services)

I could fill a page with more companies, but these should at least give you an idea of what jobs you can expect to find in the Energy industry.

Joseph M. Chuffa ⋅ Clayton, NC NC Army/National Guard ⋅ 40 years experience

As “energy” is such a wide field, first off start studying to find your passion, many of the certifications encompass a wide variety of subjects, both old and new technologies, some of which you may never see or be involved with. It is fine to a have a wealth of knowledge but if not useful or applied very often it is just ballast that you drag around and paid to learn.

Find out which field you that interests you, new home High-Efficiency construction or building design and automation, conservation retrofit/upgrades, LEEDS, Geothermal, Net-Zero, solar and wind, each is unique, exciting and specialized all are growing in adoption and application.

There is all the transportation options, biofuels, alternative energies (battery, hybrid, hydrogen) that may fit into your garage experience, desires, some are leading edge.

As “energy” is a new, expanding and developing field what WAS important may not be leading edge so “classroom” training may not be up-to-date but “hands-on” experience is more important.

Now the flip-side is if your “dream job” already exists then research their/industry requirements of licensing or certifications and get those so you can get an initial interview. Additionally define who’s and exactly what certifications or licensing is acceptable or recognized in your target industry/company - all are not the same.

Good luck!!!

Marc Bernath ⋅ Burke, VA U.S. Navy, Commander ⋅ 23 years served

Consider obtaining a certified energy manager (CEM) certificate.

John Broomhead ⋅ Littleton, CO Verizon ⋅ 35 years experience

I also explored this avenue and still remain very interested. I recently had a photovoltaic system installed on my house. Ensure to obtain practical experience while in the military. For example, working for the garrison to learn how the energy grip works on the installation, tactical exercises using power generation grids. Gain understanding about the strategies of major and global energy companies such as DNV. https://eto.dnv.com/2021

During the US Army War College we studied climate change and it's strategic impacts on national interests, such as food insecurity, think Somalia in 1993 as an example. Learn the scientific facts surrounding climate change, i.e.., don't be swayed by media and politics. Here is a fantastic article that I read during USAWC that changed my perspective and remains to inform my world view to this day.
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/

Best, John