Career prospects
The Alumnitool on LinkedIn can help you gain insight into possible careers after you finish your degree. It can also help you get in contact with an alumnus or alumna of your degree programme or other programmes. Nearly all graduates have a LinkedIn profile and can answer questions about your future career. They’re often more than happy to share their experiences with you. The video belows explains how the alumnitool works, and how you can use search criteria to find career information that is relevant to you.
Would you like to know more about how you can use LinkedIn to expand your network and put the new information into practice straight away? Take the LinkedIn workshop from Career Services. The workshop Exploring the job market & networking is also useful if you'd like to improve your networking skills, using LinkedIn and other ways.
The quality of our environment is an important topic. That is why the world needs people with comprehensive knowledge of environmental issues. Our graduates work as first-class researchers in the field of sustainable development in academic and professional organisations.
In each track, you will become familiar with analytical and practical research skills, as well as strategies for intervention. This combination makes you well suited for a career in a great variety of organisations. You will be eligible for a subsequent PhD programme or an academic-level position at research institutes, in government, in business, or at NGOs all over the world.
We regularly conduct labour market surveys among our environmental science graduates. These surveys reflect that the employment opportunities for Sustainable Development graduates are excellent. Check the facts below.
Excellent career prospects
- 91 % have a paid job (only 3% are looking for employment)
- 90 % have a job at academic level
- 78 % work in an environment-oriented organisation
Types of jobs
Depending on the track, you choose within the programme, career prospects are varied: from project manager to researcher.
Sectors
The sectors in which graduates end up working vary too. Graduates from the Energy and Materials track and the Global Change and Ecosystem track end up in consultancy employment or government relatively often. Alumni from the International Development track and the Environmental Governance track pursue further research comparatively frequently.
Students that graduated from this programme have, for example, found jobs in one of the following places:
Trade and industry
Government services
- United Nations Environmental Programme
- Bureau for Traffic Enforcement of the Public Prosecution Service
- Rijnmond Environmental Service
- Transport and Water Management Inspectorate
- Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment
- Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management
- District water boards
- Provincial government
- Municipalities
Education and research
- Higher professional education
- The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
- Energy research Centre of the Netherlands
- Universities
- Secondary education
NGOs
Are you considering starting your own business? Now is a good time to prepare. Utrecht University can offer you a number of opportunities to explore entrepreneurship.
You could, for instance, take electives from Master's degree programmes that cover entrepreneurship in their curriculums:
- If you’re interested in becoming an expert at creating the prerequisites for running a successful business, take an elective at the Master’s programme Business Development and Entrepreneurship of Utrecht School of Economics.
- If you have a background in Economics and Business, and wish to do a Master’s programme in Entrepreneurship: check out the Master’s programme Business Development and Entrepreneurship.
- If you have a background in Science or Medicine, you can take classes Science and Business Management classes.
- If you're interested in sustainable business practices and sustainable innovation, take an elective at Sustainable Business and Innovation.
The Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship (CE) also organises Spring schools, Summer schools, Winter schools, Honours classes and short seminars on entrepreneurship for non-Dutch students. All courses are offered in English except when the entire group is Dutch.
StudentsInc
Would you like to run a business while still at university? Do you want to graduate on running your own business? StudentsInc (Dutch language website) is home to a number of student businesses and offers programmes to develop your entrepreneurial skills.
UtrechtInc
Have you (nearly) graduated and do you want to start a business? UtrechtInc is the place to find financing, office space, expertise and coaching. UtrechtInc is there for
- starting entrepreneurs and alumni, doctoral candidates, and researchers (preferably from Utrecht University, Hogeschool Utrecht, UMC Utrecht)
- who are still in the ideas phase OR further along (less than five years) and have
- and have a (IT) start-up focusing on health, environmental sustainability, or education.
Would you like to know more? Visit the UtrechtInc site, register your idea, and drop by for a cup of coffee.
Enactus
Would you like to know whether entrepreneurship is right for you? Are you driven, socially conscious, and ambitious? Are you willing to spend a year working on a business for at least 8 hours a week? Enactus Utrecht (Dutch language website) offers you the opportunity to run a business and provides workshops and professional coaching.
Useful links
- Register at the Chambers of Commerce.
- You can read about all the other things you need to take care of on the Revenue Service (Belastingdienst) website.
- Join relevant groups on LinkedIn to share knowledge online and expand your network.
- Will you run an especially sustainable, innovative, and/or internationally oriented business? The Netherlands Enterprise Agency can support you with subsidies, knowledge, regulation, and more.
Upon completion of your current Master's degree programme, you can follow a one-year (Dutch language) teacher training programme. This will grant you a first degree teaching qualification for secondary education. That means you will be able to work in the upper and lower years of vmbo, havo, and vwo in the Netherlands.
Take a look at UU's Master's degree programme selection site.
When you complete your Master's degree programme, if you enjoy doing research in your area of expertise, perhaps you should pursue a PhD. You will start out as a research assistant or trainee research worker. Check the two-years Master's Programmes of Utrecht University.
The best way to find a research traineeship is to contact the professor in the field you want to specialise in. Another option would be www.academictransfer.nl.
If you'd like to pursue a PhD at Utrecht University, your PhD programme will fall under the auspices of one of the Graduate Schools. For more information, consult the Prout | PhD Network Utrecht website.