Wow? 15 years ? How time flies… I started this blog in January of 2007 as I was seeking work in climate and energy after graduating from my MSc in international management at Audencia. This blog had three purposes : 1. help me land an impactful job ; 2. keep me on practicing English and 3. allow me to learn more about to embed sustainability in our societies and communities.
After 15 years and over 1,900 blog posts, I can say it has been a success on all three accounts but the road to getting an impactful job was longer and rockier than I first thought. The Great Recession of 2007-2008 made it hard to get just any job and I had to capitalize on my marketing experiences to find employment. Those were hard times and I was and still am blessed with the support of my family.
My first foray in cleantech took place years later, in 2014, when I landed a contract in Colombia for the biogas industry. This short experience opened a world of opportunities to me and I was able to bank on those few months to work again in that industry, with much smaller biodigesters.
My years in Seattle – 2015 / 2018 – were even more interesting. My MBA at Presidio taught me a lot, professionally and most of all personally. Systems thinking changed forever my way of seeing our societies. Our strategy classes went further than where I had gone at Audencia and put it into a sustainbility framework. I gained confidence in finance and business modelling and developed a taste for it ; My leadership and personal development classes taught me how to better express my emotions and hopefully to be a better human and a better leader.
Coming back to France in 2019, I found the same problem I had left : it was impossible for me to work in the energy transition without some semblance of a technical degree. After over seven years of college education, it was hard for me to envision getting back to school again. Fortunately I was able to find a one-year degree that provided me both the education and experience I needed so much. My five-month internship as an energy advisor for the healthcare sector taught me so much. I am now much more knowledgeable about green buildings and how renewable energies can be harnessed.
Fast forward to present days, I have found a great job in an amazing team that helps me deliver impact on energy consumption. If most people tend to equate the energy transition to just renewables, I have been fully aware for 15 years that energy conservation is key. Being able to act on this point really makes me happy. Public buildings such as schools, town halls, gymnasiums and so on consume so much energy, and a good share of this consumption serves no purpose: empty rooms don’t need to stay warm. Wasting energy has no place when prices are up and the climate emergency has never been more pressing.
In my next post I will publish 15 reasons to remain hopeful despite the current climate chaos. So, stay tuned !
