Craig Dunkerley is a Site Analyst for CleanSolar, in San Jose, California. The Site Analyst determines customers’ energy needs, determines the cost and makes recommendations to the customer. He made a complete career change into the solar industry one year ago, with a full one and a half years of transition effort before finding his niche in the industry. This is his advice on how to similarly transition.
What prompted you to pursue a career in the solar industry?
“I was a real estate broker for 30 years and the real estate gods seemed to be telling me it was time to move on. I began to think about what I would like to do. I have a lot of experience and skill in communications and sales, so I asked myself what I would like to sell. I decided that, if I was going to change careers, I wanted to at least do something that I really feel passionate about and solar immediately came to mind.”
How did you break in?
“The competition for jobs is fierce. I spent a year and a half preparing for this career. I had my first interview after a few months and one of the things they told me was that it would be good to beef up my resume by taking classes in solar. There are a number of places to go to learn about photovoltaics. I first took a few short introductory courses on solar, one to three days long. I then decided to take a training class on how to install solar. I wasn’t interested in doing solar installation, but I wanted to understand and learn about the industry from the bottom up. As it turns out the training class wasn’t just an 11-week class; it was an 11-week job interview. The company teaching the class just happened to be CleanSolar, so I decided I would not just learn all the material, but also get to know the owners and give them a chance to get to know me. Solar is very competitive, but is an up and coming industry and so many are looking for work. I do not expect to get rich, but over the next few years it’s really going to start maturing and coming of age. Anytime you get in on the ground floor of an industry it’s going to be rocky for the first few years, but I think solar has a very bright future.”
If you were the hiring manager what would you look for in a potential employee, what would make a job seeker stand out to you, and what kind of non-solar backgrounds would you look for?
“That would certainly depend on whether or not I was looking to hire an installer or a sales person. Any education that is directly solar related should go front and center on your resume. Try to limit your resume to one page, because whenever solar employers put out the word that they are hiring they get buried in applications. If you are the person trying to go through all of those, you don’t want to have to read a two or three page resume. If you don’t have solar background yet, you need to work on that. If you are applying for a job as an installer you need a background in construction, especially anything to do with electricity. If you are applying for a job as a sales person, then of course you want to highlight any sales experience.”
Is there any more advice that you can give job seekers looking for a career in solar?
“Be gentle with yourself. It’s a process, it won’t happen overnight, you need to be patient, but keep after it. You need to give yourself permission to make mistakes. I did not get the first job I applied for, but I tried to learn as much from that interviewer as I could about what I needed to do to make a better impression in my next interview. Fortunately that interviewer was willing to tell me. They were actually quite pleased with my sales background, but suggested that I needed to learn more about solar.”
Regarding use of placement agencies, Craig said, “We use Craigslist. It’s easy and a very useful resource.”
Craig’s story is encouraging for anyone wanting to make the career transition into solar. You must maintain the motivation to keep trying, and good training helps. I also liked his advice on when the interview that does not land the job: try contacting the interviewer and ask how you can improve your interviewing skills!
Your sunny, transitioning to solar gal,
Linda Siegel, Linda.siegel85@gmail.com
PS: My blog pick this week comes from wonderful Alternative Energy blog:
Interest in solar is not limited to the Sunbelt. Besides availability of sun, the main factors are social and political values, disposable income and incentives provided by state and local authorities. Data comes from location of inquiries to Cooler Planet website.
