SFG: So what are the -- what kinds of courses are parts of these that you can actually specialize in renewable energy?

PB: I’ve said about the masters in renewable energy in Europe which is a European -- called the European Masters. Some several of the individual universities that don’t participate in that program also offer bachelors course degrees in renewable energy. There’s some in engineering, some in just the science background, and the same is true in the U.S. Stanford has a big program. I think they give bachelor’s degrees, and masters, similarly for California, University of California.

So you can pick an engineering degree now specializing in energy production through renewables.

SFG: Okay. What if you haven’t had that forethought? What if you ...

PB: Okay. Well, if you haven’t had that forethought, it’s actually harder I think for technical people to make it into the industry than it is for say salespeople.

Because once they started working really their credibility is based on 1) their degree and 2) their experience.

And if that doesn’t relate to renewable energy or the industry that they’re actually looking at within the renewable energy spectrum, then they’re at a disadvantage. They have to demonstrate that they can try and sell that expertise somehow. And if they are in something that’s related like Silicon Valley, a lot of people in Silicon Valley are into thin films and semiconductors. Well, PV is just a big semiconductor. And so a lot of those people can successful transfer their knowledge base if you like into renewable, especially into solar.

SFG: Let’s say you have a degree and some job experience outside of the green energy field, but you want to get into that. Maybe you have worked in a related technology or maybe you’re more in a management position. Are there things that you can do to make yourself more attractive to hiring these positions?

PB: Okay. I think -- well, my observation is and it’s based on kind of, you know, one company named the Green Jobs looking outwards at what’s happening. So it’s bound to be spotty and it can’t be comprehensive. But what I seem to see is it’s easier at the beginning, as I said. The problem at the beginning is actually finding out about the opportunities.

Because with entry-level positions, very often the company is not willing to pay relocation expenses. So they don’t advertise widely because they don’t want people applying from the east coast when they’re based on the west coast, if you understand what I’m saying.

And so I continually get questions from people in that position trying to -- you know, graduating or about to graduate and wanting to get into renewables, but frustrated because they don’t see the jobs advertised. And all I can say is look locally, and look on Craigslist because my guess is that’s where the ads are, or the local newspaper. They certainly need those people and they are hiring those people. They’re just not using Green Jobs, which is global vehicles to do it.

You know, why would you want to get 100 engineers from an Indian university applying to you in the midwest? And that’s what would happen, you know, if you put them –

SFG: That would be a good point.

PB: On something like Green Jobs. You can’t control who reads the web.

SFG: Right. So you think that those companies are advertising more locally?

PB: I think they are. I mean and, you know, without doing a poll of the companies, I can’t prove that, and I haven’t done that poll, but that’s what I believe.

You know, and you really start from the premise that renewable energy companies just like any other companies. You know, it has all the same kinds of people, same kind of posts, from CEO down to janitor, and it has to fill those posts the best way he can. You know, so the low level and the entry level, they’ll do that as locally as possible. If they see your level and the vice-president level, it’s just probably the next easiest way to break in because those guys are all highly experienced. Normally their expertise is directly applicable to the industry they’re looking at or directly tranferrable. In other words, it’s related.

And the higher you go, the less important it seems to be. You know, so if you’re a CEO, a record of -- a successful record of high tech stock ops may be more important than exactly what the stock ops were as long as they’re technology based.

You know, similarly, for CFO, experience of startups, of rasing capable venture capital and that kind of stuff, it’s putting more of the stuff than the actual kind of company that you were involved with.

So the top and the bottom have it easier than the guys in the middle, if you like.