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Water Quality Technician
A water quality technician job can be a satisfying and reward career path. With as little as a two-year college degree, you can get an entry level position and move up with experience and further education. You can make a difference to the world and get paid at the same time with this type of job.
Are you looking for a career that makes a tangible difference in people's lives and the environment? Water quality technicians don't just study water quality; they change it for the better. This is where the rubber of science and environmental awareness hits the road that can take you anywhere in the world.
A water quality technician applies the practical aspects of science and technology to monitoring, measuring, and most of all controlling the quality of water used in every conceivable setting. A water quality technician may ensure clean drinking water for a megacity like New York, or clean well and canal water for rural towns, cattle, and farms. Fishing and water recreation authorities; oceanfront beach resorts; zoos, public aquariums, and wildlife refuges; hospitals and sprawling apartment communities; government and nonprofit development agencies all employ water quality technicians. Whether you prefer the feeling of gigantic industrial machinery throbbing all around you, or the sun-drenched freedom of the jungle, there is a water quality technician job in which you will be content.
The job market for water quality technicians is expected to grow as quickly as the overall job market, according to the U. S. Occupational Handbook. Wherever people work they will use water, and water quality technicians will join them in proportion to their growing and shifting populations.
Demographics and economic development are important trends to study when exploring long term opportunities as a water quality technician. Water quality management is more intensive in densely populated areas, so municipalities need more water quality technicians per capita than rural areas. Fast-growing underdeveloped nations are hiring water quality technicians at faster-growing rates than developed nations, and one water quality technician can make a greater difference in India than in Detroit.
One can get very dirty as a water quality technician, crawling through sewers and wastewater treatment facilities to sample the filthiest sludge or clean and repair fouled equipment. But robots are increasingly employed for the hardest, most hazardous work, leaving water quality technicians to operate the most sophisticated and expensive equipment, which is usually kept out of the muck. Then there are water quality technician jobs that consist of taking samples from pristine mountain streams and island lagoons that have never been seen by humans before.
Training to become a water quality technician is faster and cheaper than scientific bachelor degree programs. Employers typically require a 2-year applied science degree, which can cost as little as $1,800. Water quality technician education emphasizes hands-on skills such as equipment setup, operation, and maintenance; sample and data collection; standard calculations readily programmed into calculators and specialized computers; record-keeping, report writing, and some drawing of conclusions from collected data.
Entry-level salaries for municipal water quality technicians range from the low $20-$30,000. Progressively higher trained and experienced water quality technicians can earn above-average incomes compared to similarly skilled workers. Management and executive career paths can lead to six-figure incomes.
A water quality technician enjoys a wide range of work environment and career path opportunities; the security of knowing that his or her skills will be needed everywhere indefinitely; and the satisfaction of turning toxic yuck into precious clean water for the benefit of humans, animals, and all living things.
