Within a year of completing solar-installation training, I landed a full-time job that lets me live the life I want
- Aaron Nichols got certified in solar installation a year ago when he was unsure of his career path.
- Now he has a marketing job for a solar company that offers flexibility and career mobility.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aaron Nichols, the marketing and advocacy specialist at Exact Solar. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
My career has been the wildest ride since I got my solar-installation training just a year ago.
I started my career in education and wasn't happy with that path. So I took some time off to travel after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and supplemented my income with a door-to-door solar-sales job, which I landed through some people I met on my journey.
When I came back from traveling, I didn't know what I wanted to do for work, and I thought solar installation could be an interesting career path. I went through a six-week training program with an organization called Grid Alternatives, where I was paid a stipend based on my income level to get certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners.
I graduated in May 2023 and, after a summer job traveling to Alaska to create educational programs, started job searching in the solar industry in the fall.
Now I'm the marketing and advocacy specialist at a good-size solar-installation company, Exact Solar. To come from the world of teaching and nonprofits and — just a year later — be at this spot in my career is shocking.
My solar-installation training helped me stand out
When I started job searching in the solar industry, I applied to some installer jobs and sales-side jobs, and I started marketing myself on Upwork as a copywriting consultant to make money immediately.
Surprisingly, the consulting work picked up fast, before I was able to land a more traditional job. The fact that I had the installer certification made clients in the solar industry especially excited to work with me on the marketing side. The technical knowledge I brought benefited my work and helped me land exciting clients like SunCast Media, which runs one of the most popular industry podcasts, and Exact Solar, which eventually offered me a full-time job.
In a beautiful twist of fate, part of my job now is designing a curriculum for a workforce training program and helping promote solar installations we're putting in schools; so my teaching and nonprofit experience have ended up fitting into the puzzle of my solar career.
There are so many places you can add value. The solar industry needs everything that any other industry needs, and the growth is happening so fast. Anyone who's in finance, advertising, or any other industry and is struggling should consider applying their skills to the solar industry because it's a much-bigger world than you think.
I'm excited about the freedom and the promise of the industry
I'm deeply enjoying the flexibility this job offers me. I have a good salary, and since I work remotely, I've moved into a farmhouse on 5 acres of land with my girlfriend and built a solar system to power our cell booster. I get to live in the woods and take archery breaks in the middle of the day.
When I envision the future of my solar career, it seems like the sky's the limit. It's a very tight community, so once you know people, it's easy to get referral work if you're a contractor or start connecting with people at a high level who would be hard to reach in other industries.
It's a very financially viable career, too. It's not just hippies hugging trees and trying to save the world — there's a lot of private-industry money coming in. I really like the idea that I can make good money, work a flexible job, and feel good about my impact on the planet.