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Career Exploration

Water Resource Specialists

Also called: Water Resources Planner

What they do:

Design or implement programs and strategies related to water resource issues such as supply, quality, and regulatory compliance issues.

On the job, you would:
  • Perform hydrologic, hydraulic, or water quality modeling.
  • Analyze storm water systems to identify opportunities for water resource improvements.
  • Conduct, or oversee the conduct of, investigations on matters such as water storage, wastewater discharge, pollutants, permits, or other compliance and regulatory issues.
On the job, you'll need:

Engineering and Technology

  • product and service development
  • design

Math and Science

  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics
  • physics

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Safety and Government

  • law and government

Basic Skills

  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • reading work related information

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

People and Technology Systems

  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say

Ideas and Logic

  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
  • notice when problems happen

Math

  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide
  • choose the right type of math to solve a problem

Visual Understanding

  • see hidden patterns

Investigative

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.

  • Integrity
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Attention to Detail
  • Dependability
  • Initiative
  • Achievement/Effort

Geographic information system

  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS software

Presentation software

  • Microsoft PowerPoint

Analytical or scientific software

  • Laboratory information management system LIMS
  • Wallingford Software InfoWater

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Bright.

New job opportunities are very likely in the future. This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Median Annual Salary: $144,440

Education

Bachelor's degree or master's degree is usually needed.