Every year, more than eight lakhs of students successfully clear 12th board examinations in India. Before these students get to celebrate on their high-school completion, they find themselves hemmed in with the infinite career options. While engineering, medical, and law have always been pre-dominant career choices for the parents, growing up as meteorologists and climatologists are the rising obsession of young dreamers.
The innate passion in the aspiring minds for exploring the science behind the natural phenomena and decent salary packages offered by the public and private institutions give impetus to the industry of meteorology. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) notes down that job market for meteorologists may grow 9% faster than the average from 2014 to 2024. Also, the employment opportunities for meteorologists in the private sector have always remained greater.
Qualifications and Skills Required
A meteorologist puts the scientific principles, practical knowledge, and the technical expertise to work for understanding and explaining the changes in Earth’s atmosphere. Environment awareness, disaster management, weather forecast, and other such factors lead to the growing need for well-qualified and high-functioning meteorology researchers & professionals.
In India, every year, more than five hundred vacancies at average are announced in public and private sector as well as in academia for meteorological scientists and researchers. However, bagging these jobs is not at all easy because the employers are in dire need of more than just traditional type meteorologists. Along with having sound theoretical and practical knowledge of meteorology and atmospheric sciences, the aspirants should be adept in working with the tech-weather tools like Geographic Information System (GIS), Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), Doppler Radar, and Supercomputers, etc. Candidates must have majors’ degree in subjects like Physics, Computer Science, Computer Applications, IT, Electronics, and Telecommunication from a recognized university. The age limit of the candidates applying for various job vacancies in the field of meteorology should not exceed 30 years.
Avenues to Explore
With a Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Meteorology, students can explore the job opportunities in Government Departments, Armed Services, Agriculture Research Firms, or Academia. One can choose to take up the profession of an Atmospheric meteorologist who studies the atmosphere, forecast the weather, analyze the climate trends at any weather reporting service provider. An environmental meteorologist can become a government servant and serve the government & ministries in designing effective strategies for air-pollution control, forestry, agriculture, military & defense.
Startups like IBM, ClimaCell, and WeatherSTEM are driving the job growth in the market for Meteorological Scientists and Research Assistants. At the beginning of the career, the average salary of scientific assistants in Indian Meteorological Department is Rs 40,000, whereas the privately managed research and analytic firms are open to offering Rs. 60,000 per month on the basis of the candidate’s caliber.
Unprecedented Rise in the Demand for Meteorologists
Weather Forecasting and Reporting Business in India is subject to a steady yet substantial growth with the mushrooming of more and more weather reading stations. Designing and developing almost every weather forecasting model, be it a short-term prediction or long-term prediction, requires the expert meteorologist with great analytic and interpretation skills and extensive experience. A weather forecaster has to observe and analyze the atmospheric simulations using advanced tools and technology and collect the relevant data from weather reading stations and satellites worldwide. Accordingly, he must make scientific weather predictions and provide relevant insights. But, the skilled workforce is what the industry lacks as of now which means the deserving job candidates can leverage the opportunity to get the best compensation package.
There is a great need for advanced weather forecasting systems around the world for effective disaster management planning. A market research report by MarketsandMarkets™ INC, the market value of Weather Forecasting Systems and Solutions Market is projected to reach USD 3.80 Billion till 2022 from 2.68 Billion in the year 2017. The weather forecast systems are used in almost every field including energy & power, hydrology, aviation, and agriculture among others. The Synoptic meteorologists and IT professionals are needed to design advanced hardware and software components as well as satellite-based and ground-based systems using mathematical modeling and computer programming.