Environmental Consulting vs. Internal EHS

[HD2]

How does environmental consulting compare to in-house environmental (or EHS) positions? I have witnessed lots of people going each way (from consulting to industry, or from industry into consulting), so I would think that the opportunities must be pretty balanced overall, since I do not discern any more momentum in one direction vs. the other. Is there a "rule of thumb" out there that I just have never heard of?

For example, around here it is common knowledge that state environmental agency positions pay much less, have lower standards for employment, but have much easier work hours than positions in environmental consulting. A lot of people flee state agencies to get into consulting, but I have never heard of anyone going from consulting into a state agency job.

Does anyone have any first-hand experience or advice?

 

[greenone]

I went from in-house to consulting (mostly because I relocated, and consulting is the first thing I was offered that I liked).
In consulting, the pressure is always on for billable hours. Working for a small company, the benefits are no way as good as they were for the large company I came from.
I like consulting because I get to work with many different companies, and get to learn new processes (esp. in biotech). But i have to always have my marketing hat on-conferences and workshops are seen as opportunities to troll for new business, not primarily for technical development.
My pay was better in the large company.
CA environmental agencies (and we have state, regional, and local levels here) do pay less. Hours on paper are less, but I do know some regulators that go the extra step to ensure a reasonable turnaround time on responses. That said, I also know regulators that I am less than impresses with, as far as their technical knowledge of the reportrs they are reviewing.
I see more companies outsourcing EHS work these days; keeping key staff for day to day work, and using consultants for permitting, strategic advice, etc.

 

[Witasz]

There can be a big difference between environmental consulting and in-house EHS. In-house EHS usually involves complicance issues associated with the manufacturing process, the plant waste water treatment or discharge, hazard waste generation, chemical release. Most of this involves a lots of paperwork (permits, reports to the state and corporate office). They may use outside consultants to do the air monitoring and waste water sampling.

Environmental consulting can run of gambit of site investigation (drilling, sampling, monitoring, etc), remediation design/O&M, air studies, complicance issues, waster water treatment system design, emission control design/O&M, etc.

After college, I started in the consulting field (site investigation, remediation design/O&M). I enjoyed the technical work but didn't care for the politics of pushing billiblity over quality of work. I left consulting to work for a chemical manufacting. Part of my many duties is to be the plant contact for environmental consultants doing a site investigation.

Most regulatory personal I've met either work for the angency for life or leave for consulting (= better pay).
AW (chemcial/environmental)