Occupational Health & Safety Specialists

Also Called:

Industrial Hygiene Consultant,

Industrial Hygienist,

Safety Consultant,

Safety Specialist

What they do: Review, evaluate, and analyze work environments and design programs and procedures to control, eliminate, and prevent disease or injury caused by chemical, physical, and biological agents or ergonomic factors. May conduct inspections and enforce adherence to laws and regulations governing the health and safety of individuals. May be employed in the public or private sector.

Advanced Manufacturing, Management & Entrepreneurship icon

Advanced Manufacturing, Management & Entrepreneurship

Career Cluster

What do they typically do on the job?

  • Recommend measures to help protect workers from potentially hazardous work methods, processes, or materials.
  • Develop or maintain hygiene programs, such as noise surveys, continuous atmosphere monitoring, ventilation surveys, or asbestos management plans.
  • Order suspension of activities that pose threats to workers' health or safety.

Personality

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

Intellectual Curiosity

Cautiousness

Integrity

Attention to Detail

Dependability

Perseverance

Interests

Career interests describe the perspectives and interests of people who enjoy the type of work involved in this career.

Discover what your interests are by taking the Interest Profiler Quiz

See Related Jobs

Investigative

See Related Jobs

Conventional

See Related Jobs

Realistic

Abilities

Whether you have received formal training or not, these types of abilities are helpful in this career.

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

Visual Understanding

  • See hidden patterns

  • Quickly compare groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things

Math

  • Choose the right type of math to solve a problem

Skills

People who want to pursue this career have skills in these areas.

Basic Skills

  • Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions

  • Reading work related information

People and Technology Systems

  • Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

  • Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it

Problem Solving

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

Does this sound like something you'd like to do?

1. Do some research

  • Identify how your interests, values, and strengths match this occupation
  • Talk to someone who works in this field or spend a day job shadowing
  • Use the colleges and training directory to explore programs related to this career

2. Plan your next move

  • Talk to your college and career counselor or school admissions staff
  • Visit Idaho Launch
  • Search for available Occupational Health & Safety Specialists jobs on Idaho Works

Data for NSI career cards comes from the following: Idaho Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, MyNextMove, and Career OneStop