What gives? Opinions on environmental jobs

I recently graduated with a B.S. in environmental science. I work in an environmental analytical lab, performing organic extractions. Pretty much, we have multiple labs with analyst running GC, GC/MS, ICP (analytical instruments) to look for contimanation in different matrices (e.g. soil, water, oil etc). We look for stuff like PCBs, DROs, BNAs, pesticides, herbicides and many more (those are just what the organics department handles). I perform the extraction, I get a sheet that the analyst prints up which says what they are looking for and what samples I need to extract from. I pretty much do a chemistry lab a couple times a day.

It's an entry level position with okay benefits. My co workers are all very nice and professional, as well as easy going (including the director of the lab). No nonsense here, I can. Listen to much while work or a podcast; or sit down and stare at the ceiling while I'm waiting for a microwave extraction or something to concentrate down. We work very closely with consulting and engineering firms and I've heard down the line this can lead to me getting in with one of them. A lot of upward mobility here as well, guy who is training me just started training to be a GC/MS analyst (good skill to learn). He'll be getting higher pay and he's only be there like 20 months.

Some cons are low starting pay (I make $17 an hour) not many vacation days (2.5 every 6 months), and it can get repetitive (get a ton of soil samples in the summer). Plus the insane amounts of methylene chloride I'm probably breathing in lol.

Not what I want to do with the rest of my life, but it's better then what a lot of my peers are probably getting.

/r/geologycareers Thread