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Hey Reddit, I'm in my 3rd year of college as a geology major. I love studying geology, but I have no idea what to expect when I'm done with school. : AskReddit

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What kind of work will be available to me with an undergrad in geology?

What would a normal day on the job consist of?

Crappy ones? Unless you are top of your class at a prestigious school.

A cousin of my has a geology degree, he tests concrete for highways now.

Thats actually a civil engineers job.

Exactly he does the work and the engineers do the analysis.

Which is crappy. but it's cool downvote me

Yon can also work for Oil Companies, looking for more oil. or other precious minerals. the cool job would be to do research in extraterrestrial mineralogy, but those jobs are mostly taken right now.

Yes. Petroleum engineering is the highest paid job you can get out of College right now.

~$80,000

Intern at any place that deals with rare earth or precious metals, if you can.

Also, some nuclear waste facilities, uranium mining -- hell, mining in general. If you don't mind the cold, and had great grades in school, then look at a job at a company in northen Canada (Uranium, diamonds, Oil Sands etc.) Also, try California

The only geology majors I know with jobs, either teach high school or work for oil companies.

My Dad went in mining geology when he was right out of school.

He said the money wasn't good, unreliable commodity prices and constantly working in the middle of nowhere.

Moved to calgary center of western canada oil biz, better money has ups and downs but not like mining.

I worked at the same company for a while when I was in school doing computer BS, so I saw what the office geologist does.

A lot of work with drilling logs and core samples, working with the engineers to determine zones that can produce oil.

Basically you try to find it and the proper structures they worry about getting it out of the ground.

Or you can go sit wells, where your looking at the logs and samples as they come out of the ground, lots of travelling, good money if you have nothing keeping you at home, from what I understand it is the way to get the right experience.

Also from the advice I heard given to other students start in a smaller company so that you get quality experience, otherwise it will take much longer to become proficient with some of the more difficult aspects that will always be handed of to one of 20 senior geo's at a larger company.

Commodity prices have flipped around since then.

Mining and oil companies are paying high prices for geo grads these days.

Don't worry. It'll rock.

I don't think he should take that advice for granite.

Geology puns are the shist!

I really think this thread is gneiss

Shale we think of a few more?

I didn't think it would be so hard.

Yeah, you shouldn't quarry too much.

Environmental Consulting.

It's mostly groundwater/soil remediation and underground storage tank (UST) work.

I was a geology major for three years and I worked as a consultant for 5 years after school.

Do a search for "Staff Geologist" or "Environmental Consult*" on craigslist.

Up until a month ago, consulting firms were still hiring...now, not so much.

From what I've heard from fellow geos, getting a job with the oil companies is pretty tough, but I've also heard that jobs for geologists abound in Canadian oil fields. Edited to add an extra word.

You're gonna drink milk shake

Expect a job, though probably a crappy one. Expect to be happy you didn't major in the Humanities.

I would have thought Geologists could get into Oil Companies.

A friend of mine is on a scholarship studying Geology and is expected to get a £30k+ job straight out of university (this is in the UK). I'm big into power generation (especially alternative and renewable energy systems) and I'm looking into wind turbine technology as my career path (I'm an Aerospace Engineer).

Perhaps they need geologists for geothermal power plants?

I'm also definitely into power generation.

I really don't want to end up working for an oil company...

Well, oil companies need geologists.

I worked for a drilling company for a while and every well site we were on had a geologist on site.

You work 12 hour days while being on call for another 12 in a location 500+km away from friends/family/sane people with dangerous machinery working round the clock a stones throw away.

Can't blame you for not wanting to do it, but the pay is amazing ;)

Look at the big power companies in your country and perhaps in the more volcanic (?) regions of the world.

Geologists seem to be in short supply, so I imagine your expertise is in great demand. You could also try research.

I reckon it would be awesome to be a deep ocean geologist, exploring the deepest parts of the oceans.

Move to Iceland. There's always an opportunity in geology here.

You could also consider taking a masters degree here. Or you could move to Hawaii.

Basically any place with volcanic activity or frequent earthquakes could be good for you, at least if don't fancy working for the oil companies.

Eww geology? Why? Or better yet, WHY???

Because geology degrees teach you about dinosaurs, earthquakes, volcanoes, meteorites.

Great things to know about, all.

I took it during my undergrad, and it was by far and away the worst course I have ever taken.

I never enjoyed learning about any of those things...

Especially not at 9 am.

I dig it. Guess i'm more down to earth than the rest of you.

;)

All that geographic knowledge will allow you give great directions to the people fueling up at the gas station you will finally get hired at after applying for a few hundred jobs.

Stay in school and get your masters.

This is not a time to enter the job market with a degree that gives you no job specific skills.

Not to be a dick, but shouldn't you have asked this question on your first day as a geology major?

I'm sure you could do something to do with oil or civil engineering.

I worked with geotechnical engineers and every once in a while a geology question would come up.

I also trained as a geologist, but work in disaster relief.

Many international development charities need people that could do a ground survey to find the water table for digging wells, especially in Africa.

If you get much of a humanitarian impulse, you might want to consider that.

Lots of travel. Fuck all money.

Becoming a consultant and traveling the world charging extortionate amounts of money.

I went to a private school when I was kid and it was mostly populated w/ oil kids, i.e.

Kids who parents worked for various oil companies. A large number of their parents had various degrees in geology (BS, MS, PhD).

They do various things from searching for new oil sources, some wrote code for seismic monitors, etc...

I don't really know all of their different jobs;

But you should definitely look into those places...

Pain

You can work on the moon.

You probably should consider going for a higher degree if you want a "cool" job. Source: Bach.

In geomorphology working on masters. Good luck!

No lie a friend of mine graduated from bucknell last year with a geology major.

Right now he opens doors at outback and can't get a job working construction.

Pretty bright kid too.

Depends on your school, but you can get a very, very good job with a geology undergrad.

A friend of mine is a lower-level exec at Maersk with a BS in geology (class of '07) and is clearing over 150 G's as usual it depends a lot on who you know and how well you sell yourself you will almost certainly end up in oil

Grad school for planetary science?




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