How easy is it to get a job in the field of Geology/ Geochemistry?

Hey guys!

Have been looking at geochemistry/ geology degree courses and i was wondering if there was much job garuntee of something in that field at the end of the day? I would love to get a degree in something that amazes and interests me but i don't want it to be wasted by not being able to have a career in that field. Any answers are apreciated!

Lou
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Reply 1

sparkly_tiara

Bumpety Bump! Come on people, you must have some idea!

Lou
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Reply 2

dirts

Oh dear. Perhaps it's not that not that anybody wants to talk to you (because you look well fit in your photo), but maybe there actually is nothing to do at the end of that course...only kidding. If you find that stuff really interesting, go for it - a job should turn up. I would say it's very important to something you enjoy at uni. Besides, you could always join the armed forces!

Reply 3

sparkly_tiara

Lol! Well one reply isn't too bad i suppose, shame it didn't give much factual information but it made me laugh though! Oh and i look the spitting image of barbie you know! Well, i have the blonde hair, blue eyes and tall figure- i'm just not made of plastic or built with a waist of a circumference of 5cm lol!

Lou
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Reply 4

Sam_B

if everything esle goes wrong, i would assume you could get a job with some oil company doing geology related stuff. one of my friends dad actually earns quite a bit doing stuff like that.

Reply 5

undiscovered

PQ will be able to help!

Reply 6

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Nicely bumped siany - I'd missed this :smile:

It's a shame but most geology job in industry are with oil/mining companies. There are a few places like schlumberger who're always interested in finding geophysicists as well.

The most common place to get a geology job is within academia - usually in research. Although that doesn't necessarily mean research on pie in the sky stuff - because universities tend to house geologists that's where industry tends to look when they're in need of some geology research - so there are a good amount of research contracts with industry and government agencies....ESPECIALLY within geochemistry which is on the grow where there are good facilities available http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/isotope/ and http://www.gau.org.uk/ are depts here in Soton which do a LOT of contract work for government agencies, DEFRA and private industry (http://www.gau.org.uk/gau_clients.php ) as well as conducting research into the make up of geological samples and drawing conclusions from those studies.

But if you don't fancy academia or oil industry there are still other options - the BGS (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/ ) and BAS (http://www.bas.ac.uk/ ) both employ a lot of geologists of all levels of experince. As do the environment agency, the national trust and a fair few local councils.

And there's also the possibility that you'll finish your degree and want to never see another rock again (although it wears off after a while :smile:

)...in which case you've got a multi-disciplinary science, numerate degree in a subject that encourages independant research and coming to your own conclusions (rather than having them fed to you from a text book) which will give you a huge range of options from non-subject specific employment. I've got one friend who's gone back to the building trade to tide him over financially while he does his PhD in his spare time, I've got another who's gone on to be a chemistry and geology teacher, another who's doing a PhD in brown field regeneration with the forestry commission and I've ended up crunching numbers and analysing markets for a university :smile:

....and all of us are having a great time :eek:

Reply 7

sparkly_tiara

Thank you for the long post! I will have to print it to show my parents! They really aren't keen on me doing a degree in geology as they do not feel there is a real solid job at the end of it like there would be in a degree such as medicine or physiotherapy! They don't understand my love of rocks, hehe! Seriously though, i really want to study geology, i just wish my parents could understand this!

Lou
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