Geology/Geophysics

[distraction tactics]

Anyone here in this field? Minored in it? Took a course in your first year uni?

I've been doing a lot of research on this lately, and all the occupational profiles make it sound great. Scientific and technical, with a large component of field work. It's that subtle promise of my office being a backpack and the great outdoors that practically has me salivating. It also seems quite varied job-wise from oil/gas exploration to seismology.

Just curious - I want to know what others (would) think of this occupation.

[PenguinHunter]

I watched the series Earth Story and that got me excited about rocks for a few months but since I am most of the way through a completely different degree, it ended up just being a phase like so many other things. Could be fun though.

[Ivy]

Anyone here in this field? Minored in it? Took a course in your first year uni?

I've been doing a lot of research on this lately, and all the occupational profiles make it sound great. Scientific and technical, with a large component of field work. It's that subtle promise of my office being a backpack and the great outdoors that practically has me salivating. It also seems quite varied job-wise from oil/gas exploration to seismology.

Just curious - I want to know what others (would) think of this occupation.

Oh, man, go for it! Geology is a field that, it seems to me, you need higher degrees in to do much with, but the people I know who have gone on to do graduate work in Geology are very happy with it, and very cool people.

I minored in Geology and I LOVED it. My motivation was to challenge myself (I had a senior-year crisis and thought "what if I just chose English as a major because it's easy for me? Isn't the point of college to challenge yourself? Maybe I should switch majors to a science since I'm not naturally good at those"). I very nearly switched my major until I almost failed Mineralogy and realized that it would be like forcing the proverbial round peg into the square hole. So I dropped Mineralogy and minored instead. I so would have gone for it if I had more of a natural aptitude for the sciences, chemistry in particular-- a lot of Mineralogy was chemical structure of crystals.

I was fortunate enough to work with a really wonderful old dude named John Rogers ( http://www.geosci.unc.edu/faculty/rogers/rogers.html ) who was incidentally quite possibly an INTP or an ENTP. I took most of my minor classes with him and developed a little academic crush on him. :) He discovered evidence of an earlier supercontinent, previous to Pangea, which he named Ur. His classes were conceptual rather than hard-science, and the assignments were things like "You are given the task of populating a recently terraformed planet with animals from Earth. How would you do this to achieve a workable ecosystem? What ratio of predators to prey would you send?" And he was visibly grumpy about having to assign grades-- as long as you participated in class discussions OR talked to him about class topics outside of class, and turned in reasonbly well thought-out papers (on which he gave infinite rewrites), he gave you an A. I took 4 or 5 classes with him. :)

[eyebyte_atWork]

Anyone here in this field? Minored in it? Took a course in your first year uni?

I've been doing a lot of research on this lately, and all the occupational profiles make it sound great. Scientific and technical, with a large component of field work. It's that subtle promise of my office being a backpack and the great outdoors that practically has me salivating. It also seems quite varied job-wise from oil/gas exploration to seismology.

Just curious - I want to know what others (would) think of this occupation.


CryoKenetic is Geo guy.

We once talked and the things he described in this fields are pretty cool.

[jread]

Geology is an awesome field. You will need at least a Master's to get anywhere, though.

I actually went the geography-meets-technology route with GIS, though I wish there was more field work.

You are going to love geology if that's what you end up doing :)

[Boneca]

Hm. I did a minor in Geology. Great subject. Especially volcanoes fascinate me to no end.

I'd be a bit worried about the job prospects though...I know several Geology majors who work in completely different fields because they couldn't find a good job. But this might be different in different countries, so I don't want to discourage you if you're really interested.

[Nighthawk]

My son Cryokenetic is in his 4th year studying geology. Switched over from computer science some years ago. He seems to enjoy it a lot. He'll probably chime in here after a while.

[Birdsnest]

Actually, I did take one course in it and loved it. It was my favorite science of any that I took (which is just anatomy, biology, and geology). We took a field trip along the California coast and saw some really cool things like plunging synclines and different faults and yes, it was a very interesting field, and I might have liked to be a geologist, especially since the govt. hires at the US geological survey. My dresser is full of rocks.

Well, I guess you could keep checking here:
http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/jobsearch.asp?q=geology&lid=316&salmin=&salmax=&paygrademin=&paygrademax=&FedEmp=N&sort=rv&vw=d&brd=3876&ss=0&FedPub=Y&SUBMIT1.x=97&SUBMIT1.y=20

[distraction tactics]

I'd be a bit worried about the job prospects though...I know several Geology majors who work in completely different fields because they couldn't find a good job. But this might be different in different countries, so I don't want to discourage you if you're really interested.

I have to admit this did worry me at first, but a lot of the occupational forecasts I've seen rank it quite favorably (my own province included). Sizeable opprtunities seem to be had in the more applied fields with oil and gas, and even in working with engineering firms on geological surveys - though the option of working more pure science is certainly there. Ultimately, I'm not too worried... even if I didn't get my dream job I'd still be miles ahead of my current factory hack status.


I watched the series Earth Story and that got me excited about rocks for a few months but since I am most of the way through a completely different degree, it ended up just being a phase like so many other things. Could be fun though.

Out of curiousity, what is your degree? Science-related at all?


...

The bit on mineralogy is good to know - I like walking into something knowing as much as possible.

Professor Rogers sounds like my kind of guy! One of the things that has always attracted me to university culture is the fact you can work hand in hand with the 'celebrities' and find actual substance there.


CryoKenetic is Geo guy.

We once talked and the things he described in this fields are pretty cool.

Here's hoping he gets a chance to weigh in with his thoughts. I figured one or two of you might have had contact with this field; I wasn't expecting so many who had.


Geology is an awesome field. You will need at least a Master's to get anywhere, though.

I actually went the geography-meets-technology route with GIS, though I wish there was more field work.

That seems to be the general consensus - the university program I'm looking at strongly recommends getting an honours degree instead of the 4-year major for those looking to get employed in the field.

I knew a guy who was going through for GIS on a joint university/trade school program; it sounded very lucrative financially, but I'm not sure if he ever finished.


My son Cryokenetic is in his 4th year studying geology. Switched over from computer science some years ago. He seems to enjoy it a lot. He'll probably chime in here after a while.

I hope he does. Did the current outsourcing trend influence his decision at all?


Actually, I did take one course in it and loved it. It was my favorite science of any that I took (which is just anatomy, biology, and geology). We took a field trip along the California coast and saw some really cool things like plunging synclines and different faults and yes, it was a very interesting field, and I might have liked to be a geologist, especially since the govt. hires at the US geological survey. My dresser is full of rocks, here are a few.

See that's the kind of stuff I love. I grew up on the escarpment of Manitoba's Riding Mountain (more like a series of small foothills; supposedly of glacial origin) and so I spent most of my TV-less child out exploring the area. Two creeks running across my parents' property fashioned out an 80 foot deep valley, so I spent a lot of time exploring those. Even as we speak my dad has teamed up with a paleontologist from a nearby university to remove some fossils. They've found everything from shark teeth to fish skeletons to metre-wide clams. But the interesting thing for we was always seeing side sectons of the earth's record, just taking it all in wanting to know all the natural mechanisms and processes that made it so.

If there's a job I think I could get out of bed wanting to do each morning, it would be in this field.

[cryokinetic]

Geology is fucking awesome. I've loved every single class I've taken. All of the fieldwork is incredible.

Because Geology depts all over the world are insanely small, research falls in to your lap left and right (and that's as an undergrad). I've done fieldwork using state of the art LIDAR and GPS equipment to make photorealistic models of outcrops. I just got done with a remote sensing project (satellite imagery) covering northern Ethiopia to help out with some research involving the Snowball Earth hypothesis. I'm just starting a geochemistry project analysing mantle rocks (trying to get more data into the Mantle Plume controversy).

One thing of note... prepare to consume vast amounts of alcohol. That seems to be the tie that binds most geologists together. I just went to a Geological Society of America conference a few weeks ago... booze everywhere.

[cryokinetic]

I hope he does. Did the current outsourcing trend influence his decision at all?
That was one reason. Computer science just lost my interest though. Programming is fun... but I wasn't looking forward to the corporate world.

[distraction tactics]

Stop it, you're making me cry! That sounds incredible, you've managed to gear me into the ESTP 'go-go-go!' mode...

Hmm, well, I'm glad to hear you don't hate it. :D

[cryokinetic]

Lol...
Also, I may be moving to Egypt (Cairo) for a few months to work at the Egyptian Authority on Remote Sensing (worked with one of their guys on the the Ethiopia project, and he offered me a job). Looking at going to Ethiopia and tearing ass all over the north with a GPS receiver and a laptop (making roadmaps) as well.

[PenguinHunter]

Out of curiousity, what is your degree? Science-related at all?

Nope, English major-History minor, heh. I did start in sciences, though. I was thinking of doing either some kind of environmental biology degree or an Astro-physics type degree at first, mostly because my highschool directed everyone down the sciences pathway. But then I got to university, took some electives in Humanities, and it was a novelty, so I got sucked into that stream. "You mean you can get a degree for reading novels?" I like the freedom of thought in the English department, though. The way what I do at school can often incorporate my passing, personal interests is something I like immensely. And history has given me good writing skills, even though it may not be apparant from my posts. Funny cryokinetic mentions going to Cairo, I'm considering going there to get an ESL teaching certificate after second term (strangely, it might be cheaper than doing it in Canada.) The Ethiopian geophysics will be so interesting. . .

But enough about me! I hope your path down the Geophysics road is all you want it to be.

[Nighthawk]

Geology is fucking awesome. I've loved every single class I've taken. All of the fieldwork is incredible.

Because Geology depts all over the world are insanely small, research falls in to your lap left and right (and that's as an undergrad). I've done fieldwork using state of the art LIDAR and GPS equipment to make photorealistic models of outcrops. I just got done with a remote sensing project (satellite imagery) covering northern Ethiopia to help out with some research involving the Snowball Earth hypothesis. I'm just starting a geochemistry project analysing mantle rocks (trying to get more data into the Mantle Plume controversy).

One thing of note... prepare to consume vast amounts of alcohol. That seems to be the tie that binds most geologists together. I just went to a Geological Society of America conference a few weeks ago... booze everywhere.
Don't ever leave academia :) The only thing I research at my job is finding my ass with both hands.

[Nighthawk]

That was one reason. Computer science just lost my interest though. Programming is fun... but I wasn't looking forward to the corporate world.You mean listening to your old man bitch incessantly about working for fools, doing nothing but creating glorified web-based spreadsheets didn't influence your decision any? Well, there were those few escort websites. http://forums.intpcentral.com/images/smilies/whistling.gif

[cryokinetic]

You mean listening to your old man bitch incessantly about working for fools, doing nothing but creating glorified web-based spreadsheets didn't influence your decision any? Well, there were those few escort websites. http://forums.intpcentral.com/images/smilies/whistling.gif
Oh, that weighed in pretty heavily as well... and was reinforced by my short stint at that oil company :P