For those who have a non-civil engineering bachelor’s who ended up pursuing a master’s in geotechnical engineering: what sort of prerequisite courses did you have to take first?

Hi all looking for advice from experienced geos already in mining, exploration, or oil & gas.

I'm currently in my final year of my geology bachelors in Australia. I was going to pursue honours but I have no interest in any of the current projects and i would prefer to do my geology masters in a couple of years after earning some money and deciding which field of geology to do my masters on.

Would this impact my ability to progress through the industry as a geologist if I have a bachelors without honours, and a masters?

Hello everyone. A private company here in my country (PH) reached out to me about a possible job opportunity as a Wellsite Geologist. However, I am a newly licensed geologist with just about 10 months of experience and I feel that I may be lacking for the role. Hence, I've been doing some research and would also like to ask the people here for your opinions. What are the jobs required for a wellsite geologist to be able to do? Also, what should I expect from the job if ever I pass the interview? What prior knowledge should I have or should I extensively be familiar with? Lastly, what should be my expected salary for the role?

Thanks a lot and please be kind.

Some background, I have been involved in the geosciences for almost 10 years now. Relevant work experience is listed here, but there were various odd jobs held through college I omitted intentionally.

Interned in exploration, worked for a geotech firm for a few years out of undergrad, and then transitioned to mining for a large gold company.

Trying to keep things current on my resume and may be looking for a change here in the somewhat near future. Likely will be in mining or the mining industry.

Any and all review and advice is appreciated, mainly just trying to make sure it's coherent and hitting the main points, but not looking at any particular jobs right now to tailor it towards.

Okay so this is like 90% just me ranting and if you think I got something wrong, please comment to lmk.

So, idk about y’all but I really struggled to find a job after graduation. I feel sort of deceived bc I had all these ideas about how awesome geology jobs are and how there’s SO many out there when in college, only to be hit hard by the reality of it all. Now I know that there are probably significantly better jobs in the west that pay way better, but I haven’t heard back from the few I applied to there and I also can’t take the risk of moving there before finding a job and end up working a non-geology job and pay excessively high rent.

I’ve also realized that only people who really LOVE geology should be majoring in it. I think I only picked geology as a major because I wanted to study science and I wanted it to be very broad with courses in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math, which is what geology gave me, but its still not enough and I regret not going for engineering when I had the chance because that’s much broader and has more career opportunities and pays much better.

From what I’m seeing online and from listening to some of my friends working as geotechs/field geologists, it seems like the pay is crap relative to the amount of work and you have to work 8-10 years and earn your PG to even break $75k. Plus, jobs outside of government (which is hard to get into and pay even less) are highly unstable with little scope of getting promoted. At least in NC and probably most of the east coast, consulting is the only real industry you can get into with a geology degree it seems because there are very few mines here that need geologists for exploration, etc., and almost no O&G (which again requires an MS apparently nowadays).

Even with an MS in geology, you’re not really gonna be able to make as much money as an engineer fresh out of college. I’ve also met people with a geology master’s who are struggling to get job offers with pay higher than $60k

So, I’ve decided to switch gears and go back to school for another BS, this time in engineering. Am I making the right choice here? What do y’all think?

Do you think that the percentages of Barrick vs. Newmont are correct for the 61.5% vs. 38.5%? Or do you think there was blackmail involved? Should they, can they be re-evaluated?

Any Canadian PGeo's have experience working on a work visa in the USA while registered? Let's say Oregon or Washington. Are there reciprocity agreements between Canada and theses states, or do you need go through the whole process (FG test etc)?

https://www.reddit.com/r/mining/s/x3ienNJTTh

How do the FG and PG exams compare regarding the types of questions, difficulty, etc?

I just got my first job in Virginia as a geotechnical engineer (September 2023). I have my GIT certification in NC (October 2022), which requires 5 years of experience, of which four can be from undergrad and grad studies. This means I would only need one year of work experience to be able to sit for the PG exam.

My question is if my job in Virginia would count towards the requirement. My job includes inspecting soil properties and such, but a large component is engineering. Would this matter? Also, would the fact that my work experience is in another state matter?

The pay is so low, it's not competitive. Why do they think it's ok to pay people with science degrees $40k, and then complain about turnover.

Hey there. I've been looking into making the move to work in Australia as i've heard the geology market is booming down there at the moment. I have about 1 year of open-pit experience doing ore control (gold) in Canada. From what i've read so far, it seems like showing up in Perth and finding recruiters is the way to go, but it also seems that the Perth rental situation is an absolute nightmare, so i'm wondering if this is still a viable option for Canadians on a working-holiday visa. If any Aussie's with mining experience in Western Australia have anything to chime in with in the way of advice, it would be much appreciated (or better yet, a fellow Canadian who has made the move themselves)! Thanks in advance :)

Hello everyone,

Im currently doing a bachelors in math and statistics online. Over the past few months ive gotten interested in seismology, particularly in modelling the occurrence of earthquakes with stochastic processes. To me its both theoretically interesting and coming up with better models would have an obvious real-world impact.

The coursework includes linear algebra, calc 1-3/vector calculus content, diffeq etc and some statistics in the first 2 years then basically pure statistics in the 3rd year.

I know its a weird idea, but I'm in the early stages of my degree, so I'm trying to map out all of my options as they align with my interests. If I were to commit myself to going down this path, would I be taken seriously when applying for postgrad positions, and how could I strengthen my application? (I could take an earth science class but it would cost extra)

I'm in the UK by the way, not sure if that matters. If its infeasible, dont be afraid to say so, I'm just exploring my options

Edit: Thanks for your input everyone, for now I'm going to keep self-teaching basic geology while doing my regular coursework and I'll see if I can fit a formal class into my schedule (It's a bit difficult because of how student loans work here)

I'll removed the post if admin . Writing this post due to being unable to sleep due to thinking about career and life.

Hi, I'm currently International students in UK ,on one of Wales University. I've been posting few of my resume and other questions on this subreddit, got a good feedback or response to improve mine.

I don't even know what to look for anymore as I've been applying for placement or jobs and doesn't have any luck at all. All the students in my class from UK got jobs already and all I ever got it rejection email which stress me so much. I know that I got disadvantages due to visa constraints and other everything related to it. Sometimes I even wonder if it worth to apply anymore or even apply for my PSW visa and just go back home to my country after graduation. I've got help/guide from the university side but there is limited on what they could do.

On the bright side I've got a full scholarship for my MSc course which reduce my stress. I know that I'm not the only one with same situation as me but need to vent out my stress so here is my long post.

Are Petroleum geos on high demand in Alberta, Canada? I am currently a geo student in Ontario and want to be in that field but i have heard that having the knowledge about soft rock and being in Ontario where the study is mainly about mineral deposits so I guess I have another question:

do I have to attend a uni where its geo department focuses on oil and gas?

Hello! I'm asking this years in advance, since I am only graduating highschool now - but I like to plan ahead and know what to expect. I'm planning on studying geology and getting a bachelor's degree and if everything goes well - a master's in stratigraphic-exploration geology. The branches that interest me the most are petrology and mineralogy and the major covers them, but of course it's broader than just these two. Is the degree enough to work strictly in those fields? Or do I need to make another "specialization" of some sort/gain experience somewhere more specific? I'm really green when it comes to this, so any advice is welcome. (If it changes anything, I'll study in Europe)

Hello,

I graduated with my B.Sc. in Geology in 2020.

Since then I haven't been able to find work in Geology or Environmental Science and I don't have the money to go back and get my M.Sc. which was my plan initially.

Any internships I applied for didn't choose me and most of the ones I've seen have been for younger people.

Is there any point in trying to find this kind of work or should I just continue working in a warehouse or as a sales clerk?

Is there any way I can get some hands-on experience, especially with ArcGIS, coding or something like that? I'm leaning more towards adjacent paths at this point, if I don't give up completely.

I could have saved myself a lot of time and money if I had known that going back to school in my late 30s wasn't going to pay off anyway.

I'm just very discouraged at this point.

Thank you.

Hi, I have been seeing alot of job postings for Arcadis some environmental engineering. I've heard mixed things about consulting and arcadis do you guys have any information on it? I understand work is work and it's always what you make it but does anyone have experience with the company?

Thanks.

Hello Fellow Geologists, I am making this post to gather some context and advice regarding salary and job duties. Lately, I have been feeling as if I am underpaid for the amount of work I do. I work for an Engineering Consulting firm in the Southern United States. The firm is located in a decently sized town. I am an “engineering geologist” as my boss likes to refer to me as. I mostly work in geotechnical but occasionally help out with environmental work. I graduated in May of 2022 and began working at this firm in August of 2022. My main responsibility is overseeing drilling operations and logging for those borings. It is not unusual for me to see 50+ hour weeks and extended overnight travel. My travel is unpredictable and sometimes weeks at a time, but never far enough to where I can’t go home on weekends. When the drilling department does not have a driller’s assistant, I am also expected to fill in (which is often). Last year, we didn’t have a driller’s assistant, and I filled in for about two months. These days by the drill rig are typically 10-12 hour days. I understand that boreholes will often take this long to drill, especially for deep mud rotary holes. I am expected to manage the drill crew in the field and interact with clients. When I am in the office, my main responsibilities are to prepare future drilling projects, work in the soils lab, and prepare boring logs and write geotechnical reports to hand off to our engineers to finish. To prepare future projects, I look over proposals and create drilling instructions for our drillers. I put in our BUD calls. I coordinate with our drill supervisor to schedule when our drillers can get to my project. I was given a new role of “functional manager” which I was told was not a new position, and just a role. It just means that I have taken on more responsibility of my projects. Once the project is finished drilling, I assign testing for the soils. This includes all standard geotechnical tests. We have a lab tech but I often help in there as well. I do atterbergs, hydrometers, proctors, and many other tests. Once the lab testing is complete, I start to put together our geotechnical report. I put together much of the data and project information and any soils or rock core info. Then I hand it over to our geotechnical engineer to give a recommendation. After that, the project is finished and I repeat the process. I don’t always go out drilling either. On smaller jobs the drillers log and I do lithologies when they bring the samples back to the lab. There are many other small things that I do but they are not limited to geophysics testing, utility locating, and stormwater sampling. I have had to work in some rough conditions like 116 degree heat indexes and on the interstate at 3 am. When I started this job, I was being paid $20.50 an hour. In November, I was given a raise and now make 22.50. I believe that I am still being underpaid. It is roughly $47,000 before taxes. I get lots of OT as well, but it’s unpredictable. My company says we shouldn’t ever compare salaries and it’s against policy to share with another employee. Which is false, but our previous drillers assistant was making $26/hr and our current one is making $28/hr. It’s a little insulting to be responsible for these employees in the field and for the project when I am making significantly less than our driller’s assistant. What do you all think about my pay? Is it justified? Do I deserve more? I am willing to answer any other questions you all may have. Thanks! Also, I just took my FG exam in March and I am awaiting my results.

What do you think would be a fair compensation?

I am a soon to be BSc grad of Environmental Geosciences trying to figure out how to land my first job. Currently living with my parents in an area where Geosciences is not regulated. I have some experience from my undergrad from doing research and a honors thesis but never had a geoscience job yet. Wondering how difficult it is to land the first job. Many places require experience even for entry level positions. Wiling to move but many places requiring you to already be a resident. Feeling hopeless and like I wasted my time getting this degree. Any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi All,

I know there have been questions like this already posted however, I see that they are largely geared towards those that just graduated with a BS or BA in Geology.

We have noticed an influx of students at the graduate level entering just out of undergraduate. Now I would *personally* advise against this, but there's no stopping this trend at the moment. This has caused a lot of issues with their perception of the "job market". Students are saying that we are not preparing them adequately. Our current solution is to have a Workforce development seminar that is open to the undergraduate and graduate level. Once a week for ~1 hour they essentially get a crash course on the importance of said license or skill and then are provided resources on where they can get them, and the careers it will open up for them etc etc

With that said, what are some must haves on your resume when it comes to certifications and training at the Masters and PhD level that do NOT want to go into academia, and are in industry track.

We have solicited for seminars in borehole geophysics training, OSHA HAZWOPER , GIS and encourage students to take the PG/ASBOG/GIT exam. What other certs should we be recommending to students outside their research specialty? What am I missing on this list?
We hope to implement this in an order that goes from more physical certs to computational/technological.

We hope to cover a wide range from geological consulting, mining and energy, construction, geological survey, hydrology and watershed management,

Hello, im a high school student in 11th grade ( almost) and geology seems like a pretty viable option for a job ( that i more or less want to do).

I was wondering which subjects to choose from, because next year i only have 2 subject "spots" ( so i can only choose 2). So maths, physics, geography or chemistry?

Send help

Hi there I am a B.S geology student and I am curious what is consulting? From what I know it sounds like I do not want to do it. But I am confused on what it is. And how can I tell if a job posting is consulting? Will it have the word ‘consulting’ somewhere? Is it only in the private sector?

I will be graduating at the end of the year and i am beginning to apply for a variety of roles in Geology. This particular draft is aimed towards a role as a 'volcanic Gas specialist assistant'. However, it is open ended for tailoring to other roles.

https://preview.redd.it/rtt5elh9o2uc1.jpg?width=1241&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58dcee2ed35d446ef0d0bd083f390ce92d722e25

https://preview.redd.it/4fw3jmh9o2uc1.jpg?width=1241&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cf093800f0d55bae401bbdb97c41256d84d32e25