[Rockhounds] Re: geology/mineralogy jobs (was) Scapolite

[DonH]

Kitty & Bill Heacox wrote:

> what is your 
> impression of the job market for people who major in geology and 
> mineralogy?  Did you find lots of possibilities? 

Hi,

Well, my experience is unique based upon 1) my age, 2) my previous 
experience, 3) the horrible job market.  Only in two cases was I told 
that my life experience and my previous career in IT were an asset; in 
other cases these were actually detrimental.

I presume you are talking about getting a B.S.  Right now, oil companies 
are doing a lot of hiring; for that, one would need to focus on paleo, 
sedimentary geo, and geophysics.  Mining is also a rising tide; this 
requires a focus on structure, tectonics, and economic geology.  Now, I 
could go on for some time about the blending of geology into other 
departments--fortunately for everyone, I don't have the time to rant 
about that at length.  However, in brief, I would mention that hydrology 
is another rising field; at U. Idaho, hydrology is part of the Geology 
dept., though at other schools it may be part of engineering or 
"environmental sciences."  Speaking of which, "enviromental science" 
majors are popular as well; jobs in remediation, environmental 
consulting, and water management are rising too.

As far as being a "mineralogist," I would submit that there is really no 
such job any longer; or at least, very few, and usually reserved for 
PhD's in academia.  Geologists with a focus on mineralogy can find jobs 
as lab analysts or materials scientists, and sometimes in state and 
federal forensic labs.  However, these are competitive, and you need to 
be able to highlight your experience with various instruments and lab 
techniques rather than what your degree is.  Someone wishing to pursue 
this path might want to supplement their degree with a course from 
McCrone Research Institute in asbestos detection and counting methods, 
since that is the popular thing right now, and will be for some time. 
Very few schools even grant a degree in mineralogy any longer, and I am 
only a mineralogist by virtue of the specialized work I did.  In fact, 
Advancd Mineralogy will no longer be offered at WSU, and I had to 
convince Dr. Foit to teach it one last time.  I also convinced our soils 
department to teach Soil Mineralogy last semester, which is a class that 
comes around about every three years.  In both cases, I had to find 
other students to take these classes so they could have the minimum 
attendance requirement.  Otherwise, mineralogy is a low-key field around 
here and will likely be shuffled more into the background as time goes on.

Quite frankly, I had a hard time finding guidance in what jobs are out 
there and what concentrations are required.  Those I mentioned are the 
main opportunities.  The BLM and USGS still hire geologists, but when 
you look at the job descriptions, they seem to be focused on the 
hydrology and enviromental aspects.

The website usajobs.gov has all federal jobs posted (so they say).  I 
would recommend that any student sign up with this site and fill out all 
their info.  Once you finish the tedious process of filling out your 
life story, you can search for jobs using a varaiety of keywords, and 
even have automated searches set up that e-mail you with new postings.

I would also recommend that students check out the Geological Society of 
America to determine what specialties are popular right now.

Finally, she might contact the department and ask what kinds of job 
students are getting (WSU doesn't have a geology dept. any longer; it is 
called the School of Earth and Enviromental Sciences, and is located in 
Webster Hall).

I hope this helps in some way.

best,
Don