How To Become A Geological Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a geological engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. John Gierke

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a geological engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $39.19 an hour? That's $81,506 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 100 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a geological engineer?

Dr. John Gierke

Professor, Michigan Technological University

The geological engineering profession is a very small discipline. In the U.S., there exist only 13 accredited programs. Despite the small number of programs, enrollments in geological engineering are also few compared to more-widely known engineering disciplines. Geological engineers provide unique knowledge and skills to earth resource projects, so the demand for professionals typically exceeds the supply. Therefore, from a professional outlook perspective, there is always a good time to graduate as a geological engineer as long as graduates are flexible in terms of the industry they prefer. During downturns in petroleum or particular minerals/metals, opportunities in those industries can experience pauses, but typically there are always opportunities in construction, water resources development, slope stability, and aggregate resource development.

ScoreGeological EngineerUS Average

Salary

6.4

Avg. Salary $81,506

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.29%

Asian 20.18%

Black or African American 4.24%

Hispanic or Latino 10.61%

Unknown 4.73%

White 59.96%

Gender

female 16.35%

male 83.65%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a geological engineer

Explore geological engineer education requirements

Most common geological engineer degrees

Bachelor's

74.5 %

Master's

19.6 %

Doctorate

2.0 %

Start to develop specific geological engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Geotechnical	29.62%
Autocad	13.57%
Technical Reports	11.35%
Engineering Design	9.98%
Slope Stability	8.56%

Complete relevant geological engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 2-4 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New geological engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a geological engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real geological engineer resumes.

Research geological engineer duties and responsibilities

Conduct time-and-motion studies and performance of truck-and-shovel analysis and efficiently allocate trucks to shovels and attain optimum productivity.
Identify ways to maximize data gather from logging and testing, conduct onsite petrophysics analysis and QC.
Help to prepare mechanics, geotechnical and geological reports.
Analyze field and laboratory test data and prepare geotechnical reports.

Prepare your geological engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your geological engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a geological engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable geological engineer resume templates

Build a professional geological engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your geological engineer resume.