A geologist is a trained professional who studies the composition, structure, and history of the earth in order to provide an understanding of the history of the earth and to predict future occurrences. They study rocks, minerals, and the sequences of earth processes, then use their knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and geology to explain certain phenomena.
Their job is also useful in locating minerals, petroleum deposits, and underground water resources. A geologist may decide to focus on a specific field within geology. Popular fields include marine geology, environmental geology, economic geology, petroleum geology, and engineering geology.
Employment opportunities for geologists can be found in the oil and gas industry, civil engineering, construction companies, government agencies and the underground water industry. The job of a geologist may involve a lot of travel because they do a lot of site visits. Therefore, they have flexible work schedules and may work late evenings and even during the weekends.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a geologist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $37.28 an hour? That's $77,551 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 1,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many geologists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed physical stamina, communication skills and problem-solving skills.
If you're interested in becoming a geologist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 79.3% of geologists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.3% of geologists have master's degrees. Even though most geologists have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a geologist. When we researched the most common majors for a geologist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on geologist resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a geologist. In fact, many geologist jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many geologists also have previous career experience in roles such as research assistant or teaching assistant.