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.
Geologist Overview
Geologist Careers
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 $49.59 an hour? That's $103,149 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 1,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Geologist Do
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.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a geologist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 23.4% of geologists included oversight, while 10.3% of resumes included water quality, and 7.4% of resumes included osha. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the geologist job title. But what industry to start with? Most geologists actually find jobs in the energy and professional industries.
How To Become a Geologist
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 76.6% of geologists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 13.9% 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.
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Geologist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a geologist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as project manager, progress to a title such as general manager and then eventually end up with the title operations vice president.
Geologist Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Geologist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Department of The Interior Geologist Geologist | Department of The Interior Department of The Interior | 06/29/2021 06/29/2021 | $70,88306/29/2021 $70,883 |
Sc Department of Public Safety Geologist/Hydrologist I Geologist/Hydrologist I | Sc Department of Public Safety Sc Department of Public Safety | 06/25/2021 06/25/2021 | $33,49406/25/2021 $33,494 |
State of Louisiana Geologist/3 Geologist/3 | State of Louisiana State of Louisiana | 06/23/2021 06/23/2021 | $96,26206/23/2021 $96,262 |
Ho Chunk Mineral Geologist Mineral Geologist | Ho Chunk Ho Chunk | 06/18/2021 06/18/2021 | $85,00006/18/2021 $85,000 |
Florida Department of Transportation Professional Geologist III Professional Geologist III | Florida Department of Transportation Florida Department of Transportation | 06/18/2021 06/18/2021 | $56,14806/18/2021 $56,148 |
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Geologist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Geologist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
10 Best Resume Templates In 2021
Learn How To Write a Geologist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Geologist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Geologists
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
2. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
5. University of California - Davis
Davis, CA • Private
6. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
7. San Jose State University
San Jose, CA • Private
8. Texas A&M University
College Station, TX • Private
9. University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA • Private
10. San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA • Private
Online Courses For Geologist That You May Like
Learn how the different levels of IT technical support work, from service desk to infrastructure and server support...
In this course, the second in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialization, you will go in-depth with common data types (such as raster and vector data), structures, quality and storage during four week-long modules: Week 1: Learn about data models and formats, including a full understanding of vector data and raster concepts. You will also learn about the implications of a data's scale and how to load layers from web services. Week 2: Create a vector data model by using vector attrib...
This specialization covers the fundamentals of surveys as used in market research, evaluation research, social science and political research, official government statistics, and many other topic domains. In six courses, you will learn the basics of questionnaire design, data collection methods, sampling design, dealing with missing values, making estimates, combining data from different sources, and the analysis of survey data. In the final Capstone Project, you'll apply the skills learned thro...
Top Skills For a Geologist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 23.4% of geologists listed oversight on their resume, but soft skills such as physical stamina and communication skills are important as well.
- Oversight, 23.4%
- Water Quality, 10.3%
- Osha, 7.4%
- Data Collection, 5.7%
- GIS, 5.4%
- Other Skills, 47.8% See All Geologist Skills
Best States For a Geologist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a geologist. The best states for people in this position are Texas, Maine, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island. Geologists make the most in Texas with an average salary of $111,923. Whereas in Maine and Oklahoma, they would average $105,383 and $99,593, respectively. While geologists would only make an average of $92,226 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Louisiana
$92,077
Avg. Salary
2. Texas
$111,923
Avg. Salary
3. Oklahoma
$99,593
Avg. Salary
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Dr. Adam Woods Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, California State University, Fullerton
Most of our graduates work for environmental or engineering companies that range from regional to international scale.Show more
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