How To Become A Research Soil Scientist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a research soil scientist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Daniel Hirmas

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a research soil scientist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $34.03 an hour? That's $70,777 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 3,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a research soil scientist?

Daniel Hirmas

Professor and B.L. Allen Endowed Chair of Pedology, Texas Tech University

Quantitative skills and computer scripting language skills. Quantitative skills include math and especially statistics. Take as many statistics classes as you can. Develop efficient skills in common scripting languages like Python or R. These are highly sought after skills and are becoming more and more important in soil and environmental science.

ScoreResearch Soil ScientistUS Average

Salary

5.5

Avg. Salary $70,777

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 9.38%

Black or African American 3.66%

Hispanic or Latino 5.95%

Unknown 2.75%

White 78.03%

Gender

female 34.29%

male 65.71%

Age - 38

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 - 38

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.1

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a research soil scientist

Explore research soil scientist education requirements

Most common research soil scientist degrees

Bachelor's

70.4 %

Doctorate

11.1 %

Master's

11.1 %

Start to develop specific research soil scientist skills

Skills	Percentages
FE	62.78%
Scientific Journals	37.22%

Complete relevant research soil scientist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New research soil scientists 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 research soil scientist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real research soil scientist resumes.

Research research soil scientist duties and responsibilities

Evaluate patients' study eligibility via medical history, obtain informed consent, enroll patients, and achieve enrollment quotas.
Guide the technical implementation of an automate analysis system (electrophoresis station), with the enhancement of its operational efficiency.
Prepare soil feasibility studies and used AutoCAD to generate finalize maps and detail descriptions.

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When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your research soil scientist resume.

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