KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
108 THOMPSON HALL
MANHATTAN, KS 66506-3201
Telephone (785) 532-6724
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CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

The next few years promise to be filled with opportunity for graduates with geology degrees, as the number of geology students nationwide is running far behind demand, especially within the energy and environment sectors.

Masters-level graduates will have the widest selection of opportunities, for employers in most fields recognize this as the minimum 'career-level' degree, with which a person can expect to advance to higher responsibilites within a company. Indeed, many major corporations hire geologists only at the M.S. and Ph.D. levels.

Even B.S. graduates can expect many job offers in the near future, mostly from smaller companies, but advancement will be more difficult, and retention less certain. It is also very important to recognize that only a tiny handful of people manage to return to school for further education, once marriage and family enter the picture.

Ph.D. graduates are also in demand, and not just in academics. Many government, consulting, and industrial opportunities are open for graduates in various specialties.

For summaries of career prospects, read through a group of recent essays assembled by the American Geological Institute and posted on their website: http://guide.agiweb.org/employer/Essays.html

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

At present, the K-State Geology Department offers the B.S./B.A. degree and the M.S. degree in geology. Because graduates with these degrees most often gain employment within the corporate and government sectors, we are well positioned to carry out the theme function of a land grant university, which (loosely stated) is to benefit the State of Kansas by preparing students to become productive members of society.

This is not to say that we steer students away from careers in research or academia; many of our students pursue advanced studies at other universities, and join those ranks. Eventually, if our program of expansion is successful, we hope to offer a Ph.D. degree ourselves. But we expect that the majority of our students will enter the work force with a bachelor's or master's degree, and we intend to give them the best possible preparation (of course, this will also be the best possible preparation for advanced study, as well!).

We look upon the B.S./B.A. degree as a broad exposure to the core elements of geology: mineralogy/petrology, structural geology/tectonics, stratigraphy/sedimentation, geomorphology/field geology, and geobiology/geochemistry/geophysics. Also, because the K-State College of Arts and Sciences has an excellent set of distribution requirements, our graduates have studied the basics of a wide variety of fine arts, social sciences, and humanities as well as geology. They are ready to join society.

It is at the M.S. level that our students select a general area for further study, and prepare themselves to for further study or career employment. We have as many possible areas as faculty members, although the most popular right now are petroleum geology, environmental geology, and geoscience education. When we fill our vacancy in geophysics, this will likely join the three just mentioned.

It is important to note that getting a degree in one advanced area does not prevent a career in another. We have had graduates who completed master's theses in igneous petrology go into petroleum, on the theory that a thesis in any topic is evidence of the ability to complete a project. But obviously this is not as desirable as a thesis in the area of future employment.

INDUSTRY RECRUITMENT

Although the K-State Geology Department is small, it has a reputation for graduating good geologists. Three major companies have sent recruiting teams to our department this fall, and they have offered internships and positions to several of our students. In addition, many of our advisory council members are in a position to interview our students in informal settings, and many careers have been launched in this manner.

The department encourages our students to attend meetings of professional societies, to present papers/posters, and to network with professionals. Our alumni support a number of funds that pay as much as half the expenses for students at these events. One of our recent M.S. students recently received invitations to on-site interviews on the basis of a poster he presented at one of these meetings.

We cannot promise that every one of our graduates will receive the offers that he or she wants. But it is noteworthy that nearly all of our M.S. students either go on for further study, or receive solid, career-building offers from significant agencies or corporations. We also see most of our B.S./B.A. graduates go on for master's degrees or well-paying jobs.

JOB LISTINGS

This section of the website is for our recent graduates who are considering career moves, and for any of our alumni who have positions to fill. New listings will be left up for 60 days or until we receive notice that the position has been filled. Please note that we cannot take any responsibility for errors, misunderstandings, or outright hoaxes regarding these postings. Note also that we cannot take responsibility for the timely posting of notices that we receive, although we will try to make this a useful space.