The goal of this Guide is to present information that

1. addresses issues in choosing, maintaining, and advancing a career specifically in the geosciences;
2. provides useful geoscience-employer information that students need in order to find geoscience employment.

The Guide is designed to be a "living" publication, and employers are encouraged to contact AGI to be added to the listings. Students and geoscience professionals are welcome to make suggestions for improving the site to make it more useful. Please contact AGI: workforce@agiweb.org.

Following an overview of geoscience human-resources supply and demand, the Guide presents introductory essays and profiles of the following employer sectors:

• oil and gas industry
• mining industry
• consulting firms in Water Resources and the Environment
• federal and state government agencies
• national laboratories
• K-12 education

The essays, written by current employees, provide a context for better understanding of employment opportunities, as well as reviewing required and preferred qualifications that employers look for in their new hires. While there are differences in the particulars, all employers share in some basic advice to students about skills and proficiencies they should acquire and develop: a general and solid grounding in the fundamentals of geoscience (i.e., don't over-specialize); oral and written communication skills; networking skills; intern/work experience; willingness for international assignments and mobility; foreign-language skills; ability to work as part of a team; field work; computer skills; problem-solving skills. If possible, students should consider getting a master's degree.

Following each essay are profiles of major employers in that sector. These profiles include contact information (personnel and recruiting offices), locations of offices and employment, breakdown of geoscientists employed, description of the company or agency, description of careers in the company or agency, the recruiting process, availability of summer internships, and company/agency employee benefits. In almost all cases, the companies and agencies have provided their web-site addresses, and you should visit those sites for additional information about the hiring process and employment details.

In addition, AGI plans to add results of ongoing and future geoscience human-resources surveys to this site. You should also visit AGI's Career website, at http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/

Overview

Geoscience Enrollments

Changes in university student enrollments in specific major fields have always reacted in direct but somewhat delayed response to changes in the employment cycles and job opportunities. Enrollments generally track two to three years behind shifts in workforce patterns. Yet by the time it takes students to achieve even threshold credentials for employment, hiring patterns have often shifted. Students may feel betrayed and leave the field. By the time the next hiring frenzy occurs, there may not be enough students in the pipeline to meet employment demands. Thus, in addition to the boom-bust cycles in employment, enrollments and employment opportunities are usually out-of-phase.

Since 1952, AGI has tracked geoscience enrollment patterns. The steady climb to the highest enrollment levels (1965 to 1983) was due in large part to the tremendous and stable growth that occurred in the petroleum sector. From that 1983 peak, enrollment levels have gone through a net decline, with mixed enrollment rises and declines, and-more recently-a continued decline from 1996 to 2000. From 1983 to 2000, there has been a 66.8% decline in geoscience enrollments (see Figure 1).

The number of undergraduate geoscience degrees awarded have predictably followed a similar pattern. However, graduate enrollments and graduate degrees granted have been relatively stable over the years, in marked contrast to the volatility of undergraduate enrollments and degrees granted. This disparity can be explained in part by the fact that many with a BA/BS in geoscience find work outside of the geosciences and, perhaps, outside of the sciences altogether (see Figure 2).

Enrollment of women in the geosciences has steadily increased over the past 20 years, although the levels of participation have not attained total parity with the general population. On the other hand, female participation levels fall off in both graduate enrollments and graduate degrees (master's and PhD) (see Figure 3).

Ethnic-minority geoscience student participation has generally remained fairly constant, although showing significant underrepresentation compared to the general population. (see Figure 4).

Foreign-student participation in geoscience enrollments and degrees granted has generally been on the decline since 1992. Foreign students by far are more prevalent at the graduate level (see Figure 5) and in receiving graduate degrees (see Figure 6).

Employment

Geoscience employment over the past 15 years has been undergoing several significant changes. Traditional employment patterns have shifted in distribution percentages among employer sectors as well as quantitatively. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the major thrust of employment opportunities shifted from oil and gas to environmental consulting firms. Since the latter half of the 1990s, however, employment in oil and gas has been making a slight comeback; at the same time, non-traditional employment sectors have been expanding. Mining companies are shifting their activities and hiring pools much more toward the international arena. The federal government faces a general slowing-if not a freeze-of its hiring activity, while at the same time it is being asked to do more in the way of greater environmental vigilance, mostly through stricter regulation. Those activities will result in greater outsourcing to environmental contractors. State geological surveys face similar economic tightening in the face of projected increases in environmental and related responsibilities. Almost all of the national laboratories require a PhD for employment, and turnover is very low. Environmental consulting firms are likely to increase their hiring, due to federal and state government outsourcing and in helping businesses meet environmental regulations or in siting new businesses. Employment at the college and university level is almost entirely done at the PhD level, and most of the current job openings are at the non-tenure track or adjunct level. It is in K-12 science education where there is a demonstrated and severe shortage of qualified earth-science teachers. That need will remain heightened by the recent surge in K-12 enrollments.

In today's market, those with a BA/BS in geoscience will have difficulty in finding work that leads to a professional career. Geotech jobs seem to be available, mostly in the environmental-consulting field, but that level of employment is neither permanent nor career-oriented. It is possible, however, that work experience, when added to a bachelor's-level education, can lead to better employment opportunities. The general consensus is that a master's degree is the preferred degree for most employers. A recent AGI study demonstrates the relative employment patterns of recent graduates at all three degree levels (see Figures 7, 8, and 9).

AGI recently conducted a Demographic and Compensation Survey of North American Geoscientists. Results from that survey were compared to an earlier AGI survey, North American Survey of Geoscientists (1986). Figure 10 documents the changes that have occurred between 1986 and 2000 in the distribution of geoscientists by employment sector.

Aging of the workforce remains a factor across all sectors (see Figure 11). The demographics suggest that the workforce is aging at such a rate that the coming wave of retirements over the next 5 to 10 years will severely strain the projected pipeline levels. In other words, it is likely that there will be more geoscience jobs available than there are geoscience students to fill them. Companies may well have to meet their needs by hiring from other physical sciences.

Moreover, it should come as no surprise that women (see Figure 12) and ethnic minorities are poorly represented in all employment sectors. The levels of female and ethnic-minority participation are but a fraction of their already low presence in student geoscience populations.

Included among the factors of workplace trends are the many people who have been laid off from their jobs, especially in the energy industry. Most of these people are at a "mid-career" stage of their employment lives. Their presence enlarges the pool of job applicants, and their experience probably gives them a decided advantage-especially for employers looking for narrowly defined positions. On the other hand, it is unlikely that these older individuals will enroll in higher degree programs to improve their credentials.

In spite of all the uncertainties and problems presented above, no other physical-science discipline is as tied to such a variety of real-world factors as the geosciences. Consider that the following conditions all affect the enrollments and employment of geoscientists: national interests and security, including the price of oil, the price of metals and strategic minerals, access to global markets, and levels of federal funding; informed national awareness, including assessment, mitigation, and remediation of hazardous-waste sites, ground water, and geohazards; population demographics, including the aging of the population, and the current and future composition of the workforce by gender, ethnic-minority status, and citizenship.

Links

Additional information about the geosciences may be found at AGI's homepage and at the homepages of AGI's Member Societies.

AGI Homepage: http://www.agiweb.org
AGI Member Societies: http://www.agiweb.org/members/index.html

Also, from the Guide to Human Resources site, you can access the Guide to Geoscience Departments. This Guide lists detailed information on almost 200 geoscience departments, including contact information, admission procedures, degree requirements, financial information (including housing), available financial assistance, field-camp information, research facilities and support (computers, labs, libraries), faculty teaching and research specialties, department geoscience specialties, and historical enrollment and degree data. If you're looking for specific details about a geoscience department, this is the place to start!