Job Responsibilities
I am a research engineer for a nationally recognized science and
technology research company. I provide earth science expertise to
scientists and engineers in a research campus of approximately
1300 employees. I perform geologic, hydrogeologic, and geophysical
sampling, analysis, and reporting for private and government
customers. My duties include groundwater and soil sampling,
drilling geologic support, geophysical sampling using
ground-penetrating radar, seismic, and electrical resistivity
instruments, and laboratory testing of sediments under varying
soil contamination conditions. I have also managed geophysical and
hydrogeological projects as project lead, providing my client with
contracting support, laboratory and field instrument analysis,
reporting, and financial management. My duties also require
computer programming, geographic information system analysis,
global positioning satellite surveying, and data mining.
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Job Requirements
I attended a regional state college with the intent of working for
my current employer. Due to the volatility of the job market when
I graduated twenty years ago, I was forced to look outside of my
current field. After six years of progressively more challenging
jobs in the science and engineering consulting industry, I was
able to work at my current location as a temporary employee
performing wellsite drilling support. After hiring on in a
permanent capacity, my workscope was positioned for outsourcing,
external corporate spin-off, and eventually delivered to my
current employer - the one I had wanted to work for a decade earlier.
Between this graduation and this job I have been a chemical plant
operator, industrial hygienist, analytical laboratory director,
environmental consultant, vocational instructor, and adjunct
college professor.
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Uppers
I work with some of the most capable and educated people in my field. In the
office where I work I am the only employee with a bachelor's degree. All of my
peers have a PhD behind their name, and a couple have a master's degree. It is
both exciting and a bit intimidating working with people who are so highly
capable and driven in the performance of their discipline.
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Downers
A good number of the projects that I work on are funded with
federal money. The research campus that I work at is often the
focus of intense political debate. Because this campus is only one
of several federal research facilities, the political strength of
our Congressional delegation is more important than the
intellectual strength of our staff.
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Lifestyle
Due to the varied mix of political and social backgrounds that the staff bring
to their work, the campus is an eclectic mix of liberal academics and
conservative technologists. My particular office of approximately 200 staff spans
the political and social spectrum from left-leaning environmental liberals to
religious and political conservatives. Despite the political and social divide,
there is genuine congeniality that is, unfortunately, not reflected in the
society at large. The people I work with have strong views but they are not
confrontational.
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Compensation
My salary is at the high end of my field for the education level
and experience that I have acquired. We have a good savings plan
and pension, generous medical, dental, and vision benefits, and
industry-comparable vacation and sick leave. We also have a
progressive educational reimbursement that covers all tuition and
some fees for studies that relate to a staff's field of expertise.
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Advice to Jobseekers
If you are considering a job as a geologist, you need to decide
before you graduate from college whether you are going to be in
resource protection, or resource exploration. I chose resource
exploration and ended up not having a job in my field for nearly
three years. And once I ended up in my chosen field, it was not
the particular area that I wanted to work in. In fact, it has only
been after twenty years that domestic exploration has started to
pick up again. The reason that I didn't work in exploration for
twenty years is due to my unwillingness to work in fairly
dangerous places outside of the US while trying to raise a family.
Those are the considerations that have to be made if you chose to
work in exploration: stay home and suffer boom and bust workloads,
or travel anywhere your employer can find you work. Some of these
places are not the safest work environments for people from the US.
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