Recommended Reading

• Graduate School and the Job Market of the 1990s: A Survey of Young Geoscientists (1997) - An article published in Eos by Chris Golde and Peter Fiske that contains valuable information about the current job market and advice from former graduate students who are now trying to find jobs; well worth reading.

• The Job Market - Articles published in The Chronicle of Higher Education concerning the academic job market; presents some opposing points of view and calls for change in the way research universities think about and train Ph.D.s.

• PhDs.Org - Contains lots of good information about careers in science, choosing a graduate school, the tight job market for science Ph.D.'s, and other info that is well worth checking out if you are considering going to graduate school; link may be slow.

• American Geological Institute: Careers in the Geosciences - A great source for information about different fields in the geosciences, the range of jobs geologists hold, and statistics about those jobs; a must-see for anyone considering a geoscience career.

• National Association of State Boards of Geology - If you plan to become a professional geologist working in industry or consulting, you must become certified or registered in most states. Check out this site for information on the examinations and eligibility requirements in different states.

• Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond (1996) - Published by the National Academy of Sciences; it can be viewed for free or bought ($9.56) on the web; contains useful advice for planning a science career.

• Career Planning Center for Beginning Scientists and Engineers - Another good place to look for science career advice that is geared for undergraduates.

• To Boldly Go... A Practical Career Guide for Scientists (1996) - A career guide by Peter Fiske; one copy is available in Dr. Stimac's office or you can buy it online from AGU ($13.30 to $19.00); information on science employment and opportunities, career planning, self-assessment, research science, resumes and CVs, resume case studies, cover letters, interviews, perceptions and realities.

• StudentCenter.com - Online career center for students in all fields.

• Catapult Career Choices: Sciences - Website with some links to information about science jobs; not much oriented particularly at earth sciences.

• Directory of Geoscience Departments and Guide to Geoscience Departments in the United States & Canada (1998) - The American Geological Institute publishes new editions each year; Booth Library has a several old copies of the directory, a copy of the guide floats around in Dr. Stimac's office, or you can buy the books online; they list departments, facilities, faculty and their specialties, degrees offered, field courses, etc. across North America.

• Geoscience Departments WWW Directory - Exhaustive list of links to geoscience programs in colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada; great resource when searching for graduate schools!

• Environmental Science and Environmental Studies Programs - Exhaustive list of links to environmental programs at colleges and universities all over the U.S. and abroad; another great graduate school resource.

• Peterson's Guide to Graduate Programs - Searchable database with information on all kinds of graduate programs.

• U.S. News Ph.D. Program Rankings - Graduate school rankings for geology and its subfields, as well as other disciplines; be sure to understand how these rankings are generated before giving them much weight (some people complain they are biased)

• Internship Opportunities forEIU Geology/Geography Students - Under the direction of Dr. Gutowski, the department has for many years been able to get internships with local and regional townships, businesses, and organizations so that students can gain experience working in real-world settings.

• Teach for America - Program to recruit recent graduates in all fields to teach for two years in "under-resourced" urban or rural K-12 schools; a great opportunity to make a difference, as well as gain some valuable teaching experience without having to go through a certification process.

• Eco.Org - This environmental careers organization has some of everything; News section has listing of environmental career links, Career Services has a listing of paid environmental internships, Publications sections has some good books for sale, etc.

• Association for Women in Science - Career development and scholarship programs for women, opportunities for mentoring and being mentored by women scientists.

• National Science Foundation (NSF) student opportunities - Includes research experiences for undergraduates and the Graduate Research Fellowship program; the graduate fellowship is renewable for three years and provides tuition and a generous stipend.

• National Physical Science Consortium (NPSC) - Offers an outstanding doctoral fellowship package for underrepresented women and minorities in the physical sciences; fellowship is renewable for up to six years and includes summer work experience.

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fellowships - The STAR (Science to Achieve Results) program offers a generous graduate fellowship renewable for up to three years that is aimed towards students working in environmentally related research; other comparable fellowships are available for students attending historically Black, Hispanic, or American Indian institutions.

• Eastern Illinois University's Career Center - A good place to start your job search while you are still a student.

• Chronicle of Higher Education job classifieds - Mostly academic positions; hard copy available in journal section of Booth Library.

• Geotimes job classifieds - Mostly academic positions and some student opportunities.

• GSA Today job classifieds - Mostly academic positions and some student opportunities.

• Science job classifieds - Searchable database containing job ads in all areas of science.

• Eos - Weekly AGU publication that has mostly academic classifieds with some student opportunities; online ads available only to members (student membership in AGU costs $7/year) or available from several of the faculty.

• USAJOBS - Listing of current job openings with the federal government; you can search for jobs open to geologists, hydrologists, etc.

• Environmental Careers World - Job listings and information for employment in the environmental sciences.

• Environmental Jobs and Careers - Information and job listings for industry and government employment related to the environment.

• National Ground Water Association jobs page - Listing of positions available in ground water-related fields (hydrogeology, environmental geology, etc.).

• Earthworks- Online job ads (academic and otherwise) and place to post your resume for potential employers.

• Geosci-Jobs - Online job ad listings; only partial list is available to non-paying customers.

• CareerMine - Online, searchable job listings related to the mining industry; many of the listings are only viewable by paid subscribers.

• Georgia Southwestern's Geology Job Links - Contains many links to geoscience job listings and information.

These groups are often good sources of information about the discipline, and many host annual meetings to encourage communication between colleagues (networking!).  Most have reduced membership dues and meeting fees for students (e.g., AGU membership only costs $7/year for students) and provide weekly, monthly, or quarterly publications to members.  The list below is by no means complete, so you may encounter other organizations as you surf the web.

Web-Surfing Recommendations

The web is a great place to look to find out what kinds of companies hire geologists; for non-academic job opportunities, use a search engine to check out the following subjects:
 
• Government Agencies:
Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state geologic surveys, state departments of environmental quality, state natural resources departments (states such as Oregon often have searchable online job listings).
• Consulting Companies:
environmental, hydrogeology, hydrologic, water quality, geologic, geophysical, petroleum, geographic information systems or GIS (GIS WWW Resource List, for example).
• Industrial Companies and Commodities:
mining (InfoMine & Industry Book - mining, for example), tile, clay, limestone, cement, coal, oil/petroleum, crushed stone, sand and gravel, industrial minerals, lime, soda ash, trona, zeolite, metals, phosphate rock, gypsum, diamond.
Search engines to try include Lycos, HotBot, AltaVista, Yahoo!, Excite, and WebCrawler