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I was just curious what everyone does for a living and how do you like/love/hate it? I'm going on a mission soon so starting a career right now isn't a necessity, I've been just selling t-shirts and working jobs here and there, but I think I'd like to plan ahead for when I get back. I'm thinking about getting into electrical engineering, but I thought I'd like to hear what paths some of you have taken in regards to work!

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So what kinds of jobs can you get with a degree in Geology? Serious question because I honestly don't know.

Some of these may/probably require a Masters and not just a BS but:

1) Mineral Exploration/Exploitation - Oil is a prime example, someone has to figure out where a good place to try for it is. Same with other resources such as coal or copper, and in the case of mines I imagine geologists are involved in figuring out just how far you can abuse the rock before you need to stop for fear of sinkholes and the like. This applies to more than you think, for instance gravel is expensive to transport so there are geologist who's job is to find gravel for development purposes (#1 Geologic resource in Utah is gravel and the like, not your traditional suspects).

2) Geologic Hazards - The folks who look at hills to see if they will slide into where you are planning on building your sub-development. Likewise with earthquakes and various soil types.

3) Hydrology - These are the guys who scientifically figure out where the best place is to drill a well for water. Though I suppose this may just be a subset of #1, but people usually don't think about mining water (though geologists do).

4) Environmental Geology - Think about the guys who are tasked with figuring if you can make a place a waste dump without it leaking into the town aquifer.

5) Academia - An obvious one but this requires a PhD unless one is just going to be a tech to the big brains. This one has overlaps with the other ones.

Edited by Dravin
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I have a BA in English, but truthfully have not done much with it in regards to where it can really take me. I am currently an office worker at a large corporation and am not doing what I was originally hired for. I currently am my area's expert on Business Recovery, or to put it into general terms, I am the person that figures out what to do if the building catches on fire, or is in a flood, or is taken out by a tornado, or if there is a pandemic, etc. Not exactly what I was planning on doing with my life at this point, but it works. And I am good at what I do. In the near future I plan on either quitting my job to raise a family, or agreeing to work part time where most of that work time is from home. Turns out no one in my area is even prepared to devote the amount of time to Business Recovery as I do, and my area cares about being 100% compliant over letting me leave.

My brother in law has a BS in mechanical engineering (at least I think that is what it is) he currently works for the government and is the Lean manufacturing expert in his area. He seems to also like what he does. My husband is a computer techie, or rather to be more precise he babysits servers all day at a data center. As he said recently, he installs servers, he uninstalls servers, he moves servers, and re-installs servers, he updates servers, he runs cable, and when he isn't doing all that he stress tests the HTTP server (aka he surfs the net). He seems to like his job when it is busy. My dad does the same thing, but he started out as a building engineer after working as a engineer's mate on military nuclear subs in the navy. He worked his way up through the company and got enough experience from his work there that he now does the same job as my husband, with less education under his belt. But remember, he is 50 and my husband is 35 and they both just got the same job.

I hope some of that helps.

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I have just finished my University Degree so I now have a Bachelor of Dance! YAY as for next year I am going to continue studying in a Master of Teaching (Secondary) so more exciting things for me. I am also in a new youth type dance company and also auditioning for another one. Lots to do with dance for me. Woohoo!

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When i was a youth i recall them speaking to us at a mutual activity on this very topic. One of the leaders told us "Do something you love, because there is nothing worse then having a job you hate that pays the bills." My father on the way home corrected this and said, "There is nothing worse then having a job you hate that doesn't pay the bills." He was working 3 at the time. So i think you need to find the balance between practicality and love.

That being said as a man who has recently gone through a mid life crisis, i'm not that old but my family tends to have a short life expectancy, seriously i bought a little red convertible even though i have a family of 5 and live in the snowy mid west:D.

My advice is to take the risks and chances while you are young. It's much easier to say, restore old cars to sell before you have a garage full of tricycles, sleds and t-ball equipment, the path requiring 7 years of study looks more appealing when the graduation is at 28 rather then at 35.

The younger you are the less responsibility you have, generally speaking, the more options you have. Take full advantage of it.

As the great Yogi Berra said "If you come to a fork in the road, take it"

Of course i'm roughly 2 years into an undergrad that is basically "worthless" unless i'm lucky enough to get into grad school, so it is still possible to take the risk when you are older if you have the support. But i would be lying if i didn't tell you that every time i sign up more classes i don't think about switching into a "safer" major that i can complete sooner.

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I was just curious what everyone does for a living and how do you like/love/hate it? I'm going on a mission soon so starting a career right now isn't a necessity, I've been just selling t-shirts and working jobs here and there, but I think I'd like to plan ahead for when I get back. I'm thinking about getting into electrical engineering, but I thought I'd like to hear what paths some of you have taken in regards to work!

Desk job running a computer lab on a campus.

It's either mindnumbly boring or everything happening at once.

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I got a bachelor's degree in computer science, but only after nearly flunking out of my college's aerospace engineering program. In retrospect that was lucky for me, as I have had a wonderful career working as a programmer, writer, and general all-round computer guy.

I tend to be biased (duh) but I'd have to say that you are likely to have better career prospects with a degree in engineering or a hard science than if you get a humanities or liberal arts degree. Not that some of those degrees don't have value; rather, the job market places a higher value on more practical applied learning.

But kudos on choosing to serve a mission first! The Lord will bless you for it, no matter what career field you choose.

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I'm a military officer with a BA in German. Never pictured myself in the military growing up, but its been a good career so far. I've made friends I would have never met and seen places I would have never been otherwise. Could never have done it though without modern technology allowing me almost daily contact with my family when I've been away.

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I think everyone knows what I do. I love it. It's not what I expected. Rather, i figured I'd be doing university ministry in Korea. But, the Holy Spirit gave me that fork in the road...I took it...so have a deep sense of calling. Not sure what I'll do when I grow up, though...

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Network technician in a college. Basically, I am part of a team of five who run a network of 1800 computers (soon to vastly increase in the new building). We do the lot in house - servers, network infrastructure, desktop support, website design, phones - almost anything that has a battery or plug on the end of it, we will be asked to fix or build at one point lol.

The great thing about the eduation sector, is unlike in a large private firm, none of us do anything specific. If something needs fixing, whether it be a network switch, a desktop PC, a server etc. the person in our team who gets to it first will generally be the person who fixes it. So there is a vast quantity of experience to be gained and I do enjoy it.

Edited by Mahone
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