[Kosh]

im actually thinking of going back to phoenix and getting a tech job there. i do some tech stuff on the side.

Out of the ice box and into the frier? Why did you move up to Alaska anyway?

ive been working with a professional assembally company for awhile. we build things for retail stores. i specialize in bicycles, but they have me to other stuff like furnature and bbq grills.

Alaska has industry other than oil and tourism?

[Nuke]

i cant remember my reasoning for moving here, it wasnt a very smart move. i shoulda been doing something technical down there. being the state capital i had assumed this place would have some government it jobs. i was wrong. the cost of living here is so ridiculously high that even a good job feels like minimum wage.

[Windrunner]

I have been working two years since I graduated from university. I've been working a support technician for dell and later for a bigger consultant company. But i didn't like it. For the past ten months I've been working as Testengineer for Sony Ericsson, but as of 5:th november I'll be working for Ericsson Mobile Platforms as System Verification Engineer. I am really looking forwoard to it.

[Kosh]

http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/10/26/1432229.shtml


According to this, there is a big shortage of science/engineering graduates. On the other hand there are a lot of articles like this, but a lot of articles that say the opposite. So unless actually does swing once every few months, which kind of article is actually correct? What is it really like Out There?

[Mika]

I graduated from the university a year ago (M.Sc), after that I have been working as a researcher and an engineer in the field of Optics, but not in the university. I also worked part time (research assistant) during the studies for three years. From my point of view, Optics is a good bet at the moment.

From what I have seen, there is indeed a shortage of good science / engineering graduates, but the reasons for each faculty are different.

Mika

[Nuke]

i put a job app in at the local hospital, aparently they need a pc technician. im gonna get up early monday morning and give em a call maybe i can schedule an interview. well see what happens.

[Ashrak]

server administrator/project manager

i really wanna be a professional poker player.....

[Black Wolf]

I just got more or less my dream graduate position - junior exploration geologist with a startup greenfields gold company. Could not be happier with it, based on the offer and the details I was given during the interview. Start in december

[Inquisitor]

junior exploration geologist with a startup greenfields gold company

Sweet! Though that is a tough, tough business to be in, hope the start up makes it.

Honest to god exploration jobs were impossible to find when I was still a practicing geologist...

Good luck!

[Mefustae]

Honest to god exploration jobs were impossible to find when I was still a practicing geologist...

Oh, lovely. It's statements like that that make me glad i'm doing a geology degree right now.

[Black Wolf]

Thanks - as for getting it, well, it helps to be in an enormous mining boom I guess. There's a nationwide shortfall of Geos.

Mefustae - Believe me, you'll be fine. I just got a phone call from one of my uni mates who just got offered 85000 a year (10000 a year more than me, the bastard ) plus 15% super (standard is 9) and FIFO to a resort style camp to do, of all things, iron ore in Koolyanobbing. You barely even need to be a geo to do iron ore - get a trained monkey to look for the bright spots on an aeromag map and you'll get basically the same results. Trust me, you'll have no trouble getting employed.

[Kosh]

Why......why would anyone want to be a geology major? What's the fun in looking at rocks?

[Inquisitor]

Its a field that lets you do any kind of science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology (if you are so inclined) Materials Science, etc, etc, at almost any scale (molecular to planetary) and covers a range of topics from resource exploitation to climate change to planetary science.

It also lets the geeks geek out in a lab, on a computer, or hanging off a mountain dodging rattlesnakes.  Or all of the above. It was of fun, and lets one argue about the origin of the universe, the planet and the species with some measure of expertise.

Its for scientists with ADD

[perihelion]

Its for scientists with ADD

   Nice.

[Black Wolf]

Why......why would anyone want to be a geology major? What's the fun in looking at rocks?

It's strange. I get asked that all the time, and I can't come up with a suitable answer. And yet, it is an awful lot of fun. To some extent, it's about the mystery of the thing - it's a real investigation, with clues coming from pretty much every branch of natural science. Also, it's working outside - I can't imagine anything worse than spending my entire working life stuck in some crappy little office in front of a computer day in, day out. Plus we make a decent amount of money (at least, we are at the moment, in Australia), you can work just about anywhere in the world with the same skills and it'sd one of the most broadly applicabe sciences around.

Really, the only science that I can think of that has the same potential for fun as geology is biology, and having done 4 years of that as well, I can say with certainty that, with the exception of a very, very small percentage of biology jobs (mostly your zoologists studying the personable animals or the marine guys (and even then, most matrine biology is dead boring - studying microscopic algae and corals and stuff)) geology is way, way better - especially if you actually want to make any kind of money.

[Ghostavo]

Kosh, most of them probably bought a pet rock, so who knows!? 

[Mika]

Maybe Geology has different applications in other countries? According to my understanding, here the job markets are not so bright.

* Whistles and puts on the flameproof suit *

Posted by: Black Wolf

Its a field that lets you do any kind of science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology (if you are so inclined) Materials Science, etc, etc, at almost any scale (molecular to planetary) and covers a range of topics from resource exploitation to climate change to planetary science.

...without the need of understanding any of them.

* Runs *

Mika

[perihelion]

I can't speak for other industries, but in mine, the geologists damn well better know what they are on about.  The companies involved, large and small, are investing sometimes over a million dollars on the assumption that the geologist has obtained and interpreted his data correctly.  Some of these offshore rigs in the Gulf cost $100,000 / day even if they are doing nothing more than sit on their buoyancy tanks.

Seriously, there are two areas in the oil patch where I see more degrees up on the wall than anywhere else.  The geologists who tell the drillers what to do, and the FEA / material science gurus who tell the completions guys what to build with.

[Black Wolf]

Maybe Geology has different applications in other countries? According to my understanding, here the job markets are not so bright.

Where's that? Prices for pretty much everything are up at the moment - even Uranium is finally coming back. Any country with natural resources is going to be chasing geos. That said, I know the US isn't, for some reason... not sure why, and the UKL doesn't have the right sort of rocks for a lot of deposits (besides which, most of the good stuff they did have has been mined out already).

Posted by: Black Wolf

Its a field that lets you do any kind of science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology (if you are so inclined) Materials Science, etc, etc, at almost any scale (molecular to planetary) and covers a range of topics from resource exploitation to climate change to planetary science.

...without the need of understanding any of them.

Sure, being a geo doesn't get you a degree in those other sciences, but if you don't have the basics of each one down you can't do proper geology. And we know the stuff we need to know, don't you worry about that.
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[Kosh]

Meh, computer engineering is so much better. One of these days we will unite with the mechanical engineers and built a super robot of doom to take over the world and become our new master.