The M.S. degree is the terminal degree for most employment situations in geology and is usually required to permit rapid advancement beyond entry-level positions.  However, ECU B.S. graduates have been employed in many types of geologic jobs, examples of which are described below. The B.S. degree in geology at ECU requires 126 semester hours of credit; including general education requirements and course work in mathematics, writing, chemistry and other sciences. The M.S. degree in geology requires 30 credit hours of study beyond the B.S., including course work and a substantial independent research project or thesis.

Recently, the majority of the professional geoscientists working in the US are either solving environmental problems or finding and developing mineral resources. Most are employed by private industry, although substantial numbers work for agencies of the federal, state, and local governments. The fastest growing areas in the environmental geoscience field involve governmental agencies, private industry and engineering firms.

Many geologists work for companies involved in the oil and natural gas business. Such firms range from large oil companies operating around the world to small independents whose activities are limited to a single producing area or basin. Some industrial geoscientists are employed by mining companies to locate new ore deposits or estimate reserves in existing mining areas. Geologists also work for the cement, chemical, and ceramic industries, for companies quarrying stone and gravel, as well as railroads and other land companies. Some geologists are engaged in teaching in colleges and universities that have geoscience departments and in junior and senior high schools.

 The largest single US employer of geologists is the federal government, especially the US Geological Survey, Soil Conservation Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Mines, Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and the Army Corps of Engineers. In addition, most states have a state geological survey, as well as regulatory agencies that deal with mineral production, surface and ground water, pollution prevention and correction, urban and suburban planning, etc. State highway, county and state health, and state coastal management departments also employ geologists.  Geologists, and other earth scientists, are also major investigators of environmental hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, hurricanes, beach erosion, volcanic eruptions, water pollution, toxic chemical spills, etc. There are also thousands of self-employed geoscientists who work as consultants for all the groups mentioned above.

A large proportion of graduates from the Geology Department at East Carolina University them work in North Carolina, but many have gone quite far afield. We recently had to compile numbers on our alumni for a review of our graduate program. We have been able to track about 95% of our M.S. graduates and 95% of them are pursuing careers in geology. (Check out the alumni directory for more information on current alumni activities.)  We have also pulled together some data on our B.S. graduates. Listed below are some of their employers:

Employers of ECU Geology B.S. Graduates

NC Dept. Envir. & Nat’l. Res.	RockWare; Denver, CO
NC Dept. of  Transportation	East Carolina University
Duke Marine Lab	Groundwater Management Assoc.
US Geological Survey, NC	Clean East Associates, Kinston
Northwind Environmental, Yuma,AZ

Employers of ECU Geology M.S. Graduates

Private Employers	Government Employers
Rust Geotechnical, Inc., Colorado	NC Dept. of Transportation
Dames and Moore, Inc., Raleigh,NC	NC Office of Coastal Management
Piedmont Mining Company, Kershaw, NC	NC Dept. of Envir., Health & Nat'l Res.
Groundwater Management Assoc., Raleigh,NC	Virginia Water Control Board
Mobil Oil Corp., Midland, TX	Nat'l. Wetland Research Center, LA
Exxon Corp., Houston, TX	Craven County Health Dept., New Bern, NC
GEOPHEX, Inc., Raleigh,NC	US Geological Survey , GA & MA
Woodward-Clyde Cons., AL	Ocean Drilling Project, Germany
Geraghty and Miller, Inc., TN	NC DOT Geotechnical Branch
E.A.Engineering, Charlotte, NC	Mecklenberg County. Environ. Protection, NC
Handex, Inc.,  Charlotte, NC	S.Carolina Geological Survey
Groundwater Technology, Inc., Raleigh, NC	Environmental Protection Agency, TX
General Engineering Lab., Charleston,SC	Wayne County-Environ. Health, NC
Newmont Exploration, MT
RGC Mineral Sands, Inc., FL
Geco-Prakla, Inc., TX	Education Employers
Law Engineering, Charlotte, NC	Rocky Mount School System, NC
Apex Environmental, Inc., MD	Virginia Inst. Marine Sci.
Catlin & Assoc., Wilmington, NC	Texas A & M University
UTTS Environmental, Greenville, NC	Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, NC
Westinghouse Savannah River Plant, SC	Agnes Lloyd College, KY
Research Triangle Institute, NC	Tidewater Community College, VA
Materials Testing Corp., ID	East Carolina University
Echo Bay Exploration, Mexico	Hardin Simmons Univ., TX
	Albuquerque Public Schools, NM
	Roanoke School System, VA

 The Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides labor statistics for most professions. Currently, about 25% of degrees are awarded to women, and about 4% to ethnic minorities, with dramatic increases in both categories during the last 15 years. Currently, there are approximately 118,000 biologists, 97,000 chemists, 46,000 geologists and 20,000 physicists working in the United States.  The average starting salaries for a bachelor’s degree in each field are $22,900 for biologists, $29,300 for chemists, and $27,900 for geologists.  The Handbook states somewhat bluntly that there are too few physicists to make it worth obtaining statistics. In the 1990's, entry-level salaries for M.S. graduates from East Carolina going into the environmental field in private industry ranged from $33,000-$40,000. In the 1990's, entry-level salaries for B.S. graduates from East Carolina ranged from $21,000-$26,000.

Tables from the Department of Education list the number of degrees conferred in the United States between 1970 and 1994.  U.S. institutions granted bachelors degrees to 659,495 biologists; 244,348 chemists; 94,862 physicists; and 88,906 geologists.  The ratio of jobs to degrees granted is 1:6 in biology, 1:3 in chemistry, 1:5 in physics and 1:2 in geology.  Divide the number of people who get bachelors degrees in a field by the number of people working in each discipline and you get an estimated rate of replacement for science professionals.  So, if every working geologist quit today, it would take 17.2 years to replace him or her.  Compare that to 10.3 years to replace working chemists, five years to replace physicists and only five semesters to replace all working biologists.

 
OTHER CAREER INFORMATION
AGI Guide to Geoscience Career and Employers
Careers in Geoscience
GeoCorps

ECU Geological Sciences

College of Arts & Sciences

ECU Home Page