So I’ve been going back and forth on whether to tweet this or not, but I think I’ll just go ahead and tell y’all a story. I started working as an exploration geologist back in 2007. The price of gold was high, there was lots of work, and all the fieldwork I wanted

I ended up switching to mine geology for a while to get different experience with the idea that I wanted to go back for a PhD and experience in both might be beneficial. My job was still heavily fieldwork and I hated the job, so I went back to exploration bc I missed it

I worked in exploration for a great boss and honestly, the first one to really treat me fairly. I was still doing some fieldwork, but I had moved on to doing more GIS, geochemistry, working on NI 43-101s, and investor presentations. I loved it.

And then the price of gold started to fall and fall. The projects were tanking and my boss was barely keeping me busy. My friends who also were in exploration started losing their jobs and were scrambling to find new ones. Most didn’t find any.

Eventually, my boss didn’t have anything for me to do either. My husband had a gotten a Postdoc so we were stuck where we were, which was DC. I tried finding a job, but never got any call backs. I felt like a useless geologist. My husband got another postdoc so we moved again.

I searched for nearby jobs. Not a single geology job in the area wanted any of my field skills and was told I was over qualified for entry level sampling positions. I eventually found a job. A job running an SEM to look at geological samples. I had never run one before.

See they didn’t care at all about my field skills. They only cared that I had done so much geochemistry and that I was a quick learner. I excelled at the job. I loved it as much as my last job. I got a patent.

It didn’t last long though. See, they had hired me on a 1yr contract bc I had to prove that a field geologist could really do the work. It wasn’t my area of expertise after all. At the end of the year they let me know they wanted to hire me. The next day there was a hiring freeze

I had to start looking again. Job prospects were the same in the area as they had been the year before. My husband got another Postdoc so we moved again. This time I was able to talk my way into teaching chemistry labs and doing some geology lab work at the same university.

The pay was crap but I was happy to have a job and getting to do some ore geology weaseling me feel like I was using that MS I had. I also liked mentoring the students in the lab. Teaching chemistry took most of my time though. There wasn’t money for me to do anymore Geo tho

Then I got pregnant. Everyone wished me well and then told me to focus on the baby. No one contacted me after the birth of my first kid. I started looking for jobs again. My husband finally landed a “real” job and we moved to DC

I started looking for jobs here. No luck. I gave up. I started calling myself a stay-at-home mom. A friend needed an emergency backup last minute to teach a geology class but it was only a semester. A few of my friend managed to stay in mineral exploration. Most did not

It worth noting that I during my unemployment’s time, I did get manage to get some interviews. I usually lost out to younger men. Including a 2 day interview that I could tell as soon as they saw me I wasn’t going to get the job

And so here I am. Field geologist, sometimes geochemist, sometimes geology instructor and now I’m just a stay-at-home mom with 2 mostly useless degrees. And while I love my kids more than anything, I miss the field. I miss geology. I miss being employed.

So this fieldwork discussion really gets to me. Everyone told me to do extra fieldwork so I could be better and better. See more rocks! Be a great mapper! Don’t be weak! Real geologist do fieldwork! And I did every they said, even through all the sexual harassment.

What good did it do me? I’ve become the one thing young geologist me fought so hard not to be. Don’t get me wrong I like being a stay at home mom and my husband has been with me through all of this and he’s got a great job now. But I’ve lost my identity. I’m jaded.

And so the very best advice I can give to people doing their geology degree is: learn some of everything. Don’t limit yourself. Learn skills outside geology that will help when jobs are tough to come by. You never know where you will end up.

Oh and I never got that PhD because I could never even get most professors to email me back and those that did all told me they weren’t interested in taking on any more students

This includes professors who now follow me on here