The field trips really make the program. A couple of times per semester, you go out for a weekend of studying formations. You also bond with the professor and the other students. Because the program provides a solid grounding, CLU geologists have adapted well to job market trends. In the 1970s and 1980s, the oil crisis helped create tremendous jobs for petroleum geologists.
Many graduates also pursue careers as engineering geologists and work in the construction industry.
Regardless of the specialty, geologists are faced with studying events of years past - sometimes millions of years ago, and on other occasions, it may just be a decade or two ago. In environmental geology, the scientists assess what contamination was introduced, provide legal documentation and formulate a remediation plan to clean up the site and then close it. The whole process can take a few years, advises Bowers. Part of that job includes keeping up with environmental regulations and legislation. The Superfund legislation of the 1980s created funding for environmental clean up, notes Bilodeau.