Careers
Twenty-one of our 22 graduates in 2011 secured employment or postgraduate study in areas directly related to their degree programme, principally in mineral exploration/production, geotechnics or engineering geology (typically in Australia or Africa). There are currently significant global skill shortages in these areas and the majority of students obtained job offers before they graduated. Employers are usually in the Earth resources or civil engineering sector and range from multinationals to consultancies and junior exploration companies. Over the last five years, the international minerals industry has been buoyant due to high metal prices driven by economic growth in SE Asia, which has led to a substantial demand for our graduates that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. As a globalised industry, employment has not been impacted by the relatively poor UK / European economic situation.
There are also opportunities in the UK for graduates with skills in engineering geology, geotechnics and contaminated land, both within large civil engineering and construction companies and in small and medium sized consultancies.
Many students from the department take part in the Exeter Award and the Exeter Leaders Award. These schemes encourage you to participate in employability related workshops, skills events, volunteering and employment which will contribute to your career decision-making skills and success in the employment market.
A significant proportion of our graduates continue onto taught postgraduate (MSc) courses or research degrees (MPhil/PhD). CSM offers a wide portfolio of specialised MSc programmes in Earth Resources and students who continue onto one of these programmes are currently eligible for a 30 per cent fees reduction.
The following are examples of initial jobs secured by Geology graduates who recently finished undergraduate programmes:
- Geologist, First Quantum, Zambia
- Graduate Geotechnical Engineer, Coffey Mining, Australia
- Site Engineer, Leighton Asia, Hong Kong
- Project Geologist, London Africa Ltd, Asmara, Eritrea
- Engineering Geologist, Project Dewatering, Ipswich
- Engineering Geologist, CoffeyGeotechnics, UK
- Logging Geologist, Halliburton, UK
- Graduate Civil Engineer, Balfour Beatty plc, UK
- Geotechnical Engineer, Kalgoorlie, Consolidated Gold Mines, Australia
- Geologist, GNOMIC Exploration, Western Australia
- Geologist, Katanga Mining, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Examples of further study followed by our graduates in Geology are:
- MSc Mining Geology, University of Exeter
- MSci Geotechnical and Mining Engineering, European Programme
- MSc Hydrogeology, University of Birmingham
- PhD Earth Resources, University of Exeter
- MSc Applied Geotechnics, University o fExeter
Find out more about the Destinations of Geology Graduates on our Employability site.
