Engineering geologist/geotechnical consultant?

straas

Does anyone on here work in this general field? I'm starting a masters in september in Engineering geology with the intention of going into site investigation.

So would like to hear from anyone in the field, by PM if you're not comfortable telling every sod on here about your working life.

I also have an unplanned couple of free months from the start of July till sometime september, so if anyone has any tips on getting work experiance by any other means that persistant nagging I'd like to hear em!

TIA

MonkeyMonster

where are you based?

my dad used to lecture both at edinburgh uni but knows more than a few having taught most of the top people in shell/bp etc.

daviesee

The good news - oil companies take students on during the summer and this could lead to a lucrative career.

The bad news - chances are it will be in Aberdeen. And you are too late. We already have half a dozen in my office.

El Gordo

I'm a structural engineer so have been out on a few site investigations over the years. From chatting to the geologists I get the impression that doing SI work is dull (one borehole looks pretty much like any other) and poorly paid. They do it to get experience before trying to get a more exiting geology job, most likely in oil exploration.

Maybe after three days stood in a Scottish peat bog coring very slowly through granite they had lost a bit of enthusiasm though...

gtvlusso

Mate did his degree in Geology and a Masters in Geo engineering. Due to an *ahem* incident in involving an oil research station being burnt down, he is now a police officer.

straas

@ MonkeyMonster

Currently based in Manchester but will be moving to Leeds for the course

@ Daviesee

I did think about pertroleum work a while back and some mates have gone into it, but whilst it's well paid and has its perks the shift work isn't for everyone and it can be pretty tedious.
Are the 12 graduates engineering geologists or have most done an Msc in petroleum geology/engineering?

@ El Gordo

I think it depends on the level you're at, and I'm sure a lot of jobs start off as being quite tedious.
I'm hoping it gets less so, and it was some of the more interesting stuff I've covered.
Oil exploration might sound exciting, but it definately isn't - just a lot of working through logs and modelling.

@gtvlusso

It happens, I've been told tales of rig engineers not listening to advice and fruitlessly spending £30 mil on a dry drilling

daviesee

straas wrote:

@ Daviesee

I did think about pertroleum work a while back and some mates have gone into it, but whilst it's well paid and has its perks the shift work isn't for everyone and it can be pretty tedious.
Are the 12 graduates engineering geologists or have most done an Msc in petroleum geology/engineering?

The students/grads we have here are Mech Eng as we are the design office so not directly applicable but as an example.

However there are definitely other companies that do your field. My brother-in-law is a prime example. Specialist engineer, highly paid and travels to exotic locations frequently. Downsides are he is never home and the job may or may not be boring. Pun intended

jouxplan

I cannot believe my first ever post on this forum is going to be about my work, but I can't stand by and see you being possibly mislead into thinking Site Investigation is by defintion tedious!

I started out as Junior Geotechnical Engineer in 1987. I had a degree in Civil Engineering. I hated my degree, mostly because I hated Structures (too stuffy), fluids (too difficult) and Technical Drawing (I was useless at it). I failed my geotechnical papers first time around :oops:

Anyway, as soon as I joined my first geotechnical firm, I realised I had fallen on my feet. No hoorah henry's, plenty of earthy drillers who swore like troopers, colleagues who were great fun and the work was exciting, interesting, varied and all over the Midlands. I loved digging holes (via a JCB!), logging boreholes, talking to builders about their foundations etc. And I seemed to be good at it, much to my surprise.

Today, I am the joint owner and managing director of the company. I am a Chartered Civil Engineer, I am a 'Specialist in Land Condition' meaning I am an expert in Contaminated Land, and I still enjoy helping developers to solve their foundation and contaminated land problems.

Being a geologist need not mean you are condemned to oil rigs or logging granite in Scotland - there is much more to it than that! Obviously you have to start somewhere, as you rightly recognise, but like me, my current mix of geology and civil engineering graduates enjoy the fact that they spend half their time out in the field, and the other half writing SI reports.

I did once apply for a job as a Structural Engineer - they specialised in designing electricity pylons, and during the interview, as it became apparant to them that I might not actually want the job, they told me that it was all very exciting, because 'every pylon is different'

On that note - best of luck to you, and enjoy your career in soils!

ps - I am afraid I do not have any vacancies

Gneiss

I've worked in the industry some 15 years following a degree in geology, 1 year reasearch and then a masters in engineering geology.

Best advice is to keep your options open and not to pigeon hole yourself too early on. I now work in the field of contaminated land (investigating and remediating), friends who have followed simialr degree courses have gone into reasearch; work in gold mines; oil & mineral exploration; local authority; clean water resources; as well as the general site investigation side of things.

Apart from the oil industry it isn't the highest paid industry around but can be very rewarding. Site investigation contracting can be repetitive and if you spend a number of years in that side of it can be quite difficult to change course as you are viewed as a 'site bod'.

Many consultancies will offer a mix of site work with the added bonus of being able to interpret the data; challenge regulators; be involved with construction projects; and gain technical skills.

A lot of companies (consultancy and contracting) will be pleased to have someone keen doing work experience for a few weeks/months - I'm afraid that it is acase of getting on the phone and though.

I would also say that it is each to their own and you are often better following your nose.

Best of luck

unixnerd

travels to exotic locations frequently.

In the oil industry "exotic locations" often = war zones. Expect compounds with armed guards. Or they send you somewhere nice and you sit on a rig / boat offshore for a month looking at the beach through binoculars.

Having said that the oil business can be good fun, if you're on the operational side in any shape or form you'll meet good guys and enjoy much beer. And Aberdeen isn't a bad to live really, but 12 years were enough for me. I think those outside the business would be very surprised at just how big it is and how much of the world is engineered and managed from Aberdeen.

daviesee

unixnerd wrote:

travels to exotic locations frequently.

In the oil industry "exotic locations" often = war zones. Expect compounds with armed guards. Or they send you somewhere nice and you sit on a rig / boat offshore for a month looking at the beach through binoculars.

His current trip, 2 weeks and counting is in Colarado Springs! No, I don't get it either but maybe being with a top consultancy has it's perks.

unixnerd wrote:

I think those outside the business would be very surprised at just how big it is and how much of the world is engineered and managed from Aberdeen.

Too true.

cjcp

Don't work in this field, but would another option be going to work for a bank in their resource analysis or research dept? I was at a metals conference last year and a number of the speakers were geologists who worked for banks. Just a thought, though.

straas

@jouxplan

Cheers for that, was getting a bit worried by the replies, but you've confirmed some of the reasons I decided on this career path in the first place.
I like the mix of office and field work and enjoy being on sites - and feel that you'd get some job satisfaction out of passing a building or driving over a bridge and being able to say you'd had a hand in it.
No worries about the vacancies, but I might well be knocking on your door in a years time when I'm nearing the end of the course!

@Gneiss

Yeah, think I'm going to try and go down the consultancy route due to the variety of work available. Wouldn't mind trying to win a few contracts either as a couple of my mates dads run big construction firms so should be a bit easier..

@cjcp

I'm currently working for a bank, and I'm definately not a fan!