February 12, 2012

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Career Advice

Contents

 

Suggestions from Students

This section compiles resources/suggestions from Geography Students on the kinds of jobs that would be interesting (some examples) and on how to look for professional opportunities and submit strong applications (this applies to Graduate Schools as well).

GEO 395– Fall 2009 (Nik, Kathy, Wes, Dan, Tina)

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

 

 

  • Kathy Poth- 2009- I think the AAG wesite (www.aag.org/careers/) can be used as a springboard to find other information.  I Google-searched some of the geographers listed and found their school web pages (if they were professors). On their school page is their curriculum vitae, which lists their education and professional backgrounds.
  • Dan Feieresel- 2009- I think a very useful portion of the AAG sites is the “Meet Other Geographers” portion.  This is accessible from the homepage by going to the “Jobs and Careers” tab, clicking on “Careers in Geography,” and then clicking on “Meet Other Geographers” under the “Hot Content” heading [if it is still hot]…you can see exactly what geographers are doing with their education, giving students some idea of the various directions they may be headed in.
    https//communicate.aag.org/eseries/scriptcontent/custom/giwis/cguide/people/cguide_people.cfm
  • Nik Hofbauer- 2009- http://www.aag.org/Careers/career_search2.cfm: this link take you to a cool little tool that lets you find out average salaries for different Geography fields.  This will let you select from a very wide range of careers and shou you the median, bottom 10%, and top 10% salaries for those specific jobs.
  • Wes Stout- 2009- [Following] are [a sample of] different sources I have used to look for jobs: www.indeed.com (a great website..searches multiple job websites for you, including sites like monster and career builder); www.usajobs.gov (a good site for government jobs); http:outdoorindustryjobs.com; http://www.outdoorindustry.org/careercenter.html; www.nols.edu/alumni/emplyment/jobsnetwork.archive.shtml (offers the option to sign up for a free listerve. Nols will send you jobs …every week); http://www.gis.com/careers/listings.html (for GIS jobs); http://www.planning.org/jobs/ (the American Planning Associations job section of their website); http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200905/best-companies-intro.html (list the top companies to work for based on ..sustainability and employee benefits).GEO 395– Fall 2008 (Mason, Aly, Hannah, James, Chris, and Kim; missing Leah)–Thanks for your suggestions.   
    • From Leah- 2008- I really enjoyed the general career page on the AAG website (www.aag.org/careers/). I thought it was very interesting how it discussed the variety of jobs that a geographer can fill. It broke the topic down to all of the different sections of jobs, and then provided sample careers with summaries of responsibilities, expectations and strengths required for success in the field. I am personally most interested in the careers under the Environmental Science field. I also appreciated the salary trends link, because it reassured me that I would not be making twenty thousand dollars a year in my field of choice. I also found the website www.collegetoolkit.com to be helpful because it provided a tool that allowed students to take interest assessments and use the results to be paired with an ideal career field. This was a tool not seen on the AAG site. It also provided information on working conditions, salary, job satisfaction, level of training and a variety of other fields. Also interesting to me was the link on similar occupation choices, because it also provided access to career information that may overlap with geography.
      • The first website I used to locate job and internship opportunities was www.ecojobs.com. This website allows users to search the over 500+ jobs available by category or by state. This is a great tool for people looking to relocate to other parts of the country. By searching Ohio I found a posting for an Environmental Education Intern. The employer is Imago Earth, located in Cincinnati OH. The company’s focus is on education, but also on preserving natural areas. Job activities would include preparing and presenting environmental education programs to groups of school aged children. This position required experience working with children, and at least three years of college. The second job I found was for an Environmental Intern in CA. The company is URS, which has offices all over the country. They are a construction and engineering company with a focus on environmentally sound buildings. The position requires three years of college and a valid driver’s license. It is entry level, but includes field work and office work. The third job I found was on www.ecoemploy.com. It was for a Program Associate for a nonprofit company called Chagrin Rivers Watershed Partners. The Program Associate would work with organizations in the community to coordinate flood control and erosion management projects for the entire Chagrin River watershed. Requirements include excellent writing and oral presentation skills and graduate degrees in environmental science are preferred.
    • Hannah- 2008- www.aag.org/careers/– look under ask a geographer- A geographer I found particularly interesting is Dr. Trudy Suchan. She started out with an undergraduate business degree from college. After working in the law department of a forest product company and experiencing GIS, Dr. Suchan earned her Masters degree at the University of Washington in Geography and worked a bit in environmental consulting. She started graduate school in 1993 and earned a Ph.D. at Penn State in 1998 with a concentration on categories and classification in mapping and GIS. While at Penn State, Dr. Suchan published in “The Professional Geographer” and later worked as an academic in residence at the Census Bureau when the 2000 Census population data was released. She co-wrote “Mapping Census 2000: The Geography of U.S. Diversity” with Dr. Cindy Brewer. Dr. Trudy Suchan currently works in the Population Division at the U.S. Census Bureau. Her advice to up and coming geographers is to take some statistics classes if you are interested in population data. She didn’t find her career path until her mid-30s, so that shows that we should be open to the different experiences life brings our way. On the website I found, she also spoke about working in the Geography Division at the Census Bureau and the many opportunities for geographers there.
      • www.aag.org/careers/what_can_you_do.html This website has a large list of jobs Geographers can hold and I used this list to “Google” jobs and career paths of interest. For example, when looking for the job “Geographer at the U.S. Bureau of the Census”, I searched “Geography at the US Census Bureau” and many useful websites came up including the Census Bureau’s official site and websites leading me to Dr. Suchan. This list was extremely helpful as a starting point for searching careers in Geography. I was able to pin-point jobs of interest and then do some searching on my own for Geographers in those professions and their career paths as well as organizations looking for workers in those specific positions.
      • http://www1.nga.mil/Pages/Default.aspx (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) and https://www.cia.gov/careers/jobs/view-all-jobs/geographer.html (CIA) I found these sites as examples of government agencies looking for Geographers.
      • Useful Websites: 1. USAjobs.gov — government job search; 2. CareerBuilder.com — Breaks down search into categories, specific companies, and location. Didn’t work for geography search but this website found environmental jobs and would be good for other majors probably; 3. OhioMeansJobs.com — government hosted job search website specific to Ohio. **I found some of these websites through a list of good sites on aag.org**
    • Chris- 2008- The Job Seeker Newsletter is a twice-monthly publications which list positions open in the fields of natural resources and environmental sciences. This newsletter is available in both a printed and electronic form. It is free for a prospective employer to post a job in the print form of this newsletter; however costs $1.00/day to run a position in the electronic journal (which is, of course, recommended by Job Seeker).  This journal is very thorough, with the printed version advertising jobs in environmental science and natural resource management at many levels. A large portion of these positions were with the local, state or federal government; however conservation organizations and even museums were also represented.   The strengths of this publication include: offering a wide range of positions which encompass every experience level. Everything from entry level positions to upper management are represented Also a strong inclusion of government positions, which offer very competitive benefits and a wide-range of future possibilities. Frequent updates due to twice-monthly publication is also a selling point of Job Seeker. This allows for filled positions to not remain in circulation and for new positions to be published very rapidly. The only two weaknesses I identified in the publication were the cost (at $60.00 for an annual subscription this publication is mostly only designed for subscription by universities and career centers), and the lack of international positions. Although many amazing U.S. based positions were advertised, I only saw one posting which was for a position based outside of the United States. I believe this is largely due to the strong prevalence of advertisements for the federal government, which is obviously focusing on the U.S.
    • Aly- 2008- The geographer I contacted is greg poulus.  He is a Ph.D. meterologist who works in the field of wind energy.  At Clipper Wind Energy.  at clipper, he is in charge of finding the best locations for the windmills and improving the consumption of wind energy.  Clipper Windpower, 1625 Market Street, Denver, CO 80202; gspoulos@clipperwind.com.

    Here are some websites for environmental positions that you can check out– They are from Jessica Brown. Jessica also sent along a neat message for the “News from Alumni. “

    Here is an interesting update from Jill Brown (see news from alumni) on the 20/20 option when working for the federal government.

    I am always thinking of graduate school and will definitely be accomplishing that goal sometime within the next few years.  And I will definitely be using you as a reference!  NOAA has some great 20/20 options for full-time federal employees to get their masters and also work while the tuition is completely covered.  I think that route would be very desirable.  However, I am not a full-time federal employee (yet).  Since I am a contractor I am not eligible but NOAA is constantly posting new positions at various levels.  In fact, I am going to an interview tomorrow for a full-time Oceanography/Physical Scientist position.  If I perform well perhaps the 20/20 program and getting a masters degree is right around the corner!  That would be awesome!

Services

On this page we will provide some of our suggestions on how we have used the  Office of Career Services and how you might be able to use their services. You can also check out their web site.

  • Wes Stout (2009)- I attended the fall career fair.  It was helpful to meet with employers early in the school year and get an idea of what they are looking for.  Career services provided a nice packet to guide you through the career fair and had good information on the website about researching which companies you wanted to talk with before you get to career fair. I also attended the worshop that is mandatory in order to be able to do on campus interviews.  It was a helpful workshop and showed some neat stuff about how to find jobs on the Miami Careerlink website.  After attending this worship I scheduled an appointment to look over my resume and talk about different careers.  They [suggested additions to my] resume, recommended job searches, and even provided a few job leads that I was able to apply to.
  • Tina Booth (2009)- I was hoping to attend the workshop career services had on How To Get A Government Job but I had a conflicting schedule and wasn’t able to attend. On the e-mail that was sent to me from career services had a good link called “career resource index” http://www.units.muohio.edu/careers/students/crcindex.shtml#government.  In the link was a section called “The Career Development Series” that gave an adobe file of the pamphlets career services gives out… “Careers in Non-Profit Organizations,” “Job Search Strategies” and “Interviewing”…. The site also listed numerous job books the career service has in helping students look for and obtain a government position. I also found the usajobs.gov website helpful in seeing how a government job is described and what is needed to obtain a position. … Here is the link to the overall website: http://www.units.muohio.edu/careers/students/overview.shtml
  • Nik Hofbauer (2009)-The one thing that I probably most enjoy about what the Office of Career Services offers are the pamphlets on how to create a Resume and Cover Letter.  I found these both very helpful when first trying to piece together each of these very important documents.  I especially used the pamphlet on Cover Letters.  This helpful packet first explains what needs to go into a Cover Letter (and other letters such as post-interview, job acceptance, and interview confirmation) to make it look profession and be effective.  Then it gives many examples of great letters of all kinds, and for cover letters specifically it gives 2 examples.  Overall, these two pamphlets will give any first time resume or cover letter writer a great deal of knowledge on what makes a great resume/cover letter a great one.  What makes these small packets so powerful is that they [guide you through the] first step to get the job you want, or just any job at that, which is too sell yourself to the company/organization on paper… these have really helped me to do this.
  • Hannah Fiehrer (2008)-The resource I chose to look at at the Office of Career Services were the pamphlets found in the hallway outside the advisor’s office. There was a multitude of resources available and some pamphlets I picked up were “Resume Preparation”, “Job-Search Strategies”, “Cover Letters & Other Job-Search Correspondence”, “Interviewing”, and “Careers in Nonprofit Organizations”. “Resume Preparation” was extremely useful to me since I am currently trying to put together my own. The pamphlet included a breakdown of each section to be included on one’s resume, information on customizing a resume, and multiple sample resumes. Another one of the pamphlets that I found useful was “Careers in Nonprofit Organizations”. The pamphlet included a very useful set of questions to ask one’s self about if nonprofit work is for you. This one also included a sample informational interview letter, thank you letter, and a sample resume for someone looking for a job in the nonprofit sector. Aside from these pamplets, there were many more on subjects from salary negotiation to the schedule of companies coming in to interview students during this year. I found going to the Office of Career Services very helpful in preparing to choose the right career for me.
  • Leah Skowronski (2008)-I really think a great tool for Geography students to use would be the career advising appointments. By calling the office and scheduling an appointment with one of the two advisers, students can have a one-stop-shop for all of their needs. During these appointments the advisers will help students with their resumes, cover letters, practice interviewing skills, and even help them begin their job/graduate school search. I think all students should have a meeting with the advisers in the fall to help keep them on track during their job searches or graduate school searches.
  • Alyssa McClimon (2008)- I found the most useful tool from the office of career services to be the information on grad schools.  I am planning on going in the fall of 2010, so I thought the time line as well as the book on grad school especially useful. I really liked how the time line spelled out when you should be having things completed by on a month to month basis.  It was easy to follow and covered a lot of things to be thinking about.  I thought the book was useful for different reasons.  It talked about the appropriate exams that need to be taken for different schools, important things to take into consideration when choosing  a school as well as the importance of grades and interviews.
  • Amber Sollman (2007)- The Career Services Center has a variety of general job-search opportunities. They frequently provide student workshops concerning grad-school, internships, and job searches, which I would imagine fairly useful. Personally, my knowledge concerning real world post-undergraduate opportunities is not all that extensive and even a basic introduction to general search methods would at least provide some direction for further self driven search. Overall, I focused on the texts made available at Career Services Center. A small section covers careers in the sciences, only a handful of which address geography. The ones that do address geography seem either outdated or biased towards GIS or urban planning. However, a separate section is designated to NPO’s and two volumes of ‘Non-profit Section and National Directory of Private Social Agencies’ for the year 2006 are available.
  • Jason Young (2007)- I went to a talk about finding graduate schools, which was put on by the Career Services Center. It was a generic presentation for any type of graduate or professional school, but I found it very useful for me. It helped me start to think about the application process, such as the GRE, writing a resume, etc. They also explained what types of services the Career Center could offer during the application process (mock interviews, reviewing my resume, etc.).– Career Services offers students many excellent opportunities and it is useful to register on their website so that they send you e-mail notifications about these opportunities. In particular I found that their workshops were helpful and attended one about applying to graduate schools. Although this was a general workshop for all types of graduate schools (and not just pertinent to geographers), they offered many helpful suggestions. For example they gave advice about taking the GRE test, explained their mock interview and resume review programs, and more. They also spent a large amount of time answering questions from the audience. I highly advise that anyone preparing for life after Miami register with Career Services so that they are aware of upcoming events.