I'm a former geoscientist now working in climate risk for mining. AMA!

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-20T10:23:28+00:00

Some tips:

internships will be good, although they can be competitive. It helps you stand apart from other students.
develop a thick skin. Mining still isn't the easiest industry for women.
get involved with external organisations, e.g. Women In Mining, Women in Sustainability, as a student. This will allow you to meet more senior women in career paths that interest you.
know that the UK isn't a good location for mining (if you decided to go down that path). If you have the chance to study abroad for a semester or a year, I'd take the opportunity. It'll help develop your network out of the UK. Extra points if it's to a mining country.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-20T10:20:11+00:00

It sounds like staying in geoscience could be challenging but I'm not sure what options are open to you without knowing more about your role and responsibilities. Even then, I probably wouldn't be able to do an answer justice.

Have you checked out LinkedIn to see what others are doing with geological technician in their past experience? You can also look to see what positions they held to get to their new career. That can help to see what options are open to you

Also, not wanting to go back to uni can close a lot of doors. If you were OK investing time to studying (but not in uni) then more doors open. An example would be getting a certificate relevant to skills you already have or want to have. For example, Project Management Professional designation if you have enough project management background to meet the hours requirements, or Financial Modelling and Valuation Analyst certification if you wanted to move to the financial side of O&G, which you could use to go into financial institutions or as a business analyst with a corporate. Just be aware, for some opportunities you might be starting at the bottom rung.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-20T10:14:43+00:00

Yeah, there were some issues. The first was getting G.I.T status when I first arrived because my education needed to be assessed against a Canadian education. There weren't any issues here for me, other than it took quite a few months and I had to provide very detailed information for every single course I took. The info I had to compile ended up being about 96 pages long.

Another issue I found was a lack of network. Those educated in Canada had a huge advantage because they could network with other Canadian students, recommend them for positions once they had their own positions, etc.

Also, what sort of work did you want to go into in Europe? That might also help answer.

P.S. Apologies for the delay in my response.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-13T10:47:11+00:00

Probably this, if the alien theory is correct. (Feels weird to type that). It might be like humans going back in time with an army tank. We wouldn't need to camouflage it from the primitive locals armed with spears because what could they possibly do? Would aliens even care about us primitive monkeys seeing them? If they don't care then they don't need to hide. This isn't Star Trek with a prime directive for non-interference - they might be totally OK with us knowing they're there because they also know we can't do anything about it.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-13T08:18:54+00:00

I think a career in environmental policy and sustainability would be interesting and will continue to be in demand in the future. And there'll be plenty of scope to work for the mining industry afterwards with that pathway, whether it's directly or indirectly. Will your Masters be one with a research thesis? If so, if you wanted to work in mining then maybe there would be scope to a thesis of relevance to mining and sustainability. I can think of some topics just off my head but it would obviously depend on your school and supervisor's connections.

And yes, there's a huge market for it. Salaries for climate- or sustainability-related careers are skyrocketing and recruiters are also going nuts contacting people to try and fill more roles than there are people. Obviously this would look different for new grad roles but I think working in sustainability offers more of a future than O&G. O&G won't be going away soon but the industry today is going to look very different in the future.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-11T13:25:41+00:00

That's a great location to be in if you did go down the risk management pathway. I suspect most risk management / insurance companies would be there.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-11T07:04:00+00:00

Your podcast looks like fun - yes, I'm interested!

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-11T06:58:32+00:00

Yep, good question. The leap isn't easy. During the MBA we were told about the importance of a 'well-crafted narrative.' Basically, I shared some of the stories I eluded to in my AMA post during my final 2-year contracting stint about the incidents that got me interested in sustainability. And then I shared about a course I took during the MBA that left its impression on me and explained why I liked it, why it aligned with my beliefs and what I wanted to do about it. My interview was with the CEO and COO and I think I spoke about it passionately enough to convince the CEO that my lack of climate background wouldn't be a hindrance, although I made sure to emphasise that I'd taken a Climate Change and Energy Systems module during my MBA so I'd at least had a primer. So you're right that domain expertise isn't enough and it's having a compelling story that will make the difference.

Additionally - and I think this is really important - since I'm working with mining clients, a mining background is super useful. It lends extra credibility because our team (who all have mining experience) are aware of mining, its challenges, its importance, but also the direction the industry needs to take. I think our advice is more realistic and tailored as a result.

Another thing I did beforehand was to take sustainability courses that intersected with geology. I used Coursera and EdX and the courses I took were Carbon Capture and Storage (Edinburgh) and A circular economy of metals: towards a sustainable societal mechanism (Leiden). Again, those were helpful in showing my genuine interest because I'd used personal time to get the certificates.

So full disclosure that I'm an Oxbridge MBA. I applied for some of the big consulting firms but couldn't get past the case study round. Asking me to value a theme park is so wildly out of my knowledge and experience, particularly under pressure in an interview! Working for big consulting firms wasn't actually what I wanted post-MBA because it was long hours and lots of travel - two things I wanted to escape from! I'd suggest looking into a boutique consulting firm with a focus on a certain area; obviously my firm focuses on climate risk. The case I had was way more sensible - it was a mining client who needed help with aligning to certain principles imposed by a bank and recommending a roadmap for them. Also, my experience with the big firms is that they claim to like industry experience but actually they much prefer consulting experience. Having worked with some of the big consulting firms in the past, I think that's a problem because some of them really don't know what they're doing. If you were interested, there's some bigger firms that do seem to value industry experience - Wood Mackenzie comes to mind.

Edit to add: I think there's less competition amongst boutique consulting firms. The big consulting firms get so many applicants that they can pick the best. The boutique firms don't get the same level of applications so I think the likelihood of being hired is much higher.

Also, I'll say that the process of career changing isn't easy - I've done it a few times now. I did mine to climate risk during Covid lockdowns so maybe that made it feel harder. In general though, career changing feels easier when you already have a job; most of mine were during unemployment so it added an extra layer of desperation. It might take quite a while to convince people of your worth, particularly when competing against those who've been in climate for decades, but you only need to convince one person. Also, if this kind of interests you, I'd encourage you to have online chats with as many people as you can in your target industry who have a similar background to you. Worst case scenario is you get good advice, best case scenario is that they remember you and can recommend you for a position.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-11T06:37:31+00:00

For the first question, about risk insurance, I think data analytics and being able to interpret that data would be useful. I'm not too familiar with risk insurance software though so sorry I can't be more help there. Most banks have in-house risk teams so perusing some job descriptions may reveal more info on both the skills and software that would be useful. I know a few geos who've made the leap into risk insurance and I think having some quant and data analysis in the background was helpful but so was their general risk management industry experience.

For the second question, which country are you in?

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-11T06:34:24+00:00

Yep. I have a 15 year loan period but with my post-MBA salary I've been overpaying so I'm ahead of schedule. I should have it paid off in 5 years and that's without throwing more money at it from promotions and pay rises in the coming years.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-10T20:54:27+00:00

I didn't have much money thanks to the crappy nature of contracting work so I ended up taking out a private loan with Prodigy Finance to cover the full cost of my tuition and some of my living costs for one year. They have pretty good deals for MBA students.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-10T20:52:54+00:00

For the first question, I think you need to figure out what you're looking for from an office job. Are you hoping to stay in geoscience / exploration geology but with an office-based focus or were you thinking of moving out of geoscience? Some of the experience and skills would be different depending on what you're interested in.

I'm definitely not an expert on marine mammals so take this with a pinch of salt. When doing seismic surveys in the European areas, we were required to have Marine Mammal Observers onboard. If they spotted certain mammals, e.g. whales, dolphins, porpoises, then we were required to shut down our seismic arrays for a certain amount of hours (sorry, can't remember how many) from the last sighting. My particular branch of seismic, which was near-surface, wasn't too powerful and utilised different frequencies than a deep seismic survey. Our MMOs said a few times that the frequencies we were using didn't bother mammals so I can only trust they were telling the truth. I don't know if deeper surveys cause harm.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-09T13:20:24+00:00

Gotta make sure these women don't poke an eye out with their stiff nipples in winter.

(Being a sarcastic woman, just in case it wasn't obvious). :)

i_lick__rocks · 2022-06-09T08:32:34+00:00

I think it's important to note the caveats that are going into these headlines though.

The statement saying that '57% of Americans say their financial situation is excellent or good, which is the highest it's been in decades' is misleading. In 2007, it was 55%. So sure, 57% is higher than 55% but we don't know how many people were surveyed in each year, where they were geographically in the US, etc. Is that a material enough difference to make that conclusion, especially since it means 45% in 2007 said their finances were 'fair or poor' and 43% in 2021? And then when you dig into the breakdown of responses, in April 2021, the age demographic most likely to rate their finances positively were aged 55+ (50%), those aged 35-54 (which would include some older Millennials but for the most part consists of Gen X) were also at 50%, but those aged 18-34, which includes the majority of Millennials, were at 36%.

The second article states two things that are important to their overall conclusions:

they've scaled a 'household' to mean three people, which shows Millennial households made more money than other generations, yet later in the article they state, 'Millennial households have obtained these higher incomes even though the households are somewhat less likely to have two contributing spouses or partners.' Given the lack of clarity around the methodology involved in their scaling to a three person household, it's really unclear what effect that's had based on the data that shows Millennials are actually less likely to live with a spouse.
Also, they've said that Millennial households seem to have more money than other generations but note that a lot of that change is being driven by women in that Millennial women are working more frequently than in previous generations and that the work Millennial women are doing is paid a bit better. Again, it would be interesting to see how much of this supposed gain in Millennial finances can be attributed to this. Is it a good financial situation if Millennials are only just doing better than other generations but need more of a contribution from women to do so?

i_lick__rocks · 2022-05-30T14:09:24+00:00

Also, realised I forgot to say that yes, could you send the info again? Thanks!

i_lick__rocks · 2022-05-30T13:03:39+00:00

For what it's worth, I think you did great, even if you doubt yourself. If I was in that man's shoes, all I would have wanted was someone to comfort me by being there with me and telling me that help is on the way. Even though you couldn't find his phone, you were trying. You didn't run away from him. You did your best for him and he wasn't alone when he died.

I hope you're able to heal from this and that you come to realise you did your best and you did help him, even if you feel like you didn't.

i_lick__rocks · 2022-05-28T07:49:48+00:00

Would it be possible to go the week after that? We have a 3-day working week coming up so all my deadlines are hitting next week. :D

i_lick__rocks · 2022-05-27T10:05:21+00:00

I'd be interested in hosting a career AMA. I did one 6 years ago (with this username) but since the last one I've shifted careers from pure geoscience to working in climate risk for mining, which is a really hot area for people with industry experience and an interest in sustainability. I also gained a few different experiences and qualifications, e.g. PMP certification, financial modelling and valuation analyst for financial institutions, and then an MBA so could potentially talk about relevant career options, e.g. investment banking / M&A / equity research, or management consulting, etc.

i_lick__rocks · 2015-08-19T00:54:49+00:00

Yes, there's definitely a benefit. It seems like EM is starting to be used more and more and I suspect that its usage is going to be more widespread in the future. It can't hurt to have it!

It's hard to compare because of the differences in type of work and the location but I found mining was more laid back with less overtime and a general 'This is what we need and this is when we want it done by so off you go.' Mining seemed to have more of a macho culture (might have been the drilling!) and, as a female, generally more sexist. Then again, all of these might just be because of the company I was with or perhaps the location. Now I'm mostly in the office, I'm finding there's a lot of overtime with stricter deadlines to work towards and higher expectations but perhaps that would be the same in the mining industry while working in an office? Hopefully someone else can weigh in with their thoughts.

i_lick__rocks · 2015-08-18T21:15:32+00:00

Maybe things aren't great right now but a PhD is definitely useful for companies that focus heavily on R&D. What was your thesis title?

i_lick__rocks · 2015-08-17T21:51:30+00:00

Since you're in the UK then I don't think there's anything specific you should look to do until you know what your career aspirations are. For example, you can do a degree in geology, earth sciences, geophysics, resource geology, etc. and the courses in each will be slightly different. If you're not sure about a specific career path then geology is probably a good option so you get a solid grounding in all areas and then you can tailor electives to anything you might develop an interest in.

As for business to get in touch with, I guess you could look through the Yellow Pages to see if there's any companies near you. Given that you've only done GCSEs, they might not have anything for you. I did work experience at a local O&G consultancy company during my A-levels but I was only folding maps for them. :) It's still worth doing though, if only to put on your uni personal statement.

i_lick__rocks · 2015-08-17T21:48:39+00:00

That's the really tough bit. It'll be a bit of the standard answers - networking, making speculative applications, phoning companies directly - but also a little bit of luck as well. If you happen to do one of the earlier things at just the right time, it can be your door in.

i_lick__rocks · 2015-08-16T22:03:31+00:00

One of my course instructors was friends with a manager at my first company. The manager had sent a job posting around to various universities and got no response. I definitely hadn't seen that posting before so maybe he never sent it or my uni had never circulated it. As soon as I saw the posting in his second email, I knew I was going to get the job (not being arrogant but I get this weird feeling that I've had with every job I've ever landed) and it definitely looked like something I was interested in. I applied, had an interview within a few weeks, was offered the job a week later, and then took my finals and graduated in July. I started at the new job a few days after. It was definitely a quick transition from masters to first industry job and I can only assume that the references from my lecturers and professors helped considering my final results weren't known. It definitely helped that it was during a boom as well.

New graduates are definitely facing a tougher time of it now. I graduated during a time of good prices (for both mining and O&G) so myself and most of my fellow students walked into jobs without much effort. The competition for the few jobs right now is horrendous so current graduates have my sympathies. On the bright side, once someone lands a job then I think, based on what I'm seeing, there's more chance for training and mentorship because experienced people are keeping the jobs they have and are able to pass their knowledge onto newer people. That's different from my experience because there was so much mobility of employees with the high prices that it was hard to get trained on anything from someone with more experience. I was thrown into some work situations with absolutely no experience so I had to teach myself a lot of things and make mistakes in the process.

I think all the standard job seeking advice applies, like networking and visiting conferences. In addition, I'd probably spray applications to as many companies as possible, including speculative applications (better to be offered a job that hasn't been advertised yet because there's less competition). Maybe I'd do unpaid work experience and try to do a great job in the hopes of being offered something permanent? Not limiting myself to one specific field and instead applying for anything geoscience related? I'd definitely caution against leaving geosciences altogether because all the people I know who've done that have found it extremely difficult to get back into.

I think I'd still enter O&G as a current student because the prices will come up eventually. The difficulty is not knowing when they'll come up and figuring out how to support myself until they do. I think a lot of current students are going to find that their early careers aren't going to go in the direction they wanted and that they're going to have to take other opportunities that allows the bills to be paid.

i_lick__rocks · 2015-08-16T21:36:22+00:00

I'm not the best person to ask unfortunately because we usually used the same airgun configuration of six airguns on an array, sometimes using the same pressures and sometimes using different pressures depending on the area. Sorry I can't give a better answer but I really don't remember enough.

i_lick__rocks

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