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This got me thinking about things. I would have been a professional student if I had enough money to stay in school. Unfortunately my money gave out when I finished my masters. I decided to go to work for a couple of years and then head back to academia and try for a PhD. But along the way my plans got waylaid and I never did get my PhD in geology.
While I was in school there were always some geology course being offered that I felt I just had to have to be a well rounded geologist and ended up taking those instead of other elective classes. At the same time I would sign up for the geology classes, my dad was always after me to take some business courses and asked me why I hadn't gotten into the courses he wanted me to take. Since I was paying my own way I thought I knew what was best for me. I was going on the advice of my geology professors. Besides it was too inconvenient for me to take those business courses. They were in a different college and you had to get special permission to be in them. I didn't want to go through all the trouble of getting all those forms signed ect... In the long run I never did take the business courses when my dad wanted me to take them.
After I graduated I wished I had listened to him. The first thing my company did was to encourage me to go back to school and to get a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). They were a business and they wanted everyone who worked for them to know how a business operated. Having an MBA was important to them and I quickly realized that if I wanted to have career with them I needed to go back to school and round out my education in the areas were I was lacking.
Well guess what to get a MBA you first have to have the basic business courses. I needed those business courses now. So I was back in school taking the require curriculum to get a business degree which I needed so I could obtain a MBA. After awhile I did drop out of my classes because I found working on wells and going to school don't necessarily agree with each other. I had to drop everything when I got caught on a well for over a month and missed my midterms exams.
Later I was able to go back to school and I did take all the course work so I could become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). I thought being a CPA would be more beneficial for me than a MBA since more people had MBA's but very few had a masters in geology and were also CPA's. I never did take the CPA exam for personal reasons, but I did use all of my accounting background. They were especially helpful to have when my husband went to work for himself and I could do his books from our home. The biggest benefit was the flexible hours and being able to be there for my kids when they had school activities that needed parental involvement.
In the end I was glad I went the accounting route since that kept me working during the oil bust of the late 80's when you couldn't find work as a geologist in the oil industry. Just about everyone I knew who was a geologist at that time ended up having to change careers. - very few of them were able to keep gainfully employed as geologists and most of those did it as independent contractors/consultants. I did try to be an independent contractor for awhile, but as time went on I did less consulting and concentrated more on my husbands business since I couldn't generate enough business on my own and his was really taking off.
So now all I have to say to geology students out there is this: try to get as much business background as you can because if you want to work as a geologist you have to know basic things about the business. If nothing else you should be able to analyze their income statement and balance sheet to make sure they are a viable company to work for. If you go into academia you still need to know how to make a budget, and write grants - its all about the cash flow.
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