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The Angry Geologist Considers a Cooler Job
Oct. 1st, 2008 06:15 pmI looked up at the calendar this morning; today marks one year exactly that I started working at Giant Technical Services Firm. And it has been quite a year! I now have a good chunk of work experience under my belt, and a lot of confidence in myself- getting paid for your work imparts a whole new level of job satisfaction.
However, looking into the future it isn't so clear. First off, I feel like I'm not getting quite as much out of this job that I thought I was in terms of learning new things. Sure, there's something different every day, but after a year it's kind of become... almost predictable. I guess that's the hazard behind not changing what you're doing completely each semester, but I'd like to be doing more different things. Right now, it's groundwater sampling, filling in boilerplate on a report, mapping, and navigating byzantine regulatory agencies, with a few interesting projects like JPG or a new well installation every so often. And I hate to say it, but I feel like I can do better.
Second off, my wages aren't keeping pace with inflation. The first raise I got was, frankly, piddly. I deserved much more, and I think my immediate manager knew it, from the big deal he made over it being much more than what a person in my position would normally get. He could have just let it show up on my paycheck, and I wouldn't have questioned it. But... the manager doth protest too much...
Third is the GIS license factor. Despite all the work I do with GIS, I currently do not have a stand-alone license on my work computer. I have to use one of two floating licenses, which wouldn't be so bad if they had purchased enough to allow all the people who use it on any given day to be on at the same time. Not only that, but the license manager often bonks, and doesn't register that people have stopped using the program. Therefore, there's often a line of people waiting to use GIS, and mapping projects get sent to CADD. This results in a lovely little catch-22: to get more GIS licenses, we have to prove its worth to the company by doing more work on it, but with the limited number of licenses and glitchy license manager, we can't all get on to do the work. And whether the managers realize it or not, this tells me that one of the key skill sets I brought to the company isn't worth very much.
Fourth is the newbie factor. I've met some of the new people coming in, and worked closely with one of them. However, she seems to be missing some key concepts in her education, such as, well, pretty much anything to do with geology- true, she's an environmental scientist, but she told me she had about two weeks of geology in her soils class, and can't tell the three rock types apart. It's worrisome. Through her and other situations, I've come to think of her school, Messiah College, as something like the Franciscan University of Steubenville, or Steubie-U, as we used to call it: a third-rate religious-themed private liberal arts school that exists to bilk middle-class conservative Christians out of unfortunate amounts of tuition money. Not that she's not a nice girl and a quick learner, but I am a bit worried about what else she's missing. I'm even more worried that she's referred one of her classmates. True, I don't do too much Actual Geology (TM) in my job right now, but if this is the quality of candidates we're looking at, I'm a bit concerned for the future of the business unit.
Finally, the it's-not-you-it's-me factor. This really isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life. I don't want to go out groundwater sampling every quarter, of course, but I don't want to deal with budgets I can't control, I don't want to deal with setting up contracts, and I really am not enough of a salesman nor do I have any desire to be to do business development. To put it briefly, I am not a corporate tool. I want a job where I can do Actual Geology, drive my own projects, and do a minimal amount of selling myself while doing a fantastic job of selling my ideas- I think I want to be a tenured professor who is not allowed to teach anymore. :) But the point remains- I am not meant to work in the environmental field for the rest of my life, and it's better I admit it to myself now and start making contingency plans.
I am going to more aggressively pursue that state job that I mentioned before, and I'm going to look into other options with the government as well. I may also consider Ph.D. programs, but will probably work another year or so to build up the nest egg enough to put a down payment on a house wherever I go for it. Finally, I'm going to keep doing this job as well as I can until the next best thing comes along- it's what I've got so far, and it's enough to pay the bills until then.
However, looking into the future it isn't so clear. First off, I feel like I'm not getting quite as much out of this job that I thought I was in terms of learning new things. Sure, there's something different every day, but after a year it's kind of become... almost predictable. I guess that's the hazard behind not changing what you're doing completely each semester, but I'd like to be doing more different things. Right now, it's groundwater sampling, filling in boilerplate on a report, mapping, and navigating byzantine regulatory agencies, with a few interesting projects like JPG or a new well installation every so often. And I hate to say it, but I feel like I can do better.
Second off, my wages aren't keeping pace with inflation. The first raise I got was, frankly, piddly. I deserved much more, and I think my immediate manager knew it, from the big deal he made over it being much more than what a person in my position would normally get. He could have just let it show up on my paycheck, and I wouldn't have questioned it. But... the manager doth protest too much...
Third is the GIS license factor. Despite all the work I do with GIS, I currently do not have a stand-alone license on my work computer. I have to use one of two floating licenses, which wouldn't be so bad if they had purchased enough to allow all the people who use it on any given day to be on at the same time. Not only that, but the license manager often bonks, and doesn't register that people have stopped using the program. Therefore, there's often a line of people waiting to use GIS, and mapping projects get sent to CADD. This results in a lovely little catch-22: to get more GIS licenses, we have to prove its worth to the company by doing more work on it, but with the limited number of licenses and glitchy license manager, we can't all get on to do the work. And whether the managers realize it or not, this tells me that one of the key skill sets I brought to the company isn't worth very much.
Fourth is the newbie factor. I've met some of the new people coming in, and worked closely with one of them. However, she seems to be missing some key concepts in her education, such as, well, pretty much anything to do with geology- true, she's an environmental scientist, but she told me she had about two weeks of geology in her soils class, and can't tell the three rock types apart. It's worrisome. Through her and other situations, I've come to think of her school, Messiah College, as something like the Franciscan University of Steubenville, or Steubie-U, as we used to call it: a third-rate religious-themed private liberal arts school that exists to bilk middle-class conservative Christians out of unfortunate amounts of tuition money. Not that she's not a nice girl and a quick learner, but I am a bit worried about what else she's missing. I'm even more worried that she's referred one of her classmates. True, I don't do too much Actual Geology (TM) in my job right now, but if this is the quality of candidates we're looking at, I'm a bit concerned for the future of the business unit.
Finally, the it's-not-you-it's-me factor. This really isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life. I don't want to go out groundwater sampling every quarter, of course, but I don't want to deal with budgets I can't control, I don't want to deal with setting up contracts, and I really am not enough of a salesman nor do I have any desire to be to do business development. To put it briefly, I am not a corporate tool. I want a job where I can do Actual Geology, drive my own projects, and do a minimal amount of selling myself while doing a fantastic job of selling my ideas- I think I want to be a tenured professor who is not allowed to teach anymore. :) But the point remains- I am not meant to work in the environmental field for the rest of my life, and it's better I admit it to myself now and start making contingency plans.
I am going to more aggressively pursue that state job that I mentioned before, and I'm going to look into other options with the government as well. I may also consider Ph.D. programs, but will probably work another year or so to build up the nest egg enough to put a down payment on a house wherever I go for it. Finally, I'm going to keep doing this job as well as I can until the next best thing comes along- it's what I've got so far, and it's enough to pay the bills until then.
