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Career Opportunities

Geologists with master’s degrees are in high demand!

On a national scale, geology jobs are projected to grow by 35% in the next decade.  This is nearly 3 times the expected average growth rate all jobs. In Louisiana alone, there will be between 100,000 and 195,000 jobs created in fields like water management and oil/gas production over the next 20 years.

Most of these jobs are high paying. The average starting salary for a petroleum geologist with a MS degree is $103,800/year.

Geologists with master’s degrees are often employed in the following fields:

  • The oil and gas industry
  • Hydrology, Environmental, and Geotechnical Engineering companies
  • Federal state, and local government agencies (USGS, NASA, EPA, LDNR, LDEQ, etc.)
  • The mining and mineral industry
  • National research labs
  • Science educators
  • Geographic information specialists
  • Paleontology/museums
  • Oceanography

We have many major and small companies that recruit our master's students on campus (Schlumberger, Chevron, QEP Resources, and Halliburton to name a few).