<p>I keep hearing that biology has low employment potential, even among those with graduate degrees, due to so many biology graduates. Does anyone know about geology? Are there also more geology students than there are geology related jobs? I have absolutely no interest in working in mines or searching for petroleum, coal, natural gas etc. Does geology have better employment potential than biology?</p>
<p>As far as biology goes, is there really a lot of competition for conservation/environmental restoration jobs?</p>
<p>Geology majors are doing great right now. At my school, geology graduates have the highest employment rate and the highest average salary earned. Now is the time to get a Geology degree, it is in demand. At the masters level, you are golden.</p>
<p>Since you seem to have an interest in biology, you could major in Geology and minor in Biology. Or consider Environmental Geology if your school has it.</p>
<p>There is a lot of competition for the conservation/environmental restoration jobs due to not only the biology majors, but also the geology and environmental science majors. The skills a Geology major learns is way more beneficial to job prospects than an environmental science major (basically a crippled Bio major) or a biology major.</p>
<p>The reason Geology majors are in such great demand is because the price of petroleum and other natural resources they explore are so high and that is what most employers of geologists are hiring them to do. If you are not interested in exploring for oil you have eliminated a lot of potential employers.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to work for energy or mining companies (and yes, the first few years will be a lot of fieldwork, onsite) the other options are working for the government or environmental consulting firms like Arcadis/URS/regional players. Still lots of onsite fieldwork. Pay is still above what average college student gets, but not as eye-poppingly impressive as what oil & gas pays.</p>
<p>Also, unless you graduate from a top-notch program like Stanford/Texas/Oklahoma, you will need a master’s degree to work in the energy sector.</p>