so, what can you really DO
- with a major in geography?
Anything you want.
But that's only the short answer.
The longer answer started with a long and distinguished line of career
advisors from the Liberal Arts and Sciences and will continue from here.
I've merely collected some of their writings for you and I'll describe
what we've tried to do at the Department of Geography at the University
of Washington and what I've seen in the past two years as its local Career
Resources Coordinator.
We are not the only Department of Geography trying to answer the question
of what you can DO with geography as a major, but we may have gone farther
than most in trying to organize practical information on the Career
Resources section of our
Website to help students find their own answers to that perennial
question.
On our Website, we have suggested a kind of "backwards
planning" for students, by starting with the "big picture" of the
incredibly wide variety of work that geographers have done. We've collected
lists of job titles that geographers are known to have held, and then
we added the job descriptions to show what skills and abilities employers
want in these positions. (Not surprisingly, it's apparent that geography
graduates are qualified for an enormous range of jobs.)
We have our students also look at the options
within UW geography and our geography
course descriptions, where we've listed many of the skills and abilities
students are learning in them. We trust that if students know what kind
of work they want to do in the future, that knowledge will help them plan
to acquire (before they graduate) all the knowledge, skills and abilities
necessary to do that kind of work.
To make that process easier to find, our site is divided into three parts:
Geographers At Work, Planning
Careers and Getting Jobs.
-
Within the At Work section are links
to the varied career paths of
all the geographers we can find, including job titles and descriptions
of their work.
-
Within the Planning Careers section
are lists of sample job descriptions
(from typical jobs that at least some geography graduates are qualified
for).
-
Within the Getting Jobs section are
lists of related Websites where geography
students are likely to find related job listings (divided into the
different options offered in our department).
What I've just described is akin to the mechanical part of the answer
to our leading question. The thoughtful part of our answer goes back to
the that long line of career advisors. It begins with the basic assumption
that careers should be based on interest and natural inclinations, not
on salary expectations alone. Thus, a student who is not sure of what
career choice to make, even within geography, should start with self-assessment,
preferably with the help of a career advisor, to decide on the best option
for that individual student.
Another important thought is that choosing a major
and choosing a career are not always the same thing. Many people assume
that each major should lead to a specific set of jobs. For most certificate
programs and many 2-year degrees, this may be true, but a 4-year degree
equips one to be more flexible, not because it teaches more specific skills,
but because one is exposed to more topics (and is more likely to "get"
the big picture), and one is more practiced in communicating and in learning
(how to learn).
If the profession requires licensing to practice, your major and your
profession may have the same name, like nursing, or engineering or clinical
psychology. But geography gives one many, many options and very few job
titles contain the word "geography." In spite of that, geography, often
grouped within the Liberal Arts in colleges, gives a particularly appealing
base for a wide array of jobs - from the highly technical to the highly
social.
Parents sometimes have a more traditional view of geography as a major,
and to them, a combination degree may seem an even better alternative.
Double majors or major/minor combinations do work particularly well with
geography, and sometimes are advisable even without external concerns
- for example, geography majors often take minors or second majors in
urban planning, environmental sciences or transportation, because the
combination of coursework bridges disciplinary boundaries and gives a
stronger preparation for doing the work. Coincidentally, such combinations
may be more "marketable."
While this is a worthy goal, two more thoughts are very important here:
Students who know what kind of work they want to do after graduating will
have an advantage, and students who know how to articulate the skills
they have learned will have an advantage.
Students who know what kind of work they want to do after graduating
will be able to structure their coursework to match the skills necessary
to their chosen line of work, so they come out of school more than prepared
for an entry-level position in their field. Knowing what they want to
do means they'll have been able to plan to work in an internship related
to the work they want to do. Thus they will have accumulated work experience
in addition to classroom knowledge.
Students who know how to articulate their skills will be able to tell
an employer what they can do for that employer. Students who can give
examples of how something they learned in a course or during an internship
relates to the work an employer needs to have done are far more likely
to be hired than students who can't explain how their communication skills
could be useful to that employer.
For example, a student who is applying for a job as a retail location
analyst that requires communication with clients as well as GIS skills,
may explain that her GIS class project involved interviewing business
people to discuss their needs and that she learned how to translate their
technical findings into functional terms the business people found useful.
She can further elaborate by giving a few specific examples of the terminology
she is referring to.
On the other hand, consider another student in the same GIS class, with
the same qualifications, who applies for the same job and simply says
that his college education gave him good communication skills. If he doesn't
continue to explain what he means by "good communication skills," and
give examples, he has not articulated how his skills apply to the work
the employer needs to have done.
This example also supports the idea that career development skills are
important to all job seekers, not just to those who majored in the Liberal
Arts. Almost every college and university offers some kind of career services
to its students, and all students (especially those in the Liberal Arts)
should take advantage of those skills while they are in school. And that
brings me back back to our original goal as a Department of Geography
- to help potential students of geography arrive at their own answers.
Here are some very good sources of (more detailed) information that I've
used in writing this article.
Choosing
and Using Your Major (UVirginia)
A very well-considered article that explains the "myth of majors"
and the value of all majors within the liberal arts.
http://www.virginia.edu/~career/handouts/choosing.html
Steps
to Career/Life Planning Success (Career Planning Manual - UWaterloo)
Contains a complete and very well designed set of exercises that lead
students through the basic career planning process, beginning with self-assessment
and continuing through occupational research and into job search and success
in work. If you're not at all sure of what you want to do, try working
through the self-assessment steps to get a clearer idea of yourself. Once
you've chosen a direction (even a general one) you'll be able to steer
much more efficiently through the hurdles to come.
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocecs/CRC/manual-home.html
What can you
do as a geographer?
As part of the AAG (Association of American Geographers) Careers Website,
this page consists of a very long list of job titles of geographers they
know of, and includes links to descriptions of many sub-specialities within
the field.
http://www.aag.org/Careers/What_can_you_do.html
Related to that part of the site is their listing of Geographic
Fields, which lists the main divisions of the field and links to descriptions
of the work included in that division, what kinds of organizations tend
to do that kind of work and some of the skills and knowledge necessary
to that work.
http://www.aag.org/Careers/Geographic_Fields.html
Also related to this section is Geographers
at Work, which is perhaps the most interesting part of this section,
as it gives personal profiles of many people who have geography degrees
and tells what attracted them to the field, and how the background in
geography has helped them in their careers.
http://www.aag.org/Careers/Geogwork/Intro.html
Geography
(Career Services, UNC-Wil)
Brief description of potential range of work for geographers, followed
by a list of job titles of geography grads from UNC, and a links to related
geography Websites.
http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/Majors/geography.htm
Geography
(Career Services, VT)
Brief description of the field and specializations within the field, followed
by an employment outlook, and list of places of employment of some of
their past graduates.
http://www.career.vt.edu/GUIDE/a&s/geog.html
Geography
- Environmental Science (BSC, MA)
Both Geography and Environmental Science majors are described briefly
and a list of potential job titles follows each.
http://www.bridgew.edu/depts/carplan/what.htm#Geography
What
can I do with a major in geography? (OSU-Stil) Contents describe how
to get into jobs related to geography, as well as listing job titles (including
their own graduates) and related Websites to explore.
http://www.cas.okstate.edu/career/what_to_do/geography.html
What
can I do with an undergraduate degree in geography? (UManitoba - Canada)
Brief listing of skills possessed by geography undergraduates, sample
job titles, areas of employment and related Websites.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/student/counselling/WhatCanIDo/geography.html
What can you do with
a geography major? (Career Services,GSU)
Brief description of the field, listing of Skills and Abilities, Typical
Work Activities, Occupational Activities, Possible Employment Settings,
Career Service Sources, and also related Internet links, and professional
geography-related associations.
http://www2.gasou.edu/sta/career/geog.htm
If all this leads you to even more questions, feel free to email me:
duttro@u.washington.edu
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