Current occupation: Exploration geoscientist at a major oil and gas company
PhD from University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon, USA), Geological Sciences, 2012; Oil and Gas Industry; No postdocs (had the job offer at PhD completion)
Getting a PhD degree is not by default “being in academia” – in a sense, that is part of the problem. We assume that PhD = academia, rather than seeing it as a degree that can lead to many job opportunities
During the last year of your Ph.D., what did you think was your next step? How did you end up working in industry?
In my last year I had already gotten an offer for a job in industry. Prior to that I was open to academic options. I learned that my company was conducting screening interviews at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (they did not advertise widely that they were there). I signed up for an interview at the conference and liked what I experienced. I later networked with some folks at Oregon who were connected with the company and was able to learn more about opportunities while in my later years in grad school. Networking and proactively looking for opportunities is how I found my job.
Careers outside of academia with a PhD in volcanology 