i was hired not long ago at a pretty well known economic research firm whose execs publish books, hold seminars and have a network of financial advisors they provide data for my duties so far are doing research, gathering stats, making charts, graphs, etc. and contributing to putting together presentations and content for an upcoming book but i was hired completely out of my degree classification (geography. no, the degree program does not entail learning state capitals ). i had a recommendation from my old academic advisor from college and i suppose a good interview so i happened to get the job. my question is where should i project myself a few years down the road? i dont have a degree in business, accounting, economics or anything related. i dont intend on grad school the staff is small, under 10 people. what would i move on to past this company? i dont want to be a financial advisor. is what i do a common job in the industry? what other things could i potentially do in this field? im a bit worried i will hit a wall salary wise at some point, have little options and may revert back to my degree training of which most of it i will have forgotten. mostly in GIS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIS thoughts?
Maynard, I am a financial adviser. I'm not sure what your degree entails exactly but if it includes some knowledge of geology as well, your current job may just be a stepping stone into something bigger. If you enjoy doing research, stats, analysis and presentation you could go on to being a research analyst at an investment firm and specialize in the minerals, mining, oil/energy and resource sector. If you are looking to break a ceiling in salary that is where I think would be more beneficial. The key, though is to get more experience and perhaps get further studies in geology though. Another option may be to look at mining/oil or mining/oil servicing companies because they always need to look at geographical data when analyzing exploration sites. I don't know if that even helps but good luck.
this is very useful. thank you. my degree had a physical science track and a human geography track and i chose the latter, so my knowledge on the physical is limited, but as you were implying (i think), the skills i am learning seem like they would be transferable to other applications. i imagine that geology would be just one example. essentially, most of my classes boiled down to a marxist vs. capitalist fleshing out of how human landscapes and places over space were formed and how they are changing. this would be done in classes focusing on transportation, economics, culture, conservation, politics. and then there were computer intensive stats research methods and geographic information systems (mapmaking with an array of data) most people with my degree either get a masters or do GIS for a living, but i figured that if i spent so much time reading about the economy on my own and i had some base knowledge and can speak on it, i should see if i could get a job in the field. in my company, there are two guys that do all the writing and are the ideas guys and i dont see them altering that approach. its working research analyst in some other capacity is probably the way to go. i guess im just seeing myself in an odd niche, but maybe thats not true
Well, YMMV but perhaps you should also have a general idea of how effectively your educations core classes mesh with a different Career Field if you happened to return to College to acquire another degree that the new field would require? That way you'd have a cost/benefit framework in making future decisions, for example my degree is in Business Administration, but I happen to know that if I wanted a Accounting degree it would be a matter of 2 semesters worth of classes to obtain a Degree in that field.
Well I guess that's the rub...if I'm going to have to get a masters degree in order to advance. I don't really want to Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
Well Maynard, what I had in mind is using the usual "core" required classes and other classes that have a cross section of applicability, and then calculating how long it would take to acquire another degree, but in a different field. That way one would not be starting at -0-, but more than likely looking at a short time to acquire a second degree based on your prior college performance.
Ok. I have a feeling it would be prohibitive for me to do so and take longer than usual...idk. I would have to look at it Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
If you plan on staying with the company the degree doesn't matter. It doesn’t sound like you want to though. Will you be exposed to other companies with more advancement possibilities in the same industry, how much networking can you do with your job? Will your bosses put the word in for you? Who you know matters most for employment. This doesn't always apply obviously; some jobs pay more with higher degree levels. Those are mostly state jobs in my experience. This is just what I’ve found, so results may vary.
im just looking down the road a few years being in a small company where there isnt much separation between the bottom and the top and the top is unattainable. there is only one more spot i can advance to and im sure that at a certain point, they are only going to pay me so much. there is some networking and the bosses are great guys and im sure they would be good about helping me move on. those are valid points i suppose with enough experience, salary and hiring considerations could be dealt with as far as the grad degree goes. idk, when i do my research, i run through academic papers that scream "i did this in this way because this is what the program and my professor required." but most of the data gathering and analysis i do is similar, just without all the fluff. in a practical sense, the grad degree doesnt seem to do much
i looked at it. unless it was a grad degree in globalization studies or something like that, it would be prohibitive. for anything in the business field, i wouldnt even be starting out at 0. more like -10.
