Alumni
Welcome Alumni:
We’re here to support you as a UCL graduate. From those first steps into the wider world, through to important decisions you’ll make about your career and your professional relationships, we can help you build connections with our global community of former students.
Meet our Alumni:
Keep up to date with the Department:
- Careers
Options open to an Earth Sciences graduate include:
- joining an Earth Sciences-related company
- graduate taught degree programme (usually Masters or Diploma level courses)
- graduate research (PhD; specific research programme)
- employment in a non-Earth Sciences field
- obtain further qualifications or training (e.g. post-graduate certificate of education)
- Career options and further information is available from the Geological Society
Internships
Summer undergraduate internship programmes are a great way to gain practical work experience, get an insight into how professional companies work or be part of a research team. Check out some of the placement websites:
- Support
UCL Careers Service
The UCL Careers Service provide advice, information and guidance to students and graduates (for up to two years) on the following topics:
Job hunting: looking for opportunities, making speculative applications and networking. Written applications: how to write a good CV and covering letter and what to consider when completing application forms. Interview skills: how to prepare, anticipating possible questions and how you might respond. Postgraduate study: taught, research and vocational training Working and studying abroad: international opportunities and global jobs. Career planning, career decisions and exploring your options after graduation. Careers Information Library: videos and reference books are available to view within the. This includes employer directories, graduate training schemes and occupational information.
Departmental Presentations
Year-group-specific presentations will be made during term time (topics include 'summer work experience' for first years, ‘interview skills’ and ‘career options with your degree’ for finalists). Further information will be posted here.
The Careers Service website also carries information about Employer Presentations, Careers Fairs and Forums.
Within the Department, your first point of contact for careers advice is your Personal Tutor or MSc programme director. The Academic Administrator, coordinates careers activities within Earth Sciences. The Graduate Tutor may organise the Geological Society Careers Day.
Are you eligible for advice?
Current Students and resent : Yes! The service is aimed in different ways at all year groups within Earth Sciences. Recent Graduates: can access services by becoming members of GradClub.Visit the Careers Service Website which also carries information about Employer Presentations, Careers Fairs and Forums.
- Employment
The diversity of the subjects means that geoscientists are employed in many different areas - see below - although five main broad areas may be defined:
Exploration and Production:
searching for and managing the extraction of natural resources such as fossil fuels (oil and gas), metals, construction materials. Includes mining geologists, mud loggers. Principal employers are usually the large oil, mining and civil engineering companies, but smaller consultants and contractors offer specialist services.
Water Supply:
locating and managing the quantity and quality of global water supplies.
Environmental and Engineering:
investigating and monitoring ground conditions associated with construction, planning, land use, reclamation of contaminated land, waste disposal and health.
Geological Surveying:
collecting surface and subsurface geological information, onshore and offshore, for geological, geophysical and geochemical maps and databases, the basic tools underpinning the utilisation of all geological resources.
Education and Research:
teaching and research in universities; teaching in schools and colleges; museum work.
Geoscientists are also be employed in the fields of:
Acoustic & Air Pollution
Agricultural Science
Archaeology
Atmospheric Science
Botany
Civil Engineering
Climate Sciences
Commercial, Sales & Marketing
Conservation Biology
Contaminated Land &Remediation
Earth System Science
Ecology
Economic Geology
Engineering Geology
Environmental Sciences
Forestry
Geochemistry
Geochronology
Geocomputing
Geography
Geomorphology
Geophysics
Geotechnical
Glacial geology
Hydrology / Hydrogeology / WaterMarine Geology
Meteorology
Mineralogy
Mining / Mineral Exploration
Natural Resource Management
Oceanography / Marine Sciences
Oil Field Services
Oil & Gas
Palaeoecology
Palaeontology
Petroleum Engineering
Petrology
Plant Science
Planetary Science
Remote Sensing / GIS
Science Administration, Policy & Management
Sedimentology
Seismology
Stratigraphy
Structural Geology
Soil Science
Space & Planetary Sciences
Transport Engineering & Planning
Volcanology
Waste Management- Events
The Earth Sciences Alumni Careers Event takes place every year in February. The event is always well received and attended and is followed by drinks and nibbles etc., where you are able to meet the speakers and the Senior Careers Consultant, UCL Careers Service, who is responsible for Earth Sciences. The participants have the opportunity to hear from a panel of our alumni, ask questions and network with them.
We bring panel of experts from industry and academia. Number of our graduates have also established themselves as self-employed consultants. Each speaker talked about his/her career path and what their current role is like. The full biographies of our speakers is provided in the reports.
Volunteer your time:
Our volunteers are at the forefront of our position as one of the world’s leading universities. Your time and expertise can be used to benefit UCL, our students and staff in a number of valuable ways across a variety of roles.
- Become a mentor, join the AOC
- Speak at our careers events
- Organise a reunion
- Post an internship vacancy on My UCL Careers
Make a donation
By donating to Earth Sciences you will be joining thousands of fellow alumni and friends who are already having a collective impact on the future of UCL.
Gifts from alumni and friends are transforming lives through world-class research, improving UCL’s resources and buildings and giving the next generation of students the opportunity to study at UCL no matter what their circumstances.
If you would like further information please contact alumni@ucl.ac.uk.
Get in touch:
Earth Sciences Alumni Coordinator:
Prof. Ian Wood
E: earthsci@ucl.ac.uk
Greenough Talks and visiting the Department: Any alumni who would like to come back to visit the Department, or who would be willing to speak about their careers to our current students would be very welcome!