Careers in Geography
What can I do with a geography degree?
Here at UNI, there are a number of resources available to students to guide them in their search for internships and employment after graduation. Career Services provides students guidance on building their resume through volunteer opportunities.
Geographers apply their unique knowledge, skills and perspectives in a diverse range of industries. They hold positions as urban planners who assess the costs and benefits of proposed transit systems, as state climatologists assessing the impacts of rising sea levels, as consultants advising firms about moving into new markets, and as human rights advocates working with refugees (to list just a handful of options).
There are hundreds of occupations that require knowledge of and skills in geography, and the diversity of career opportunities available to geography graduates continues to grow every year.
*Source: American Association of Geographers (AAG)
Geography in Business
There are many dynamic and exciting employment opportunities for geographers in business. You might not see the term “geographer" in the job description, but more and more companies are recognizing the value of geographic analysis in their everyday operations. Among the most valued geographic skills by private sector employers are those related to spatial thinking and geospatial technology, cartography, location analysis, and economic geography.
*American Association of Geographers (AAG)
Geography in Government
Geographers are employed across a wide variety of public sector jobs, from state and local governments to the highest levels of federal agencies. Geographers working for city, county or state governments develop careers as waste and pollution managers, urban and regional planners, cartographers and GIS coordinators. In the federal government, geographers are employed in positions ranging from conservationists and census specialists to managers and executives.
*American Association of Geographers (AAG)
Geography in Nonprofit
Geographers can be found within a broad range of nonprofit organizations and non-government organizations (NGOs) whose work coheres around issues as diverse as environmental stewardship, human rights, children’s advocacy and welfare, domestic and international development, education and health, culture and the arts, historic preservation and heritage conservation, religion and beyond.
*American Association of Geographers (AAG)
What else can you do with a geography degree?
GIS and Remote-Sensing Expertise
Career fields range from fundraising to wildlife conservation to corporate sales to identifying profitable business locations. Remember its location, location, location!
Design Ingenuity
Cartography & GIS develop graphic design skills that add-value to any career especially in non-profits or communication-based work.
Environmental Management
Growing in-excess of 15% per year, environmental specialists are among the fastest growing job sectors across the world. Analyzing geographic data, where 80% of all data is now geographic, informs good environmental management and contributes to business success.
Resource Finder
Identifying resource locations i.e., groundwater, coal or oil using GIS and remote-sensing is a critical skill in many different career fields.
Multiculturalist
Cross-cultural interpersonal skills are critical in our modern global business environment, and offers a critical edge in applying to graduate school.
Multidisciplinary Generalist
Most employers want generalists with a diverse set of skills, who can write, have people skills, and have technical expertise in GIS.
Field Researcher
Developing field surveys, date collection, data management and analysis is a highly desirable set of skills that are applicable across many diverse disciplines and careers.
Market Researcher
Understanding how to connect people with products, goods and services is critical to any company, non-profit, or government agency.
