What’s Your Motivation?
This is my final Letter from the Editor for the 2023-24 HGS Board term. I’m happy to welcome Ted Godo into the Editor’s role starting in July. I’m confident that Ted will put his own unique spin on the job. Thanks to Lisa Kreuger for her creative and consistent graphic design of the Bulletin. She and Ted will make an awesome team. Thanks also to HGS members for your help in enhancing the Bulletin’s content this year—keep your submissions and ideas coming.
Special recognition goes to my husband, Rick, and my girls, Lucy and Annie, who allowed me to devote every night and weekend for the past 10 months to the HGS community. Rick created bespoke Word Breccia puzzles for the Bulletin and managed the kids while I worked. The HGS community of volunteers extends well beyond its paying members. This organization would not function without the dedicated support of volunteers and their families.
My motivation
As I write my last Letter from the Editor, I’m reflecting on what motivated me to accept the role, what I gained from the experience, and what lessons are applicable to others. I built my own network by interviewing more than 80 geoscientists for Bulletin articles. These interviews allowed me to practice active listening skills. People were eager to share their stories, and it was up to me to hear the messages behind and between their words. I unequivocally became a better writer over the course of the year and feel certain that I would continue to improve with more practice.
I didn’t accept the Editor’s role with the intention of becoming a better listener or a better writer. Instead, I was motivated to learn from others because mentoring and networking offer tangible and intangible benefits that are essential to a career in geology. I love organizing things—teams, projects, words, and stories. I was motivated by the satisfaction that comes from taking a complex, nuanced story of someone’s career and organizing it into key themes and lessons. Finally, I was motivated to amplify the voices of early and mid-career geologists. This population is critical to the long-term existence of HGS, but they make up less than 20% of the current membership. I hoped that by sharing the diversity of their experiences, the HGS would further embrace the talents and understand the challenges of the current geoscience workforce.
Common themes
I found common themes among the stories of the 80+ geologists I interviewed. Geologists’ careers are shaped by similar forces. How each geologist reacts to those forces is unique.
Be introspective if you want to control your own legacy. I found that very few geologists had previously been asked to reflect on the forces that shaped their careers. It is understandably difficult to distill a career of wins and losses into discrete lessons. However, an impactful legacy is built on more than a collection of anecdotes. The people who have devoted the time and hard work to reflect on their deliberate choices and lucky opportunities are those whose stories can be most impactful to others.
Risk-taking is an integral part of being a geologist, particularly a geologist in the Oil and Gas industry. I am consistently awed by geologists who have left corporate jobs to start their own exploration and development companies. I’m humbled by the geologists who have tenaciously pursued their ideas, sometimes not seeing the fruits of their labor until decades later. I’m also intrigued by the geologists who took a risk to say “no” to an opportunity. It takes courage and confidence, and careful introspection, to accept the possibility of missing out.
Business skills are equally essential as technical skills. Unlike engineering programs, many geologists are not exposed to business metrics and commercial decision-making in school. These skills are commonly learned on the job or with supplemental education from an MBA program. The most impactful geologists put their technical ideas into a compelling business context.
Find mentors who will advocate for you. Nearly all of the geologists I interviewed shared stories of being coached and supported by other geologists. Those who reached senior corporate levels all had mentors who advocated on their behalf, bringing them opportunities to grow skills and grow in name recognition. Finding mentors and mentor-advocates is partly based on luck, but many geologists actively cultivate mentoring relationships.
Geoscience skills are transferable to other disciplines and industries. It is tough to survive an entire career in the Oil and Gas industry. Many geologists are forced, or choose, to pivot to other industries. However, the skills developed as a geologist, such as effective communication, multi-disciplinary integration, problem-solving, project management and business acumen are transferable to other geoscience disciplines like geothermal and CCUS, as well as adjacent industries, such as information technology, academia, entrepreneurship.
Continue the conversation on motivation and legacy:
o This edition of the Bulletin features conversations with long-time HGS volunteer, Linda Sternbach. Read more about her reflections on a career in geology and her motivations for volunteering.
o Read about Rob Pascoe’s motivations that shaped his career and legacy.
o Hear about what motivates Galen Treadgold to handle logistics for 30 tons of rocks.
o See Scott Singleton’s technical article that demonstrates his motivation to pursue a decades-long study of fossil wood on the Gulf Coast.
o Read about a motivated group of volunteers studying the geology of Buffalo Bayou.