The response continues to Maggie's question about geologists and family life.
From Zaheer Ali Shah, a Pakistani petroleum geologist:
"Studying and practicing geology does not mean keeping you always away from your family. As a matter of fact common geological activities involve the following three phases: Data Acquisition, Data Processing, Data Interpretation.
"It depends on which one of the above phases you feel more attachment to, and that will decide how much you will be staying away from your family. It is the data acquisition phase in which you might have to be in the field for some period of time. Otherwise the data processing and interpretation can be done wherever desired with the aid of computers nowadays, and you may not need to stay in the field away from your family.
"The most rewarding salaries usually come from the field jobs, like being involved in a drilling activity. A person would normally earn twice in the field compared to somebody working in an office. Good companies with good HR policies specially take care of the family life of persons working in the field. Days off and on are set in such a manner so as to preserve the comfort of the family life as much as possible. During the field operations, with mobiles and internet facilities, you remain in touch with your family.
"It is a very practical strategy to be involved in field activities while you are young, and learn and earn as much as possible as long as you feel your family life permits it. After that you can shift to office activities. The office jobs related to geological sciences are not less in number and importance. Field-related activities are planned in offices after a thorough analysis of the available data. A big part of geological work (data processing and interpretation) thus may lie close to your home.
"I would like to add that in the field we (geoscientists/technicians) become members of a very big family which is comprised of a vast spectrum of colors, fragrances, energies and emotions bonded in relationships of love, respect and understanding in a manner that is rare anywhere else. This is a unique environment which helps you to discover yourself and know others. It is not only Eid that we celebrate, but Christmas and Divali are also our days. Your family, in fact, grows and expands all over the globe out of a town."
From Bernie Gunn, retired geologist in New Zealand and proprietor of Geokem.com
"You certainly can be lonely. In my first years of the Antarctic work I spent three summers and a winter "down south" of the first four years of our marriage. I used to say, "I gave the best years of my wife to the Antarctic"! She was doing her house surgeon years in medicine, so we would have been separated quite a bit anyway. But when later at ANU in Canberra I was offered a place which would mean spending every summer in the Antarctic, I turned it down.
"Many of the field trips we did later, in Yellowstone, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, northern Quebec, Spain, Scotland etc., she came along and was incredibly adaptable at living in primitive huts and tents, cleaning up scorpions, cockroaches and shooing off bears, but I have seen other wives have hysterics and go home!
"However all those years in the field did jump-start my career. Being a geologist means you go where the rocks are, they do not come to you. A friend married and explained to his wife what he did and she agreed to go with him anywhere. After a year in Jamaica under constant attacks she went back to England. My friend ended in Saudi Arabia with a good salary, they have about five children, she is a prof at a university in Britain but I do not believe in spite of generous leave they have spent more than one-fourth of their married lives together.
"Even three months on an oceanographic ship can mean your children wonder who you are. However you finally prove one thing: true love can stand a lot."
This is your Guide again. If you have your own advice for Maggie, just add it using the "Readers Respond" form below.
