Section 4. Skills Framework

Skills & Competencies Needed by Graduate Students in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences

The skills and competencies needed by doctoral and master’s students to be successful in a wide variety of geoscience careers and how these have evolved and changed over the last 3–5 years are summarized below. These skills and competencies were first identified by employers, including industry, government, and academia as employers, at the 2018 Geoscience Employers Workshop. Academic leaders at the 2019 Summit agreed overall with the importance of these skills and competencies and focused on how to build their development into graduate programs. More depth was provided at the combined employer and academic workshops in 2022, where they also discussed what had changed over the last 3–4 years. In these workshops, the academics also provided input as employers. Supplementary input on changes since 2018 was provided by additional non-academic employers. Many of the identified skills and competencies are the same as recommended for undergraduate students. (See Vision and Change in the Geosciences: The Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education; Mosher and Keane, 2021, referred to below as Vision and Change undergraduate report and/or effort.)

Employers and academic participants recognized that the skills needed for geoscience students are essentially the same regardless of education level, only the depth of competency increased from bachelor’s to master’s to doctorate degrees. In contrasting their expectations for graduate students relative to undergraduates, and for master’s versus doctoral graduates, they distinguished exposure to a skill (discussed/highlighted in coursework with limited practice or application) from proficiency (a level of accomplishment developed through instruction and substantial practice), from mastery (deep accomplishment gained through independent use) and from expert (independent application of a skill and competency). In general, employer and academic expectations were that bachelor’s would have exposure and be proficient in some skills; master’s graduates would be proficient in most key skills, with evident mastery in one or more areas, while doctoral graduates should show mastery of key skills, with clear expertise in at least one core area. The skills and competencies discussed below (also see Box 4.1) can be developed during a student’s graduate education through their research, coursework and co-curricular activities (see Section 5: Organizational Framework for Graduate Programs)

Box 4.1. Universal Skills and Competencies Needed by Geoscience Graduate Students

1. The ability to conduct research
2. Depth of expertise in core areas
3. Critical, geoscientific, and systems thinking
4. Problem solving
5. Communication — ​to diverse audiences; written, verbal, listening
6. Quantitative skills
7. Computational skills — ​programming, coding
8. Data management and data analytics
9. Teamwork and collaboration
10. Social dynamics and people skills
11. Leadership
12. Project, program and time management, business skills
13. Ethics and science
14. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice
15. Broader impacts
16. Professional development
17. Networking
18. Personal skills

1. The Ability to Conduct Research

The participating employers and academics were unanimous in highlighting the importance of research in the graduate education of geoscientists. Employers want graduates who have done a deep dive into a geoscientific topic, through which they developed both an investigative mindset and a research toolkit they can apply to different projects. The successful conduct of research necessarily involves higher level critical thinking, identifying and solving problems, project management, and completion of a project. Other specific research-related skills discussed by employers included field, laboratory, and computational expertise. Field experience was seen as invaluable in providing real-world context for models and interpretations of data.

At the 2022 workshops, employers and academics discussed the value of conducting research versus developing specific skills. The overwhelming agreement was that conducting research is a skill itself. No mutual exclusivity exists between “skills” and research; they inform and rely upon one another. Research involves technical and non-technical skills and requires content knowledge and the capacity to extend that knowledge. Conducting research shows student motivation and the ability to think critically. For academic employers, conducting research is more important than developing a specific set of skills, while the opposite is generally true for industry and business.

Many research skills transfer readily to industry. Particularly useful in supporting this transfer is structuring research in a project-based style that includes the writing and vetting of a research proposal, project management, project boundaries in terms of scope and time, concrete project deliverables, and management of project costs, including time and labor. Gaining experience with this suite of project components is equally important as preparation for those going into academia or other research-oriented positions. Students need to demonstrate the ability to execute and complete a project, and to define the context of the project — ​what needs to be done and why — ​rather than just collecting and analyzing samples and making conclusions based on the results.

2. Depth of Expertise in Core Areas

Graduating doctoral and master’s students should have a deep understanding of the scientific fundamentals of their core research areas and the mechanics of the various techniques and methods they have used. This depth of expertise in their core disciplinary areas leads to both good judgment and professional confidence. The Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences employers who took part in workshops and summit were unanimous in noting that graduates should be highly accomplished in the core technical skills of their areas of expertise. Potential employers expect doctoral graduates to be experts in their research area with specific specialized research skills, whereas master’s students have the requisite skills and content in their core area. Overall, the employers agreed with the idea that the geoscience graduate students finishing in the 2019–2022 timeframe have very strong technical and research skills, including laboratory and field skills, with a solid base of knowledge in their areas of the geosciences.

Employers stressed the need for good foundational knowledge and skills, specifically a strong grounding in the geosciences with requisite breadth across the sciences, and for a solid coursework background in their chosen field, even if students had switched fields after their undergraduate degrees. They noted that many geoscience and science skills are valuable regardless of career choice, including non-geoscience careers. The basic knowledge and concepts associated with the geoscience disciplines provide a firm foundation for future use.

Geoscience education has an hourglass shape — ​undergraduates start as generalists, and then in graduate school develop narrow expertise. As professionals, graduates then broaden out, diversifying away from their original narrow area and use the expertise they have gained in graduate school to address a range of different problems.

When queried during our 2022 workshops, the participating employers noted that the desired foundational core competencies had not changed since 2018. Many of these core competencies depend on the career path, e.g., oil and gas, mining, environmental, oceanography, climatology, weather and meteorology, hydrology, etc. As the occupations of graduates change, most of the skills they needed for success in their original area were transferable to others. For example, expertise needed for oil and gas is the same as that for carbon capture and sequestration or for geothermal energy.

3. Critical, Geoscientific, and Systems Thinking

As highlighted in the Vision and Change undergraduate report, critical, geoscientific and systems thinking are seen as core competencies for geoscience graduates, at the bachelors, master’s, or doctoral level. Critical thinking was identified as one of the two most important competencies, regardless of geoscience specialty or employer type. Graduate students need to be able to think logically, and to be pragmatic, open-minded and flexible in their thinking. They should be able to critically evaluate the literature and recognize credible sources. The expectation for finishing graduate students is that they be independent critical thinkers in their specialty areas. Doctoral students should be expert, creative critical thinkers, while master’s students should show mastery.

Geoscientific thinking forms the basis of geologic reasoning and synthesis. Geoscientists need to think about processes on geologic and current timescales, on different physical scales and in three and four dimensions. Geologic processes occur instantaneously or over thousands to millions of years, and the age of geologic structures and features can span minutes to billions of years. 3D/4D and spatial visualization skills are necessary to understand and interpret structures and features in the Earth and in other planetary systems. The processes and features studied by geoscientists occur on the scale of atoms to that of the universe. Working across time and space requires the ability to think and work on multiple scales, and to understand non-linear behavior.

Employers agreed that competencies in systems thinking was essential for all types of systems, and finishing graduate students needed to be able to deal both with highly complex systems that have many interacting parts, as well as with the interactions among systems. They stressed the need to consider entire systems and recognize that any part in isolation may act differently than when considered within a system. Thus, it is important to start at the system level and evaluate the interactions, feedback, and limitations of its different parts. In solving problems, employers were looking for those who could look at and grasp the big picture first, then drill down to details evaluating the reinforcing and balancing processes, and then bring that information back up to the system level.

The Earth is a complex, non-linear, open, interactive, dynamic, coupled system. The interrogation and learning of atmospheric, ocean, and solid earth concepts provide a concrete framework for systems thinking. Graduates need to understand the processes that are acting in the different parts of the Earth system and the interactions between them. In addition, understanding the interconnections between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, pedosphere (Earth’s surface), and biosphere (including humans) is essential for geoscientists. Graduates should be able to incorporate the human element and understand how human society impacts the Earth system, as well as how geoscience processes impact society. In some specialties, coupled solar system-Earth interactions are additionally important. The participating employers indicated that doctoral students should have achieved mastery, and master’s students’ proficiency, in knowing how the parts of the Earth system interact, work together as a system, the driving forces for change, and their effects.

4. Problem Solving

Problem solving, also discussed in the Vision and Change undergraduate report, is the second important competency identified by employers regardless of specialty or employer type. The expectation was that finishing graduate students, particularly doctoral graduates, should not only be independent critical thinkers, but also adept in independent research, as self-sufficient, and self-motivated problem solvers. They should be able to identify and define problems, develop appropriate approaches to solving problems, and be able to apply those solutions. For both finishing undergraduate and graduate students, employers expected that they could understand the context of problems, identify the appropriate questions to ask, data to collect, and methods to use. They are expected to be able to collect those data, evaluate data quality, interpret the results, and make sensible predictions from limited data. Graduate students were expected to recognize gaps that need addressing and opportunities for new advances. Being flexible and able to adapt to changes, using different methods, or interdisciplinary approaches was seen as important.

The ability to distill important information quickly and accurately was seen as essential in new graduates. Central to research success is knowing where to find answers. Also, learning how to identify misinformation or disinformation and how to recognize trusted information is a necessary skillset for geoscience graduates. In addition, they need to learn how to articulate to others why specific information is trustworthy or not. Employers also said that knowing when to ask questions or request help was important, but that such asks should not be open ended. There is a balance between being independent and self-sufficient and requiring specific direction to accomplish a task. Knowing the right questions to ask, or bringing forward possible solutions or approaches for discussion, maintains that balance and fosters collaborative problem solving and innovation.

Finishing graduate students not only should be able to identify and define problems, but also develop and implement appropriate solutions with solid analysis and technical skills. It is important that they can define a sufficient solution to a problem, as opposed to only the precise and complete solution, and know which type of solution is needed or appropriate. In a workplace environment, there is often neither the time nor need to find comprehensive solutions, so it is critical to know whether the chosen solution is sufficient. The result should be the delivery of a product.

Students also need to recognize that delays, errors, and failure is a normal part of research and should learn to minimize disappointment when things don’t go as planned. Not all problems can be solved.

Employers pointed out that many finishing graduate students struggle with defining problems. Many also had difficulty after solving a problem in identifying how to apply a solution, another critical skill. Employers found that recent graduates could readily solve problems that were given to them. However, the definition of problems and knowing what to do with the answers are skills expected of doctoral graduates and most master’s students.

5. Communication

Employers at our 2018 and 2022 workshops stressed the need for communication skills, similar to those expressed in the Vision and Change undergraduate report, but with an even greater emphasis on this need for graduate students. Effective communication was seen as vital, regardless of the profession, and it is a skill that geoscience employers generally find lacking in finishing graduate students. The inability to express technical content successfully, both in writing and verbally, to diverse audiences is seen as a common obstacle to success across the geoscience professions. Specific points that were emphasized include:

• Modify and tailor content and style of verbal and written communications to match audience.
• Express ideas accurately and logically.
• Be concise. Short one-to-two-page documents with bulleted lists are effective.
• Provide brief, compelling executive summaries with any written report. In many cases, this summary will be the only part read, though the rest may be used by those more directly involved in any implementations.
• Keep presentations to the allotted time.
• For non-technical audiences, including public, policy makers, government officials, politicians, and the press, convey complex material in a simple way, without technical jargon or acronyms; make the key points without “dumbing down”.
• If using slides or visual aids, it is important to maximize the impact of your work by making the data both visually appealing and accessible to all.
• Use colorblind-friendly color palettes, easy to read fonts, non-distracting backgrounds, and, if possible, closed captioning for those with hearing limitations.
• When presenting, provide a simple statement of what is shown on the slides; this helps audiences unfamiliar with the subject or when slides are hard to read (e.g., this graph plotting temperature versus depth shows…).
• For effective posters, organize the layout and create an attractive visual appearance; this can play as large a role as the science presented.

For an audience in one’s own specialty or in related science fields, one can assume a certain amount of background knowledge. But for engineers and other non-geoscience technical personnel, or for upper-level audiences, such as CEOs, managers, upper administration and/or sponsors, explaining the purpose of the science should be the focus. Whatever background or data that is required needs to be provided concisely. In many situations, being able to effectively communicate the societal and/or financial impacts of a problem or project is just as important as presenting the science itself.

The employers in our 2018 and 2022 events emphasized that communicating across different disciplines, and even across different cultures, has become increasingly important in geoscience professions. The ability to work and collaborate with social scientists is a growing need as geoscientists are involved in addressing significant societal issues and problems. In many cases, social and environmental/geological problems are entangled, and knowing the history surrounding the issue and the science is imperative. Also, in today’s global world, being able to effectively communicate with people whose first language is not English is also necessary.

Developing editing skills to both critically evaluate and revise written work, and to accept and use criticism of their own work is important. Graduate students need to learn how to respond to arbitrary and negative feedback.

The combined employer and academic workshops in 2022 highlighted the need for students to learn how to write short, polite professional emails, in addition to cover letters. They also discussed the growing need for knowing how to use social media effectively, including writing blogs, generating videos, and using other digital outlets (e.g., YouTube, Instagram, Twitter/X, etc.). Part of working in social media is knowing how to deal with arbitrary critiques, trolls and negative reactions. Being able to effectively use different formats and platforms for communication has become increasingly important in the geosciences. Employers highlighted the importance of being aware of the professional impact of one’s virtual presence, both on professional and personal media channels.

As in the Vision and Change undergraduate report, employers also stressed listening skills as a critical competency. Being sensitive to one’s audience (i.e., reading the room), is important in gauging the appropriate level for effective communication, and in recognizing when one’s audience is engaged and understands what is being said. Being attentive to what others say is important, both verbally and through facial expressions and body language. Listening carefully when questions are asked is especially important. Many presenters either don’t listen or assume they know what the question will be and answer a different question than the one asked. If unsure, ask for clarification and/or confirmation from the questioner.

6. Quantitative Skills

Employers agreed that students entering graduate school should have competency in the basics of statistics and in higher-level math as undergraduates, including calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra. Particularly important is statistics, for communicating certainty. If not, they need to acquire these competencies in graduate school. The employers involved in the Vision and Change undergraduate effort had also strongly emphasized these high-level quantitative skills for undergraduates, with an emphasis on statistics. Depending on the type of employer, different higher mathematics competencies (i.e., differential equations, linear algebra and/or applied statistics) are the most needed. For example, differential equations are most important for those working with fluid flow, whereas linear algebra for working with complex multivariate systems to understand how they behave and how multiple variables and dependences between them can generate multiple solutions. Applied statistics is used in constructing and evaluating predictive models, including extremes, the probability of an event being more extreme that previously observed, which is important for weather, water, and climate (https://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/andrea/MindTheGap/MindTheGap2.html)

7. Computational Skills

Computational and quantitative skills are essential within all types of geoscience employment, and in our 2018 and all 2022 workshops, employers stressed computational skills as necessary. At the 2018 Geoscience Employers Workshop, employers also discussed expected advances over the next ten years in these areas. Four years later, most of the advances discussed in 2018 (i.e., machine learning, robotics, blockchain, AI, and immersive virtual reality data exploration, and transition from supercomputing to cloud based, high performance computing - HPC) had occurred. By 2022, competency with machine learning was considered a mainstream need, and AI was on its way to being one as well. The post 2022 advent of ChatGPT, Bing AI Chat, and Google Bard AI clearly demonstrates AI’s current and future importance.

Employers and academics at 2022 workshops all recognized that the professional importance of these digital skills had increased dramatically. The changes between 2018 and 2022 exemplify the rapid change in computational skills being employed by geoscientists, which are expected to continue, and highlight the need for the development of competencies in these areas. Many geoscience graduate students may find employment in dominantly computational occupations, but essentially all, regardless of employment, will need familiarity and some expertise with these digital skills.

By 2022, employers and academics at the combined workshops also agreed that in the geosciences today, the use of GIS (geographic information systems) for geospatial analytics, computer programing, quantitative analysis, and data handling and analysis is a necessity. Across all geoscience disciplines, graduate students need to be able to do statistical analyses and understand the correct statistical tools to apply for any specific problem.

At the 2018 Geoscience Employers workshop and the two 2022 workshops, employers across the spectrum stressed the need for all geoscience (and STEM) students to learn some basic programing in scripted languages and be able to code (a key skill), even if it is only simple scripting, logical algorithms, MatLab, Excel macros, or similar entryways into programming. The ability to translate older code to newer code and more effective systems was seen as important, as is being aware of different styles of programing and programming paradigm shifts (e.g., object-oriented vs. functional, compiled vs. interpreted). Familiarity with version control (e.g., Git, Github) to tracking and managing changes to software code, is important for data intensive disciplines, such as atmospheric sciences (see https://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/andrea/MindTheGap/MindTheGap2.html)

The ability to analyze algorithms and use R and/or Python has become critical with the increase in machine learning and AI. However, as programing languages change over time, understanding the basics of programming and problem-oriented logical thinking is the important competency. Students need technological versatility and some basic skills, but they don’t need to be an expert in everything, as tools change over time. Students also need familiarity with informatics, the study of computational systems for data storage and retrieval.

Other desirable skills include being able to develop, analyze and evaluate computational models and to develop and use computer simulations to predict how a system or process performs under different conditions. Understanding how to upscale and downscale to connect models to reality and the uncertainty involved is also important.

Master’s students specifically need to have and demonstrate computational skills. Software skills are expected for many types of entry-level jobs today, with being able to write computer software a requirement, followed by understanding geosciences as context for that software. For doctoral and some master’s students, many employers are interested in those who have embraced technology as creators and could engage in genuine innovation. Having such skills is important as many geoscience employers said that they also hire non-geoscientists with some geoscience courses or background, because they have more experience and skills in computer science or engineering.

8. Data Management and Data Analytics

Employers across the geoscience spectrum strongly emphasized the critical and growing importance of data management and data analytics skills in all geoscience careers. In 2018, geoscience employers expected finishing graduate students to be familiar with data analytics, its applications, and with processes for using data. The depth expected at that time varied with employers and the geoscience discipline, but by 2022, the depth and type of these skills expected had grown markedly across all employment sectors. Employers agreed that skills in data analytics, data management and machine learning were now critical, and that skills in AI applications would become critical in the future.

This very strong emphasis on “big data” skills is a new development since the Vision and Change undergraduate effort (focused primarily on Earth sciences) and became more important in the eyes of all geoscience employers over the course of the current project. Behind this change is the growth in geoscience information collected through various kinds of sensors (airborne, satellite, land-based) which has expanded rapidly and to an overwhelming degree (Baumann et al., 2016; Guo, 2017). For the atmospheric and ocean sciences, modeling and big data has been a primary focus (Bauer et al., 2015; Brunet et al., 2023) and increases in computing capacity has meant greater private sector involvement in using their own modeling capability. With the AI revolution, the private sector is moving into the area of estimating the changes in the frequency and impact of damaging weather and climate events. The rapidly increasing amounts of available data and the rapid growth in computing power have made these skills necessary.

Graduate students need to learn to work with multiple large, complex datasets, with the skillsets to integrate and merge different types of data and information to solve complex geoscience problems. They need to be able to examine datasets to draw conclusions about the information within them, which may provide answers to the problem being addressed, as well as to other questions not yet defined.

Regardless of their involvement in data collection and acquisition, it was seen as essential that graduates understand the processes. Datasets can be the result of observations, experiments, or simulations, or can be derived from combining and processing existing raw data. It has become important to understand the different sources and types of data, and to be able to assess data credibility. Graduates should understand how data were acquired (gathered, filtered, and cleaned) and/or manipulated (i.e., changed or altered to make it more readable and organized). They need to know how to evaluate data quality and be able to make effective use of data of different qualities.

Participants at the combined academic and employer workshops in 2022 stressed the importance of understanding how to work with and process large volumes of sensor data, and being able to interpret such data using spatial statistics (GIS, EarthChem, IODP data, geophysical data sets, Ocean Observing Initiatives (OOI) for cabled sea floor data; EARTHScope, volcano monitoring data), geoscience data that comes from a variety of perspectives (e.g., air, ground, underwater, etc.). To analyze and manage data effectively, graduates need to be proficient in synthesizing various types of data from these different perspectives. They should be familiar with the available tools for accessing, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting geoscience data. For atmospheric sciences, students need to understand the characteristics of these models including how subgrid scale processes may be parameterized.

Data analytics is an expanding field, and developing and learning new ways to manage, analyze and synthesize data will be needed. With a rapidly growing influx of new observations, data assimilation and sequential updating of model forecasts will become routine. Also crucial are the ability to model from data and know the limits of the modeling, and to create visualizations and/or simulations for display and exploration of data. Another skill of growing importance is understanding how to monetize data, or data valuation.

Finishing graduate students should be able to integrate diverse, interdisciplinary big datasets, access, store, and process data, use machine learning (e.g., auto-analyses of data), and be able to run and modify numerical models. They should also know how to visualize and display data, do data validation (QC data), be able to explain the data and connect it to the bigger picture. With the rapid advances in data analytics, machine learning and AI, the ability to keep up with new statistical methods and find reliable and relevant information are of growing importance. Geospatial analytical skills, spatial awareness, image analysis, data visualization, and geospatial reasoning, including statistical analysis of geospatial data, were also considered very important. Another key competency needed by graduates is knowing how to share the results of your data with different audiences and the broader community.

Looking ahead ten years, the 2022 workshop participants agreed with the continuing importance and advancement of data analytics, the ability to synthesize diverse datasets, and competencies in machine learning and AI applications. They predicted that AI would become dominant in the future. They also saw an increasing emphasis on data safety and security, as well as on GIS and geospatial analyses. Although many geoscience careers may focus primarily on addressing the larger science questions, having a good understanding and familiarity with data analytics, machine learning and AI is required to verify the validity of the conclusions.

9. Teamwork and Collaboration

Teamwork and collaboration were extensively discussed in the 2018 and all 2022 workshops, substantially expanding on similar discussions during the Vision and Change undergraduate effort. Teamwork and collaboration with scientists and other professionals are common in the work environment, where diversity of thought, expertise, and abilities are considered essential. Employers agreed that finishing geoscience graduate students generally lacked experience in these areas and would benefit greatly from more exposure. The ability to work in groups towards a project goal is critical, and people skills are essential. Effective teamwork requires recognizing and valuing the skills and capabilities of the people on your team, as well as knowing one’s own strengths and skills. Being able to manage conflict and to get others to work together is important as both a team leader and a team member.

Graduates need to be personally versatile and should be comfortable leading, following, accepting coaching, and taking directions. They should know how to work both collaboratively and alone — ​and be able to identify which approach is best for any specific problem, as well as understanding when innovation is acceptable and appropriate. Team leadership requires good interpersonal skills and the ability to empower experts on the team.

Skills that enable interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations are very important. Geoscientists are more and more frequently working across geoscience disciplines (earth, atmosphere, ocean) and across sciences, as well as across subdisciplines within geoscience fields. Working successfully with social scientists, economists, and other scientists and professionals is becoming more and more essential toward doing science with improved societal outcomes (National Science Foundation 2021). As well, collaboration with and across different types of institutional entities, such as government, industry, academia and the public is critical to solving global societal issues.

10. Social Dynamics and People Skills

People skills related to interpersonal and cross-cultural interactions are highly valued in the geoscience workplace. Employers indicated that finishing graduate students often show limited interpersonal and cross-cultural skills, which can become a barrier to their future success. Empathy and emotional intelligence allow for more successful communication and interaction.

An important skill for graduates is the ability to work with different types of people, including those with different specialties, abilities, experiences, and educational backgrounds. In addition, it is necessary to be able to work with different personalities, emotional makeup, and viewpoints, irrespective of one’s affinity for or agreement with them. Personal opinions about an individual are irrelevant to professional conduct and cooperation. The employers contended that the vast majority of ‘human dynamics’ issues in a corporate environment arise from the inability to work with others who are different. In today’s global workforce, understanding and being comfortable with people with different cultures and different languages is also very important. Understanding implicit bias, being aware of it in one’s own experiences, and having the ability to overcome it is critical.

“Corporate” skills were also deemed to be very important; academia, industry, government and business all involve different work cultures and expectations as to acceptable behaviors. Knowing how to transition between these different institutional expectations is necessary for finishing graduate students and for those seeking collaboration with different institutional entities. For example, a required “corporate” skill is being able to distill down all that you have done to make it digestible and relevant to a CEO, manager, program director, client, or the public.

In 2022, employers and academics noted that since the pandemic, intrapersonal skills have become more important, including resilience and the ability to handle change and stressful situations. Remote work has become much more common and acceptable in the workplace, and with it the need for interpersonal interaction across different social modalities. A consequence is the loss of live interaction with coworkers, which requires learning new ways to communicate effectively and establish successful working relationships.

11. Leadership

Effective leaders define a vision for the future and inspire and motivate others to work towards that vision. It requires setting goals, communicating the purpose, identifying, and implementing a strategy, and being committed to the outcome. Successful leaders take responsibility for the outcomes, good or bad, and learn from mistakes and successes. They show empathy, cultivate interpersonal skills, and are good listeners, paying attention to those they are leading. To be effective, leaders need to be competent, have a passion for developing and growing potential talent, and appreciate the viewpoints and accomplishments of others. They need to solicit “out of the box” thinking, be open to new ideas, and take initiative and risks. Employers said that evidence of leadership abilities were generally lacking in their new geoscience employees, and strongly encouraged graduate programs to work with their students on developing these skills.

In general, only a few of these abilities are developed by the end of graduate school. However, making students aware of them, and of other important qualities of a good leader, is essential. For example, they should have a good set of values and principles and understand the need for integrity, authenticity, honesty, empathy, humility, and ethical behavior. They should seek to develop their communication skills, cultivate their ability to grow and help others grow, including both accepting and providing constructive feedback. They also need to understand themselves, assess their own gaps and weaknesses, and find ways to address them. All students need to be aware of the importance of diversity of thought, inclusive practices, and engaging and supporting diversity. Students also should be encouraged to try things outside their comfort zone and take risks, recognizing that learning from failure is as, if not more, valuable than from success.

Employers expected that master’s’ students should be aware of what it takes to be a good leader, and doctoral students to be proficient in some aspects of leadership. Leadership abilities are as essential in science and education as they are in business, public policy, and politics. Regardless of graduates’ career directions, the ability to lead organizations, groups and/or teams is an important competency. Over the next ten years, employers and academics agreed that leaderships skills would grow in importance. As the geosciences play an increasing role in addressing societal issues, we need geoscientists in more leadership positions that may or may not be geoscience industries or organizations. The need for systemic development of leadership skills in the geosciences is evidenced by the limited levels of geoscience presence in terms of national leadership, especially relative to other STEMM fields.

12. Project, Program and Time Management, Business Skills

Managing projects or programs is a critical career skill for success regardless of occupation and one geoscience employers often found lacking among new employees. Skills needed to manage programs are very similar to those needed for projects, but on a larger scale. Both require an understanding of the economics of geoscience work and some business acumen, including planning, operations, finance, and strategy, all integral for organizational success. They noted that two key limiting factors of geoscience graduates related to future success in managing projects and programs were poor communication and social skills. Innovation and entrepreneurship also play major roles in business success, but unlike in business and engineering departments, geoscience degree programs generally offer little training in these areas.

Overall, the participating employers thought that exposure to the basics of business and business operations and some improvement in student business skills were needed. For project and program management, only awareness was expected for master’s’ students, while doctoral students were expected to show proficiency or mastery.

Leadership, teambuilding, effective communication, professionalism (staying focused and not distracted), and understanding the importance of diversity of thought are all part of the process of effective project and program management. Those overseeing multidisciplinary projects need to be conversant with the different fields and capable of facilitating communication between participants.

Important management skills include being able to run effective meetings, including developing agendas; managing people, time, and resources; and obtaining funding for the project or program. Business skills include understanding budgets and project financials, accounting, and cash flow, economic, data-driven decision-making, risk analysis, and uncertainty quantification. It is critical to know the sources of geoscience funding, be they within the organization or external through grants and contracts, and what factors drive the decision-making process. Employers and academics also agreed on the need for awareness of time-value concepts, i.e., that money today is worth more than the same amount of money in the future.

Time management for oneself and one’s team is critical, particularly given the fast pace in industry. Planning should be structured for different levels and time periods. Making a timeline for weekly, monthly or longer time periods for different aspects of one’s project or work, followed by self-reporting, can keep a project on track for completion (e.g., using a GANTT chart). Learning to be efficient so that one spends most of one’s time on important actions is very beneficial. Periodically evaluating time usage with a time management quadrant can be useful, as it allows one to see how much time gets spent on busy work such as answering emails, as opposed to meeting project deadlines or strategic thinking. During the pandemic, students and employees had more independence and had to learn to be more self-sufficient in terms of time management skills.

For many occupations, an awareness of policy and regulations, permitting requirements and procedures, and logistics is needed. These skills are usually learned during employment, but knowing how to read and understand policy, rules, regulations, and statutes are valuable skills for all finishing students. In consulting and in many government agencies, important skills include the writing of technical reports, scope of work or guidance documents to implement rules, reviewing such reports to determine if the work complies with the rules, and identifying how well the work was done.

13. Ethics and Science

Integral to being a scientist is understanding and practicing the scientific process, including observing, characterizing, understanding, modeling, simulating, predicting and verifying results. Employers overall expressed satisfaction with these competencies in their new doctoral and master’s geoscience employees. Students also need to recognize that research integrity is essential, and understand plagiarism, self-plagiarism, proper attribution to true sources, and the ground rules for scientific citation and research.

Finishing graduate students should have a firm grounding in and mastery of personal and research ethics. Core values, such as having integrity and being trustworthy, honest, and fair, are critical. They need to know and abide by the rules of professional conduct and ethics.

Ethics has become more central to geoscience activities. Geoscientists need to work and co-design work with local communities. It is no longer considered appropriate to do “parachute science/projects”, particularly using artificial intelligence (AI), without local input and discussion.

14. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

In the 2022 workshops, employers and academics addressed the question of what competencies students need to be successful working with diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) activities and environmental and social justice issues. The consensus was that students needed to be aware of the societal effects of geological decisions or hazards, such as water strategy, emerging contaminants, “social licensing” for mining, land use, and other issues of environmental justice, that can differentially impact those of different cultures, races, ethnicities, socio-economic statuses and/or countries. Students should develop an equity lens on the effects of their research activities. In their interpersonal relationships, they need to recognize language and cultural barriers, implicit bias and microaggressions. Also discussed was the ethics of increasingly open science, new forms of publishing, and co-production of knowledge.

15. Broader Impacts

At the 2022 combined workshops, academics and employers discussed the importance of research having a purpose, often one with a societal component. The prevalent view expressed was that all finishing students should be cognizant of the broader impacts or societal connection of their research and any societal purposes of their results. Being able to recognize and communicate those impacts and the importance of their outcomes was considered critical, particularly at the doctoral level.

They recognized that the impacts of geoscience research and its applications continues to increase in importance on global and societal scales. Increasingly, robust and meaningful broader impacts are central to the role and purpose of many graduate student research projects. Research topics with application-driven questions are more readily linked back to broader impacts. Such research projects with defined broader impacts or societal meaning help attract students to the geosciences and build students’ confidence in the importance of their work.

The geosciences, as a largely place-based science, requires a location-specific, local context for understanding the broader impacts of the science. This can be gained by listening to local cultures or communities. Some geoscience research (e.g., atmospheric, climate, and ocean sciences) may instead have global-scale broader impacts, and all societies, ecosystems and environments need to be considered, which requires a global perspective.

Employers said that recent graduates often struggle to understand the broader impact of their research and recognizing that research needs to have a purpose. Defining a research problem for impact leads to expanded opportunities. A finding in the physical sciences is usually not the end, but rather the societal outcome facilitated by that finding. Graduates also need to recognize the kinds of decisions that could be made using their findings.

16. Professional Development

Professional development should be ongoing throughout a student’s education and beyond. As discussed in Section 5: Organizational Framework for Graduate Programs — ​Individual Development Plans, the use of Individual Development Plans (IDPs) can allow students to develop a roadmap and learn what skills, knowledge and competencies they need to acquire to achieve their desired employment. Professional geologist licensure (PG) is needed for some types of geoscience employment in many states. Specific coursework is generally a prerequisite to eligibility for the PG license.

Although helping students obtain employment after graduation is not the specific responsibility of geoscience departments, how successful your students are in obtaining meaningful in-discipline employment is a measure of programmatic success. To get employed, students need to know where to search for job openings, how to apply, and what information is needed on a resume, a cover letter or an application for different types of employment. Students benefit from help with interviewing skills, including how they need to prepare for online, phone or in person interviews, and experiences with typical questions that may be asked. Importantly, they also need to understand what is unique about their expertise, and how to market themselves effectively. Employers (including academics) when interviewing are looking for people with the ability to move up and transition within an organization. Learning about these opportunities in an organization and asking about them in an interview demonstrates a growth mindset.

17. Networking

In 2022, employers and academics stressed that networking skills are essential to career progress. It involves being able to express interest in the work of others, ask intelligent questions, discuss issues constructively and present oneself effectively. Professional society participation was seen as one of the most effective networking processes, enabling career advancement and access to alternative contacts and information that are hard to obtain in other ways. Such participation also provides access to the forefront of knowledge in the field, and to the people developing that knowledge.

Students should have a prepared “elevator speech” — ​a brief statement of what they have accomplished in their research and why it is significant — ​to use in a variety of networking situations. They also should learn and practice networking, including what is and isn’t effective and where to be or not be seen.

Also discussed was the increase in professional networking through social media (i.e., LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Slack, etc.) and the need to learn how to network effectively online. In addition, it was noted that how one appears on social media (one’s virtual presence or brand) can affect one’s ability to obtain and keep a job. Online networking is expected to grow and evolve, and as such our participants recommended more and better incorporation of online engagement as part of students’ professional development. They also noted the need to develop a balance between digital and in-person interactions.

18. Personal Skills

Personal traits and skills that are important for success were discussed by employers in 2018 and reinforced by employers and academics in 2022. Chief among these was the ability to learn. Students need to learn how to learn in graduate school so they can continue as life-long learners for the rest of their careers. A growth mindset, where you do things so you can learn, gradually improve, and apply, was viewed as a valuable trait. They felt graduate students should seek to become independent and well rounded, seeking out and scaffolding their professional and academic experiences to build confidence.

It was also noted that how people obtain and vet information is evolving, and that new graduates needed to know how to search for information electronically and through other means. Importantly, they also need to be able to critically assess the information they are obtaining.

Students should be ready for dynamic job experiences. They need a diverse and adaptable skillset with the potential for transfer and evolution. Being able to transfer their skills to different problems and situations was considered more important than having specific skills. Much of the discussion on this topic focused on the importance of overcoming fear of failure, and of adopting new technology to address major problems.

Traits discussed above were reinforced during discussions of what kinds of students employers were likely to hire. Responses included: empathy and emotional intelligence for more successful communication and interaction with more people; versatility, adaptability, flexibility, agility, and being nimble were all stressed. Employers agreed that they look for those with a desire for excellence and an internal drive to do well. In addition, the need for awareness of risk and impact, and having a good grasp of uncertainty and the scalability over space and time were seen as critical. Geoscientists generally have excellent integration skills, and these skills should become well-developed during their graduate education. Employers are looking for future employees with an interest in the enterprise, who will step out of their comfort zones and demonstrate enthusiasm.

In 2022, several new issues arising from the impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic were addressed. It was felt that students needed to develop a healthy work/life balance as a component of their time management. Also, etiquette in virtual settings, such as focused participation in online meetings, turning on your camera, muting to exclude extraneous noise, and dressing professionally, had become issues of importance. Another issue discussed in 2018 and reinforced in 2022 was the need to establish a virtual presence or brand, and to develop awareness of the professional impacts of one’s social media presence.

Additional Key Skills for Academic Careers

About half of geoscience doctoral students end up in academic careers (Figure 3.9b), in programs that range from small liberal arts colleges to large research-intensive universities. The skills and competencies needed in these careers, and to gain employment in different academic settings are similar, but with some distinct differences.

In seeking academic employment, evidence for academic currency is needed in terms of publications, innovative research, and depending on the position and institution, citations and grantsmanship. In teaching-intensive institutions like liberal arts colleges, documented experience in teaching and evidence for a scholarly approach to teaching are often expected. Once hired, regardless of institution, teaching and the application of effective pedagogies are necessary skills.

Courses and/or instruction in effective teaching methods are critically important for graduate students, and even those not ending up in academia will find these experiences useful. Actual experience in classrooms is important for those students wishing to continue in academia. Some geoscience graduate programs require, or strongly recommend, that all doctoral students serve as a teaching assistant for at least one semester, or during a summer session. Effective communication is critical to faculty for explaining their ideas and results from their research, as well as to teach in an impactful manner.

The skills listed by employers as important for non-academic employment are also needed by those who would become faculty. Critical thinking and research skills, including problem identification, problem solving, experimental (or project) design, data integration and synthesis are equally important in academic and non-academic jobs. Additionally, faculty need good interpersonal skills to be effective working with their students, as well as with their staff and faculty colleagues. The ability of faculty to work together and to positively interact with and educate students is central to program success. Toxic academic work environments result in the loss of students, the departure of staff and faculty, and even more serious problems. Faculty also need project and time management skills, as well as financial skills, including developing and managing budgets. These skills are generally related to grant and/or contract research and funding; however, becoming department chairs or heads, deans, professional society presidents, or members of society boards or councils all require a working understanding of budgets and organizational finance. For all of the latter, business acumen and being able to understand financials and budgets is imperative. Additionally, faculty who lead or are part of large research teams or projects need to be able to collaborate and work in a team environment. Teamwork among faculty colleagues builds strong departments and programs and benefits everyone.

Graduate programs should include a focus on ensuring that future faculty have the necessary skills and experience in these areas. In general, newer faculty are coming in with many of these skills and are better at collaboration. Many younger faculty have postdoctoral experience which has provided time for the additional development of their research skills, as well as experience in project management and budgeting. Graduate certificates in various topics including pedagogy, data analytics, machine learning, etc. can help document the skills attained. Faculty mentoring teams, especially for new faculty, are highly valuable.

Skills of Current Finishing Master’s and Doctoral Students

Employers at the 2018 Geoscience Employers Workshop, during the combined 2022 workshops, and based on additional input in 2020–21, discussed not only the skills that students needed, but also which skills students generally lacked. They discussed how these skills should be addressed during graduate school and how graduates could demonstrate to employers which skills they had attained.

Employers agreed that geoscience graduate students have great research skills and strong technical skills appropriate to their degree and research area. Their technological versatility was seen as lacking, however, though many had learned specific instrumentation skills that could be applied to other instruments for troubleshooting. It was also noted that these students were good at visualizing data, making observations to use in context to draw conclusions (a common field skill), and in writing reports. However, many graduates seemingly lack the ability to express technical content effectively, both in writing and verbally, to diverse and non-technical audiences.

Quantitative and computational skills, including collaborative coding skills and use of community code, were found lacking in most graduates, though some employers in 2022 noted improvements in these areas. The inability to work with large datasets (“Big Data”) and to do data analysis and data analytics discussed in 2018 was still seen as an issue in 2022, though in some specialties graduates had more mastery. Additionally, most graduates lacked proficiency with coding, programming and newer technologies (e.g., machine learning; AI). Employers noted that although the programming languages were changing fast and which were needed depended on the type of work, learning any language was helpful in preparing students to learn other languages. These skills are the same ones noted by recent graduates as ones they wish they had gained in their education (Figure 3.6)

Some employers in 2022 noted that basic geospatial and GIS skills had permeated most geoscience fields, and they found that graduates’ skills in these areas were generally well developed. Other employers highlighted a greater need for applied skills in GIS, geospatial analysis, statistical methods, and remote sensing, and questioned student understanding of the underlying principles. Many employers also felt that students needed more field experience, both because it grounds them in reality when they are working with computational models, remote sensing and large datasets, and because many jobs require skills involved in fieldwork.

A particular challenge for students (and faculty) is developing emotional intelligence (EQ) skills: empathy, self-awareness, self-management or regulation, social awareness, and relationship management. The collective competency of teams was deemed very important, and most students didn’t have exposure to true teamwork during their education, wherein the team shares their experiences and knowledge to generate a collective approach to a task. Communication between individuals in a team is key, especially early in their careers, and helps to teach conflict resolution. Also, finishing geoscience students generally lack leadership versus team player adaptability (i.e., being interchangeable), which is also pivotal to team success. On the other hand, employers were concerned that few graduates seem to have developed the leadership abilities or the skills needed to become creators, innovators and entrepreneurs (see Section 5: Organizational Framework for Graduate Programs — ​Preparing Graduate Students to be Leaders, Innovators and Creators).

In completing their theses or dissertations, students acquire some project and time management skills. However, most non-academic jobs involve solving problems in much shorter time frames. Also, managing projects and/or programs requires business acumen, workplace skills, and in many cases intercultural skills which are not commonly developed in graduate school. Helping students learn how to manage time and projects has become more acute with the increase in remote work resulting from the pandemic, which made separating work and personal life more difficult. Coupled with always being available electronically, many students struggle with work-life balance, a skill which also will be needed after graduate school.

Skills that graduate students develop during their educations, such as creative problem solving, critical thinking, and project management need to be reinforced and fostered. Employers found that graduate students generally have all these skills to some extent, but don’t recognize them and don’t know how to market them.

Employers noted that defining the big picture relevance and societal importance (“who cares”) of their work is often a challenge for geoscience graduates, even at the doctoral level. Students generally seem to have limited understanding of the societal, policy, or economic, broader impacts of their research. However, professional geoscientists typically occupy a critical position at that interface of science and policy. So, students need to know their subject, but also need to grasp and be able to communicate its relevance and what its broader impacts are to work effectively with clients and governmental agencies and regulators.

Perhaps the most concerning issue highlighted by the participating employers is that many finishing graduate students have difficulties defining the problems that need solving and identifying and applying solutions. This likely arises from students being recruited into grant-supported research efforts, where the problems have already been defined, and the work of many will be combined to develop solutions. Ways to address this issue are discussed in Section 6: Fostering and Implementing Change — ​Meeting Learning Outcomes.

Employers also noted that graduates generally don’t have a clear understanding of the differences between being in academia and working in the private sector. They are unsure as to how they fit into the company and what the cultural expectations may be. Deadlines and accountability are different in corporate settings and being humble (occasionally) is necessary. Students also need to learn how to say no — ​in a nice way, acknowledging honestly when they are too busy to do something. New hires often lack the confidence to advocate for themselves and need to learn how to do this effectively. They need courage and confidence in the transportability of their skills and knowledge, and they need coaching and feedback in the early stages of their new jobs. They need to identify clear goals for themselves, and a plan to achieve them and become self-sufficient in their new professional roles.

The graduate program structure survey asked departments which skills they expected their graduates to have expert proficiency (see figure 3.5). Comparing the employers’ expectations for master’s and doctoral graduates with that of the departments, both have high expectations for critical thinking and problems solving, research skills, and communication to scientists. The high expectations by departments for data and statistical analysis, somewhat above field skills and experience, illustrates the increasing recognition by academia of the importance of data analytics. Departments have the lowest expectations for communication to non-scientists, computer programming (except for terminal master’s), teaching, leadership, server-based database use and management, and technical writing, all of which are viewed as important by employers.

How graduate students can document their skills for employers was another question raised in workshop discussions. Employers agreed that having standalone courses listed on transcripts (i.e., technical writing, or data analytics) was good, as were stackable certificates and certifications from external courses, such as through professional societies. However, well-constructed resumes, interviews, and research products (e.g., papers, datasets codes, etc.) also can be used to demonstrate skills development. An e-portfolio or other kinds of professional development portfolios can provide a mechanism for demonstrating a student’s learning and acquisition of skills over time. These measures of successful attainment are like those expressed by employers for bachelor’s students in the Vision and Change undergraduate report.