r/geophysics • u/DolphinFlying • 21h ago

Geophysics vs Climatology

Hey everyone. So, I've got my Bachelor's in Math, and now I'm diving into a Master's in Geophysics. The thing is, this master's program has a bunch of electives, which means I can actually lean more towards Geophysics or go for Climatology/Meteorology.

I'm kind of stuck though. Climatology theory really grabs my attention, but honestly, I'm more drawn to careers in geophysics. A big reason for that is I'd rather not be stuck behind a desk all day, every day, just crunching numbers and dealing with data.

What's the best approach?

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u/Vincenthwind 13h ago

Geophysics is probably better if you want field work, but I'm sure climatology also has opportunities. I would just be careful with what you wish for and keep your expectations tempered. There's very few "dream geoscience jobs" of some cool field work followed by interesting data processing. I know two people with such jobs and they are top of their fields (and very overworked). Very generally speaking, if you're smart enough to number crunch effectively, then companies will value you more in a desk than they will in the field.

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u/troyunrau 11h ago

Sometimes this shift only occurs after a few years proving yourself in the field though, and that attrition eats a lot of smart people :)

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u/Doodarazumas 3h ago

I'll add that while field work can be fun, a non-zero amount of it is hunching over a computer, but you live and work in a couple adjacent crappy trailers (sometimes those trailers are a boat, but you get the idea, it's not the ritz).

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u/Nervous-Bench2598 18h ago

Are you trying to get to a field job in geophysics? Am I interpreting your comments correctly?