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Career Exploration

Geography Teachers, Postsecondary

Also called: Associate Professor, Geography Instructor, Geography Professor, Professor

What they do:

Teach courses in geography. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

On the job, you would:
  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as urbanization, environmental systems, and cultural geography.
  • Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
On the job, you'll need:

Arts and Humanities

  • English language
  • history and archeology

Math and Science

  • geography
  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics

Education and Training

  • teaching and course design

Engineering and Technology

  • computers and electronics

Basic Skills

  • talking to others
  • writing things for co-workers or customers

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Social

  • teaching people how to do something
  • understanding people's reactions

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • communicate by writing

Ideas and Logic

  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
  • use rules to solve problems

Social

People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking.

  • Integrity
  • Independence
  • Dependability
  • Initiative
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Achievement/Effort

Geographic information system

  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS software

Word processing software

  • Google Docs
  • Microsoft Word

Analytical or scientific software

  • IBM SPSS Statistics
  • The MathWorks MATLAB

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Average.

New job opportunities are likely in the future.

Median Annual Salary: $81,920

Education

Doctoral degree is usually needed.