Erin Mills

I always knew that I wanted to go into an environmental science degree, but I wasn't entirely sure which. I went to an Open Day at the University and instantly felt very connected to the city, the staff and the campus, as well as the resources that they had. I instantly felt that this was quite a good integration.

The ability to select option courses in addition to the compulsory courses was ideal because you could scope out what you wanted to do before you specialised, which other universities maybe don't offer in quite the same way. Being able to tailor the degree to what you were interested in and then in turn, what you were good at, was a major selling point.

The reason that I chose the BSc programme as opposed to MA, was that I just knew my interests were more on the physical science than they were on the human science.

I went on to do a Master’s in Geoinformation and Cartography at the University of Glasgow. I fully recommend that people who want to do a Master’s look within the organisation that they’re currently in, but further afield as well, because you never know what’s out there. 

I was very excited that my Master's thesis was going to be in partnership with the British Geological Survey (BGS). I was then very lucky to be offered a job with them. I've been at the BGS now for the last two and a half years in their Shallow Geohazards and Earth Observation team as a Remote Sensing and Multi-Hazard Scientist. Transitioning from university into a non-academic role in research has been really interesting. I now partner with people from the University and students come to us, so it’s very full circle. It’s nice to now be colleagues with people who were once my teachers.

The great thing about BGS is that everyone comes from a geology, geoscience or geography background. We also have geophysics and geochemistry and a lot of informatics teams, so there’s a lot of different skillsets there. I think sometimes people may be intimidated by working for a survey because they feel that they must have a geology component. I don’t, and I know enough to get by. There are lots of different skillsets, so don’t let the organisation’s name scare you away.

Learn more about British Geological Survey

I gained a lot from Edinburgh both personally and professionally. Coming from a state school, going to the University of Edinburgh was incredibly daunting at first. I think it is quite difficult for state school students to go to such a prestigious university. 

Once you grow and put that aside, there is absolutely no downfall to that whatsoever. The initial anxiety of starting somewhere new and making friends as someone who may be from a different background is hard and daunting, but you quickly realise it’s not all it’s made out to be. You can make university whatever you want it to be. 

I didn’t go out much and I wasn’t having a drink at a party, and that was okay. No one judged me for that. I had my boundaries and people were very accepting and willing to work around that. I realised that I don’t have to change myself in order to fit in. I can do this the way that I want to do it and there will still be people around me.

In my current role, I use everything that I learned from the start to the end of university. This included my way of thinking and the technologies used. You have the interpretation side of things and the skillsets gained from looking at data, as well as skills from the field and analysing samples. 

The role I am in is tech-focused. I am predominantly desk-based and a lot of my GIS, processing and analytical skills are things that I learned through my undergraduate degree. Some examples include: ArcGIS, QGIS, Python and R. 

You can tailor your choices at university to dictate the path for where you want to end up. I knew very early on that I was very good at things like patterns and observation, rather than writing essays, so for me, maps, diagrams and visual analysis was much easier.

There are also soft skills like the ability to hold a conversation, present scientific work to different audiences, reading and writing skills. You take them for granted at the time, but they set you up for whatever you go on to do.

I was very vocal throughout my studies when I was struggling and when I needed help. Sometimes people are ashamed of that, but I could not care less about putting my hand up and asking those silly questions, because I'm not going to take anything from it unless I can fully digest it. It’s good to have that level of confidence in yourself to see that this is how you learn and these are the clarifications that you’re going to need. I think people forget that you're not supposed to understand things the first-time round. There's a lot of pressure, but nobody can do it at first. 

I went to a lot of the Geographical Society socials and events. It wasn’t something that I partook in at the start of university and I encourage people not to do what I did, and get involved early. They did lots of treasure hunts and non-drinking activities. It was really nice because it gave you a chance to meet some of the people in the cohorts above and below yours. It meant that when you went onto different courses, you knew a lot of people already and had that familiarity.

Learn more about the Geographical Society

Drummond (Institute of Geography) is a very homely, family-oriented place where everyone knows everyone. It’s all very friendly and that is probably a highlight for me. We used to spend hours in the computing lab. For the BSc Geography, it was a smaller cohort so there was less than 40 of us. Everyone knew each other, we did field work together, and it was very close-knit.

I also cannot recommend the staff at Edinburgh enough. I felt very well supported and taken care of. There are a lot of people there that want to see you succeed and are willing to help.

“Investigating the effect of ENSO-related climate variability on a volcanic eruption of Galeras, Colombia and the associated tephra fall hazards”

I had quite a lot going on in my life in my final year, and worked really hard to get this work finished. I am so proud of thinking slightly outside the box and researching something that I was passionate about, i.e. the intersection between climatological and geohazards, and how this changes vulnerabilities across an exposed population. It set me up very nicely for the work I do today at BGS.

A lot of people might feel pressured to go to university or feel like they have to, but there are other options. It's a very large time commitment, as well as a financial and personal commitment, and you have to be in it for the right reasons.

I would encourage everyone to take advantage of Open Days because I thought I knew what I wanted until I went to one and then realised that I hated that option. I knew instantly when I came to the Open Day at Edinburgh that that's where I wanted to be.

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You have to do a lot of research. Don't just go where you think your friends are going because you need to find what's best for you. You should find something that suits what you are interested in, whether that is the social aspect or the learning, or whether you want to be in one of the top five universities.

Linking back to the support and the resources available in the School of GeoSciences, I have spoken to other people at my job who had nowhere near the number of options or the flexibility to tailor their degree to their interests. At Edinburgh, you can make your degree whatever you want.

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