Resume Objectives for an Oceanographer

General Objectives

Your career as an oceanographer requires that you have knowledge and a variety of skills. Your resume objectives can refer to these if you have any experience, even if they are from college classes. Satellite remote sensing buoy tracking and underwater acoustics, for example, might be areas where you can share your experience, such as, “To use my knowledge of tsunami detection buoys to research, report and publish...” Expanding on project management skills is another important objective since so much work is project-based. You can share your long-term objectives from the specific career paths that are open to you.

Biological Ocenographer

As a biological oceanographer you will study marine plants and animals, examining how they develop in different marine environments. Research methods include gathering, analyzing samples, field observations and conducting field experiments. Much of what you do will include computer modeling in order to build predictive models. Your objective might be to explore the impact of pollution or climate change to see how they alter marine habitats.

Chemical Oceanographer

As an oceanographer concentrating in chemistry, you will be focused on seawater composition and determining the impact of normal environmental changes as well as pollution. Since salinity and other minerals affect ocean currents, seawater composition is an important determinant of climate changes. Mercury and other heavy metals have been detected in fish of all sizes, so detection of these and other trace metals in ocean creatures is a matter of concern to all.

Geological Oceanographer

Geological oceanography encompasses aspects of the formation of the ocean floor – plate tectonics, the formation of ocean basins, volcanic activity and the spreading of the sea floor. Analysis of the ocean floor is particularly important since so much of the world's supply or oil and natural gas lies under the ocean floor. Your employment could be with an energy company, a government agency or a non-profit organization. If this is the work you seek, craft your objectives accordingly.

Physical Oceanographer

A physical oceanographer's career path leads to the study of all of the physical aspects of the ocean – currents, waves, tides and more. Physical oceanographers map the ocean's surface currents as well as deep water currents, examining how they affect climate change. Physical oceanographers and the Corps of Engineers deal with beach erosion and the transportation of sand – a major concern given the numbers of homes, hotels and other buildings that line the ocean's edge. An interest in how sound is transmitted underwater, which has military applications, could land you a position in defense.