Head to the sticks. The farther you go from the big cities, the easier it is to be the big fish in a small pond. I work in the arctic. Live in Yellowknife. Nearest city of note is 1600 km (1000 miles) away.

We hire dozens out of school each year, but it's usually just short contracts at the beginning - so many do not return. Short as in a few months during the busy seasons (i.e. when there is ice on the lakes, or we can land on open water in summer). A few people try to sick around between jobs, end up picking up work in the warehouse moving core around or drying out tents or whatever. Between jobs, they stay in the crew house for free, a sort of barracks in our office building that resembles a hostel. In the slow season, since they're here and available, the odd job goes their way. When next busy season comes up, they're core logging instead of core teching. And are now getting to make some tall decisions, like telling drills when to close off holes.

A full year in, if they have the aptitude and have stuck around, they might be the most senior Geo on a job site, managing two or three drills, siting in the collars, dealing with inspectors, etc.

Responsibility keeps increasing with time. Modeling the ore bodies, picking drill holes from the geophysics, firing drillers who do dumb things. A few years after graduation, you'd still be supervised by a P.Geo, but you'll essentially be running the show.

Of course, you'll be living in the sticks when you aren't in the field. So those with strong family inertia to leave end up leaving. People give up full time jobs and move away for girlfriends who hate the weather, or the lack of shopping, or inability to do a certain hobby or another in their spare time. And when you're in the field, you're often staying in a plywood shack, shitting in an outhouse, and have no TV (although they're good for fast internet). So some people get tired of getting frostbite, or blisters from their boots, or sleeping in close quarters with other people.

Half the geos that stick around are women. They seem less likely to have a significant other elsewhere that refuses to move up. Guys tend to have trouble convincing their girlfriends that it'd be worth living up here. Girls have less trouble, or if they move up single, the local market for menly men (or butch lesbians) is pretty good.

Each time we lose someone, someone else is moving up to fill that role. And it happens fast. So we end up with Geos with four years experience running drill programs. Those that leave have epic resumes and find work elsewhere to be more abundant. Those that stay become legends.