Richards worked on the geological survey of Victoria in 1906–07 while still an undergraduate student. He went to work for De Bavay and Company in Broken Hill, and then took up a position as a scholar and demonstrator at the University of Melbourne. In 1910, Richards took up a position teaching in the Chemistry, Geology and Mining Department of the Central Technical College (CTC), in the Government House Domain of George Street, Brisbane (forerunner of Queensland Institute of Technology). He successfully applied to be a lecturer at the newly formed University of Queensland in 1911. Both the CTC and University of Queensland geology classes would share some of the same buildings in George Street, Brisbane, until the University moved to the St Lucia campus in 1950.