<p>I've taken all the required sciences, math and electives. Only the engineering courses are left, but it will still take me 3 more years since the school(small state school) only offers certain courses 1 time a year.</p>
<p>I'm currently in a Chemical Engineering major, and hopefully I've done right now. Before I was in Mechanical Engineering and I hated statics, strength of materials and physics. I hated these classes so much. But my adviser suggested I switch since I liked the math and was interested in the oil industry and of course hated most of the meche classes.</p>
<p>Now I am just worried I won't find a job. I'd like to do upstream work(extraction of oil) that's what I am most interested in. But I keep thinking that its a big problem since a) it will take 3 years for me to complete my degree-there will be no hiring for the industry as it is now. I've seen OU job placement for Petroleum engineers fall from 98% to 70. It seems that petroleum engineering is on the decline with the influx of grads. I am worried I wouldn't get a job in this sector in 3 years. Not to mention that most companies do not recruit from my area. and b) I don't want to go do school work problems on a job all day. I'd hate having a job just mindlessly calculating and setting up bending moments etc, all day. I fear jobs may be like this. Or that I may not be smart enough for a job and might cost my company time and money. </p>
<p>Are these concerns well founded?</p>
<p>A lot of college graduates do not get their dream jobs. Fortunately, a chemical engineering graduate has good alternate job options, so it would not be the end of the world in terms of being able to find a job that you can support yourself on, and then possibly move into your dream job later.</p>
<p>Petroleum hiring and profits can be cyclical. Companies may have a good or bad year for any number of reasons. And with all of the ignorant politicians trying to sabotage the oil industry, hiring in the Western world may not always be steady.</p>
<p>But this is a world that runs on petroleum and it will be that way for the foreseeable future. There is no feasible, workable, economical energy technology on the verge of replacing petroleum for a great many of its applications. Many “alternative” energy sources consume too many resources and only exist because politicians prop them up with tax payer money.</p>
<p>Why the sermon? My point is that even if petroleum industry hiring has its ebbs and flows in this country, or even if the ecomentalists get their way and shut down the fossil fuel industry in this country, there will be plenty of oil-related jobs in the rest of the world. A petroleum engineering who is willing to work abroad should never be short of a job for the foreseeable future. That’s my point.</p>
<p>Leaving out the politics around oil, remember that oil is getting harder to find an extract (much of the “easy” oil has already been found and extracted), so there will be jobs looking for the stuff, though there will be industry and economics cycles affecting the job prospects. Even when (due to higher costs) use as fuel has been reduced in favor of other energy sources, there will still be use for other purposes (useful petrochemicals and materials).</p>
<p>Be aware, though, that many of the oil fields abroad are in places which may not be the most desirable to live with (civil wars, restrictive social rules, or extreme climates).</p>
<p>True, but the odds are that anywhere his services will be required, there will be exemptions made for western workers and security set up to attract talent.</p>