<p>No, not necessarily. Sometimes they will look past certain things. The background checks generally go back seven years. They pull your driving record and criminal history. I can’t speak for the HR department. However, I have seen guys turned away for traffic violations like speeding or wreckless operation. More than one may throw up a red flag. It depends o n the job as well. Mine requires driving to and from location in a company vehicle. My job is management. However, I don’t know what they check for a regular desk engineer. I was told by the recruiter that he turned down guys for intoxication or reckless operation. If they can’t trust you with a vehicle how can they trust you with a multimillion dollar a day operation?</p>
<p>Any drug charge or alcohol in general related to driving or not will likely do you in and keep you from being hired. Put it this way, keep yourself as squeaky clean as possible. I wasn’t the best student. Had some family issues related to a death. However, they looked past that and saw my improvement over my last couple of semesters. They will look past things like that. Drugs or criminal activity will not be over looked however. Drug use won’t either.</p>
<p>Fluids is a good focus. Petroleum in general is focused around fluids. Porosity, permeability, hydrostatic pressure, mud weight. </p>
<p>No experience with Canada on my end.</p>
<p>Speech take speech and learn how to present and communicate well. A communicating engineer is a valuable engineer. Writing,I have to write daily reports on well characteristics and progression. Finance for managing budgets, econ for a better understanding of the oil market. Petroleum econ is great if your school offers it. Any management courses. They helped me out a lot. Remember your technical skill is only a small part of your job. Managing is where the big money is. You have to communicate effectively.</p>
<p>Hey bruthaman! I had gotten a Marijuana ticket but it was promptly dismissed as I had a Medical Marijuana Card (Yay California). I just let it expire about a month ago. Does the company conduct somewhat of an interrogation such as asking if you’ve ever smoked marijuana, hook you up to a polygraph etc.? Do the background checks entail interviews with family? I have had a rough time growing up but I am squeaky clean and currently have a 4.0 gpa. No criminal/driving/medical record, and strong interpersonal skills. What I am getting at is if they will get as specific as researching your character growing up; it was not a secret that I was an avid bud smoker growing up.
I ask because my brother’s friend works at a nuclear powerplant and the company went to the extremes in the background check.
Also, how do the companies look upon UAF’s petroleum engineering program. Do the companies go straight there when conducting operations in cold environments or does every PetE college offer the same career opportunities? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Once again I can’t speak for HR. They do a complete scan of your background. Anything on your record in the past 7 years or so would show up. They usually analyze your character for Nuclear jobs. They don’t want people who are violent, prone to anger, or given to hostility. It is a nuclear power plant after all. My room mate’s father was a nuclear engineering graduate from Georgia Tech. He informed me they investigated pretty well into different people’s character personalities.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about UAF. I’m from Louisiana. BP and Shell may recruit heavily there because they do a lot of exploration in the area. I don’t know however. There were students at LSU who were offered to go to Alaska or even did internships there over the summer.</p>
<p>It is not just about getting the degree. It is about your character, communication skills, and whether or not you even fit into the company culture. Some companies recruit at different schools. For example, Chesapeake recruited at ULL but not LSU. Shell recruited at LSU but not ULL. Some companies have a select list of schools they recruit from or offer internships.</p>
<p>If you go to UAF you would know more than I do.</p>