Chemistry Engineering Or Petroleum Engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi everyone, </p>

<p>I'm in college right now. I'm going to transfer to University of Houston next year. I want to become a Petroleum engineer. However, I could not deceide what major should I go . Either Chemistry Engineering or Petroleum Engineering. Which one would offer me more job's opportunities in future ? So which one you think I should go for? Thank you for your help !</p>

2

<p>although you can do whatever you want, I’d recommend petroleum since its easier than chemical and is the highest paid job in the nation right now. also with the growth of the oil industry around the world theres lots of demand for petroleum engineers</p>

3

<p>^true, but a chemical engineering degree can mainly do whatever a petroleum degree can do. but it is more versatile, while a petrol degree is… for petrol. </p>

<p>with chemE, u can go into petroleum, biotech, organic electronics, etc.</p>

<p>with petrolE, u can go into… petroleum??? </p>

<p>to me, a chemE degree is the better way to go.</p>

4

<p>There are more Chemical engineering jobs than petroleum engineering jobs.</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#outlook]Engineers[/url”&gt;http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#outlook]Engineers[/url</a>]</p>

<p>However neither offer too many jobs compared to other fields.</p>

<p>You should do what you want to do though. Learn everything about each major before deciding to take it.</p>

5

<p>Petro is #1, but ChemE is #2 for salary. Between these 2 choices, I’d say choose whatever you find most interesting, since that usually leads to a higher GPA, and therefore more job opportunities. Plenty of job opportunities in both.</p>

6

<p>The choice is yours.</p>

7

<p>If you want to go into Petroleum Engineering, you should major in Petroleum Engineering. There isn’t much overlap between PetE and ChemE.</p>

8

<p>What noleguy said.
@skybran The amount of jobs available is not what matters. It’s the amount of jobs relative to the amount of applicants aka fresh grads.
@FutureMarine I’d say highest starting pay with only an undergrad degree would be a lot more accurate.</p>

9

<p>If you are ok with living in a remote place, working in a plant and spending a few weeks every month or so on a platform, go into petroleum engineering</p>

10

<p>A lot of people doing petroleum engineering jobs have chemical engineering degrees.</p>

11

<p>If you want to work at a refinery, then you don’t really need to learn about well logging or reservoir characterization meaning that you should pursue chemical engineering with a few Petroleum engineering classes. If you want to work upstream, then you need to major in petroleum engineering. When people say, “There are chemical engineers working as Petroleum Engineers,” you have to remember that there was a point where PetE graduates were scarce and then the price of oil skyrocketed fueling demand for Petroleum Engineers and therefore it was necessary to hire chemical engineers or mechanical engineers and retrain them to be Petroleum Engineers.</p>

12

<p>IMO Chemical Engineering is the most versatile degree. </p>

<p>Most the Chemical Engineers that I know do not work in the chemical or energy industries. In the upper Midwest only about 5% of Chemical Engineers have the word Chemical in their job title. The forecast for job growth may be related to job title and not demand for Chemical Engineers.</p>

<p>I do know chemical engineers working for the following companies: Genentech, Merk, General Electric, Eli Lilly, Medtronic’s, 3M, General Mills, Kraft, Nestlé, Malt-O-Meal, Cargill, Ford, P&G, Colgate-Palmolive, Lever Brothers, Eco-Lab, Stat-Ease Inc, American Crystal Sugar, Seagate Technologies, Rosemount, Statasys, Boston Scientific, OSI Soft and Allen Bradley.</p>

<p>The night before a test on Electrical motors you will read the Electrical Engineering text book not the Physical Chemistry text book. Real word problems and job functions do not have sharp lines separating different undergraduate degrees. General Mills may consider a Mechanical Engineer or Chemical Engineer for the same job opening.</p>

13

<p>

Wrong. I’m a ChemE and I have an interview for an upstream position tomorrow morning, and then another one with a different company on Wednesday. (My school doesn’t even offer Petroleum Engineering.) </p>

<p>This mentality of “[certain degree] –> [specific job]” really needs to stop. If you had any work experience as an engineer whatsoever (even an internship/co-op), you’d know that you learn 99% of the stuff you do on the job, not in school.</p>

14

<p>^Dude, you have a student internship interview, not a job offer. Anyone can get an interview as long as you are in the sciences. The OP is specifically transferring to a strong PetE university and wants to become a Petroleum Engineer. It would be incorrect to suggest to him to pursue other majors.</p>

<p>Also, if you really learned 99% of the ‘stuff’ you do on the job, then why does it take 4 years to learn the 1% and how is it possible to stuff in and learn the rest of the 99% in approximately the 25 years that you will work and then retire?</p>

15

<p>Yeah I’m still in the middle of majors, too. Want to do petroleum, but thought about mech/chem and undergrad to be safe, then pete as grad.</p>

16

<p>You can’t get real world experiences in school. No one in the real world expects you to remember your 4 years of learning. Your degree shows the type of work ethic you have; the rest you will learn on the job. I know MechEs working as PETs, EEs working as strategy analysts, PET working as an engineer at GOOGLE! ChemEs will generally work downstream at a refinery in Petro, but no one is saying that you couldn’t build relationships and take a couple
Of PET classes to get into PET.</p>