Is Petroleum Engineerig still worth it?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Mr. Payne, I agree with you that if you do lack any internship experience, you’ll have slim chances of getting a job unless you have a near-perfect GPA and even then it is a stretch. </p>

<p>However, my point is more directed at those who have interned within the industry. I complete agree that in 05-08, unless you really messed up, most majors would off you a job. Still, while the slots are dwindling for on-campus recruits, those with seniority (internship experience) will still have a fighting chance. </p>

<p>About the drilling/reservoir/production, my point is that you don’t specifically need a PetroE degree to get these jobs. A mechE/chemE with experience or hell some ECLIPSE modeling work can compete as well.</p>

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<p>Ahh, it is hard to say what he hell to do with the economy and government the way it is. When people ask me for career advice I don’t know what to tell them anymore. Your best bet is to open your own company and work for yourself. Find something that no one else has and do that. The days of being an “Oil Man” so to speak are over. There is no easy to reach oil and nearly every current and future oil project is a joint venture between the major corporations. There are no lone guns in oil. You can forget about opening your own company as far as that is concerned. I would probably try to get into some renewable company, but the fact is our country has still yet to respond to wanting anything to do with Green Energy. I really don’t know how to look at it anymore. With what I’m getting from SPE notifications we have too many people majoring in the profession as it is. I’m with Mr. Payne on this one.</p>

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<p>Yeah, right now. Oil is a profoundly boom-or-bust industry. I remember the industry in 1998 when oil dropped to $10 a barrel, the industry was couldn’t lay people off fast enough and Houston was in a veritable depression.</p>

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The issue now is that even with high oil prices there is a <em>huge</em> glut at the lower end of the industry. With my 18 months of experience I think I might be more experienced than 15% of the engineers at my company. Think about that.</p>

<p>I don’t think the salaries can stay high. Looking at the amount of newly minted PetEs in the industry I doubt the salaries can stay as they are.</p>

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<p>I guess mechanical engineering is the best bet for me? If PE isn’t worth attending UT Austin, then I guess I’m better off attending a school in the north east. Any suggestions though?</p>

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<p>UT-Austin/TAMU have a pretty solid ME program.</p>

<p>Anyway the choice is yours–if you are dead set on PetroE or above all have a passion for it, by all means go do it.</p>

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<p>I have bach in metallurgy and about to study Petro E maybe in europe or even australia. Can anyone recommend me what school to go to?? what about job opportunity in oil comp in europe or austalia after graduation??</p>

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<p>Hi there, im confused on whether to do a bachelors degree in petroleum engineering or a masters degree in petroleum engineering in America. I already have a bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering from England with no experience in either field. Can anyone help?</p>

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<p>That’s a classic engineer’s myth! Companies get schools to start programs, and people are then manipulated into the programs with false promises and a lot of propaganda, in order to get the salaries down. Let me tell you, it’s not the first time I hear that one.</p>

<p>Supply will always be limited in PetE because of the lifestyle. If the salaries drop, then people will lose interest. This job doesn’t have a fragment of the glamour of being a lawyer or investment banker. The reward consists entirely in the pay and the time off.</p>

<p>Or are you saying that people going into this niched program could just as well be buying a lottery ticket?</p>

<p>And another thing. A lot of people will probably get cold feet after the Bachelor and wiggle into something else for the Master, right? I mean, considering what you’re getting into, it’s pretty far from the usual home <-> car <-> work <-> car <-> home.</p>

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<p>The Bureau of Labour Statistics projects that 4000 engineers will be needed during the period from 2008 to 2018, which is an increase in employment of 18%. Source: [url=<a href=“ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ep/ind-occ.matrix/occ_pdf/occ_17-2171.pdf]link[/url”>ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ep/ind-occ.matrix/occ_pdf/occ_17-2171.pdf]link[/url</a>].</p>

<p>Another point I’d like to make is that there are relatively few Petro Engineering programs in the world. I can only guess how many get a degree in US in this subject each year; could it really be more than 400?</p>

<p>In that case consider that there are only a handful of programs outside of the US, while there should be plenty of need for petroleum engineers outside of the US. </p>

<p>Finally, as I mentioned in my last reply, a lot of people are sure to drop their offshore ambitions and steer into something else after the bachelor. Not everyone is attracted to the extraordinary working conditions that there are offshore.</p>

<p>If we get past the employment aspect, then there’s nothing to make me believe that salaries will go down before I’ve peaked in my career. Sure, it’s good to be critical about the high salaries, but I don’t think they can be that much lower if people are still going to be interested.</p>

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I work in the industry. Hiring is <em>way</em> down. I would not want to be graduating from school right now with a middling GPA.</p>

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It’s easily above 400.</p>

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<p>So you say, but please feel free to expand! What’s your position? How do you know that hiring is down? Except for the common knowledge that most hiring is down at the moment. Would you agree with the BLS projection that more than 3000 engineers will be needed over the next 8 year? </p>

<p>Who would want to be graduating with a middling GPA, regardless of the circumstances on the labour market? Don’t graduates with low GPA’a always have it worse than those with high GPA’s? </p>

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<p>Ok, so what if it is?</p>

<p>The following source, [url=<a href=“http://www.careercornerstone.org/pdf/petroleum/petroleum.pdf]link[/url”>http://www.careercornerstone.org/pdf/petroleum/petroleum.pdf]link[/url</a>], shows that there are 16 American universities that offer degree programs in PE. Assuming that there is only one degree program per university in PE, the median number of students per program would have to be 25 in order not to exceed 400 graduated students per year. </p>

<p>My guess would be that a more realistic median is 50 per program. But many students drop out, many change program and many get delayed. </p>

<p>I think that a realistic estimate would be 650 graduates per year. That’s 250 more than the projected need according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Can you tell me *one *other degree which yields a better situation? Or do you think that my guessing is flawed?</p>

<p>What happens to a number of graduates, then, is that they take a Master’s degree in some other field or go work with something entirely different. Perhaps a number won’t get jobs, but will continue their education and get an advanced degree in the field. In the long run it will even out. The same goes for any field.</p>

<p>You seem to be making the point that unemployment will be high among PE’s. Are you saying that unemployment is already going up? Do you have any support for that claim? If not, when do you predict that we will start seeing this trend of unemployment among PE’s? When will it be common knowledge that PE’s have a high rate of unemployment? </p>

<p>I’d also like you to address my argument that if salaries go down, people will lose interest in the profession. </p>

<p>Here in Europe there is a projected need for people who work on ships. Don’t you think that people will switch over from PE to Maritime Engineering if unemployment grows and the salaries in PE drop?</p>

<p>Who’d be interested in going to work on a platform rather than a ship, given the safety issues on platforms? A ship is safer than a platform, and more fun too if you work on a cruiser or a yacht. You still get paid while you’re not working. And if the salaries in PE drop, you won’t get paid less than if you were working offshore.</p>

<p>And to draw it even further; who’d be interested in going to work offshore, rather than going to a boring 9 to 5 job, if it wasn’t for the pay?</p>

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<p>Since there’s no reply from Mr Payne, I take it his comments shouldn’t be taken that serious anyway.</p>

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<p>I’m a Production Engineer. At the local companies hiring is way down from 2007-2008 (which saw the creation of many <em>new</em> engineering positions).</p>

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Maybe. Depends on the price of oil.</p>

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A middling GPA isn’t “low”. It’s middling.</p>

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Colorado School of mines had a 2008 PetE graduating class of 80. I believe the 2009 class is 100+. That’s one school that just supplied 25% of the single year intake.</p>

<p>That’s not even looking at the other large programs:
TAMU
UT
TTU
LSU
OU</p>

<p>The other programs on the list are pretty small. There are also companies that hire ME/ChemE to do petroleum work as a few ME/ChemE programs actually allow you to take concentrate in Petroleum.</p>

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You’re fine to think that. More important is the <em>average</em> size of the program.</p>

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Then you’re agreeing with me.</p>

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I would say 30% of the graduating PetE class of 2009 does not have jobs. This is based on anecdotal information.</p>

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That’s just the truth.</p>

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Not sure what your point is.</p>

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I have worked offshore. I think it’s fun.</p>

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You’re a clown with very little knowledge about the industry. Your comments shouldn’t be taken seriously.</p>

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<p>My point was that three years will (in Europe at least) qualify you to work as a captain of a cruiser line. There is (again, in Europe) a projected need of qualified sea people and people are generally saying that unemployment won’t be a problem if you’re a maritime engineer, for example.</p>

<p>That is to say, if you’re attracted to working on a platform, then you’d be better off taking a degree in e.g. maritime engineering instead of petr. eng. The pay is lower now, but if salaries on platforms drop, why do petr. eng.?</p>

<p>Not to mention if word gets out that a large number of petr. engineers are unemployed. Same thing would happen to the labour market, as has happened to the reserves in the North Sea. </p>

<p>That’s why it was really interesting for me to hear what you had to say about unemployment of graduates. 30% wouldn’t be so bad compared to other fields, if you were sure you really wanted to do it. But sure, that’s figure is a little higher than that of most other fields, based on checking the statistics of various countries through google. </p>

<p>How long do graduates stay unemployed? What other fields could you go into if you had to?</p>

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<p>Given your reply I take back that remark.</p>

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<p>And I’d also like to say thanks for sharing your insights!</p>

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<p>mr payne ftw! benbenn loses. lol :p</p>

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<p>Hiring is definitely down. Halliburton, has put a hiring freeze on all field engineer recruiting. Schlumberger is way down. Exxon, claims that hiring has stayed steady, however, it is still down fairly substantially from a few years ago. Shell, BP, etc., are all down as well. An easy way to get this info is to go talk to a recruiter or talk to friends who have worked for the companies…</p>