<p>I am a senior in highschool and will be graduating and going to college in 2014, and since I was a freshman in highschool I always wanted to be a petro engineer. But as I'm doing more research I'm seeing that the job placement from most A1 schools have dropped from there 99% placement and I'm also hearing that their salaries are going to be dropping from that $90k to like $60-70k. I just really need some opinions to see if when I graduated college in 2018 I would be able to get a job let alone a good paying one. And please help soon I need as much info asap I will be sending out applications soon and I need to know if I should change the major I picked.</p>
<p>*get a job let alone</p>
<p>The job market is going to be impossible to predicted in 5 years but I do believe the petroleum engineering market is becoming saturated. It seems to be becoming harder and harder to get a job, but those who get a job still command high starting salaries (95k-110k). If you are passionate about petroleum engineering and committed to getting good grades, I don’t see there being an issue. Even if we stopped drilling tomorrow (which we won’t), there we still be a demand for petroleum engineers to develop fields.</p>
<p>You can also help make yourself more indispensable by the classes you take and your academic focus. I’d say right now one of the hottest new topics is enhanced oil recovery of shale reservoirs. That kind of stuff will be around for a while.</p>
<p>Justinncase… </p>
<p>I am a petroleum engineer, recently graduated from the University of Texas. Salaries for our engineers at Chevron are increasing every year. The typical starting salary (including mine), is around 80,000-90,000 before bonuses. After 3-4 years of difficult, traveling assignments, you will begin working in an office most likely. However, you may be transferred anywhere in the world. I am currently stationed in Houston. The vast majority of Petroleum engineering jobs are centered in Texas. Some are found in Louisiana and California. I will be in Houston for another 2-3 years, and then will begin my international rotation, scheduled to be in Lagos, Nigeria, for another 2-3 years. The money is very lucrative for a capable, intelligent engineer in my field. It grows quickly as you gain experience. All of our engineers with more than 3 years experience make over 6 figures. All of them. With 10 years… you can become a team leader and will make even more. I can’t imagine where you got this information. Our company, along with every oil and gas energy company, have projections for the next 30-40 years. We are not slowing down any time soon. Best of luck.</p>
<p>I just wanted to add… </p>
<p>It is NOT AT ALL difficult to find a job as a petroleum engineer in the city of Houston, TX, if you graduated from an accredited program with a GPA of 3.0 or above. We literally CANNOT hire enough petroleum engineers at this moment in time. It is widely known by anyone working, or with correct knowledge about the oil and gas energy industry that the coming 20-30 years will see plenty of drilling and hydraulic fracking, unless someone finds a way to suddenly provide energy to the world’s population without hydrocarbons. Oil and natural gas account for well over half the world’s energy. And that will continue. Engineers are the oil and gas industry’s top-dawgs, along with our geoscientists. Both command a very nice salary. I have worked with hundreds of petroleum engineers, and they all have much higher salaries than what you are thinking.</p>
<p>jaker - did you graduate this year or last year?</p>
<p>I see the questions all the time on CC about whether going to UH or TTU will get them a job compared to going to UT or A&M for petro. Essentially this has to do with having to accumulate debt to go to the top schools vs getting some scholarship money from the other two making it a lot cheaper. </p>
<p>What is your impression?</p>
<p>2 years ago. I don’t think UH and TTU are as likely to land you an immediate job. My overall impression is this… if you graduate from UT or Texas A&M with a good GPA (does not have to be stellar), you will most likely be recruited by a Houston based company before you even graduate. All of my study partners and friends in the UT program were recruited before they graduated. All of them. As I have met new hires over the past 2 years, the majority are coming from either Texas or Texas A&M. I have met hires from Stanford as well who are VERY MUCH on top of their game. Those are the top programs. That is where the companies recruit. If you have the chance to attend either one of those programs… DO IT.</p>
<p>This idea that the oil and gas industry is becoming “saturated” is insane. Look at the placement of jobs at the top school’s websites for their petroleum engineering departments. It’s insanely high… higher than ANY other degree at the University of Texas. 97%!!! Look at the job growth in the oil and gas industry… It has been skyrocketing for 20 years! We are just now developing new technologies for fracking, drilling in deeper waters, and producing from sands. I can’t imagine where people get these ideas of there being no jobs in oil and gas.</p>
<p>Do you work with many OU grads? I ask because virtually everyone I know in Pet E with a >3.0 GPA has gotten excellent internships/ job offers in both Oklahoma and Texas. Curious to know if that’s a biased sample or if OU is one of the target schools.</p>
<p>That is a good program too. And yes… I have worked with OU grads. The reason I work with more Texas grads is because they graduate more people each year. It is just like you have heard… get a degree with a good GPA from an accredited program, and you will not have difficulty finding work. That won’t change any time soon.</p>
<p>Jaker - Chevron is a top tier company which probably recruits only from the top PE schools. Does Stanford even have PE or do they recruit other types?</p>
<p>How about other tier companies and their recruitment? The local Houston high school sent us an invitation from UTulsa where they are recruiting students and they have several heavy hitters from local industry, UTulsa department head hosting a dinner at Hilcorp Energy. I am surprised they provide dinner while they are recruiting students to apply.</p>
<p>Yes Stanford has a PetE program. A good one. Chevron does recruiting and holds seminars at UT, Texas A&M, and UofHouston. Not at Stanford. Chevron is based in San Ramon, CA, but most of its employees and its largest offices are in Houston. Therefore they recruit close to Houston.</p>
<p>“Petroleum engineering (now called Energy Resources Engineering) is offered by the Department of Energy Resource Engineering in the School of Earth Sciences.”</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Degree Programs | Engineering](<a href=“http://engineering.stanford.edu/education/undergraduate-degree-programs]Undergraduate”>Undergraduate Degree Programs | Stanford University School of Engineering)</p>
<p>No wonder I did not notice it since it is not listed by engineering school.</p>
<p>So you are saying they are recruiting from U of H but think people should UT or A&M if they get in even if it means a financial hardship?</p>
<p>I’m really torn regarding my engineering field. I know that Petroleum is one of the most lucrative and profitable specialties, but ethically I don’t think I can do it. I’m very much so an environmentalist, so digging for new oil is kinda the opposite of what I want to do.</p>
<p>O&G companies also employ many environmental engineers.</p>
<p>One of the girls in my sorority is an environmental engineering student who spent all of last semester and the summer doing water quality analysis at various fraking sites. There’s good money in the field if you know where to look.</p>
<p>I honestly am not an expert on our recruiting. I KNOW we do some recruiting at UofH. But I also know for a fact that we hire more people out of UT/A&M. Thats all I can tell you. </p>
<p>And earthyengineer… oil companies do hire environmental engs! they help us decide the safest way to avoid any potential contamination at our drilling sites and try to help us keep any groundwatre clean where we are fracking! we pay them big bucks! We have had an environmental engineer by contract or of our own at every project that I have been to so far. </p>
<p>I would have liked to been an environmental engineer and maybe do work for the USGS doing hydrology or something. maybe i’ll try that out some day in the future. </p>
<p>As far as drilling for hydrocarbons go… At Chevron we are extremely careful not to damage the environment. our goal is not to exploit the earth and damage it. it is to provide people with the fuels to heat their homes, cook their food, and get them to and from work! as environmentally safely as possible.</p>
<p>Jakerb2525, how reputable is University of Fairbanks in Alaska in Petroleum engineering? Because of all the Petrol reserves you think that engineers who specialized in cold environments would be even more sought for in the industry but UAF is not even considered in the top 10 of Petroleum Engineering schools so would that affect one’s hiring status</p>
<p>I go to colorado school of mines (#2 pet. Engineering school) and know from my peers in that study area are not having any issues even finding internships and that all of the graduates are picked up quickly. I think as long as you put yourself out there (career fairs, etc) you will have NO problem finding a job.</p>
<p>Environment engineers and chemical engineers are popular with the energy industry too. My cousin is an environmental engineer and just finished a job in England and is now in Saudi Arabia. That is after years in the Houston area. He decided it was time to travel.</p>
<p>One of my good friends is a chemical engineer and is now in Poland and loving it. The pictures he sends me from Poland are awesome. And they both talk about the money for being out of the country is great.</p>
<p>They both work for large oil companies.</p>