Petroleum Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi guys!</p>

<p>I'd like to change careers to petroleum engineering, and your advice is needed.
I graduated as an Electrical (Electronics) Engineer a few years ago and have since worked in business (management consultancy and project management). It's been fun, but I don't see myself doing this for a career. Petroleum engineering in the field seems very exciting, especially drilling. Online applications with the majors haven't been successful. Which begs the question: how do I go about it?</p>

<p>I'd love to hear some advice from those of you who are very familiar with the career or have relatives working in it (I know you're out there ;)). How would you proceed in my position?
- get a PE degree? (probably makes sense for reservoir engineering, which is very theoretical, but does it for drilling engineering? Also, I'm already 28 and I'd rather work than go to college again)
- get another job in the industry and start job hopping from there? Downstream, suppliers... Could be a very long road.
- relocating to Alberta, try to get some experience as a labourer/roughneck, and see from there? (I am from Europe but I can get a work permit for Canada)</p>

<p>I would appreciate you sharing your thoughts! :)</p>

2

<p>So … Anyone?</p>

3

<p>Get a job with a service company. Do that for 5 years and switch to a major.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for your reply, Mr Payne! I will definitely try what you’re suggesting. </p>

<p>I relocated to Alberta (from Europe) a couple of days ago. I’m hoping to work as a roughneck (i.e. labourer) and applying for engineering positions in my time off.</p>

5

<p>Good luck to you buddy. I have a friend who has an undergrad degree in EE such as yourself. He ended up working for Schlumberger. As Payne suggested look for any service company (Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes) there are quite a few out there. I think that would be much better for you than going to school again, provided you can secure a job with em, imo.
Good luck again and keep us posted.</p>